Soft Pretzels

I love soft pretzels: at a baseball game, the movies, the mall, on a warm summers day, or any other of these special occasions that a soft pretzels invokes in my memories. They're good covered in sugar and cinnamon, rolled with raisins, sesame or poppyseeds, or jalopeno peppers, garlic, and a number of other 'flavors' that are now popularized by places like 'Auntie Annes'. But the real classic is just plain kosher salted.

And I like mine with plain yellow mustard on them, and later, with spicy dijon. I remember when being in Berlin's Weinachtmakt, trying the 'real thing' for the first time. When I kindly asked 'senf, bitte' (mustard, please?) the kioskee looked at me with a look of either language barrier confusion or just plain horror that I would adulterate such a pure and honest to goodness German basic with something meant for 'Weisswurst' with 'Kraut', not for 'Bretzeln'! It didn't matter, I paid for my Brezel and then walked from Kiosk to Kiosk looking for one that would loan me a squirt or two of mustard. When I finally took that first bite: euphoria.

What people usually don't realize about pretzels, is that the only 'real' pretzel is the 'Laugenbrezel', or the pretzel that's been given a bath in lye before being baked. It's said that the pretzel was invented this way by accident, when a baker dropped the pretzel into the bucket of lye water used for cleaning utensiles. In any case, I won't be using sodium hydroxide (lye) but rather sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) which is much more readily available :)

1 1/2 cups of warm water

1 tbs sugar

1 package active dry yeast (about 7g in packages in the US, but if you're buying packages in Europe they come in packages of 11 grams, so don't use the entire thing)

5 cups of flour (approximately, will depend on how absorbant your flour is)

half a stick of softened butter (2 ounces or 60 grams)

2 tsp kosher salt

5 cups of water

1/3 cup of baking soda

1 egg yolk beaten with a tbs water

vegetable oil or butter for greasing the pan

kosher salt for sprinkling (I used karkea suola)

1.) Combine water, sugar, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl and stir briefly. Let it stand for about 10 minutes to proof the yeast, or until the yeast is frothy.

2.) Add the butter and flour, slowly, half cup at a time until well incorporated and the dough pulls away from the bowl. The dough should be soft, but no longer sticky. Knead for about 5 minutes (I use my bare hands the good old fashioned way, but if you have a stand mixer the dough hook will save you the wrist action)

3.) Remove the dough from the bowl, clean out the bowl, lightly grease it with vegetable oil, and put the ball of dough back into the bowl and lightly cover it with a clean dish towel or plastic wrap. Allow it to rise to double its size in a warm place, about 50 minutes depending on how warm the place and how active the yeast)

4.) Preheat the oven to 230C (450F). Prepare the greased pans and start the 5 cups of water with the baking soda boiling on the stove.

5.) Cut the dough into 12 equal sized pieces. One by one, roll the pieces out like a snake on a well floured surface to about 2 feet (about half a meter). Taking the ends of the 'snake' pull the dough into a 'U' shape and then cross the ends over one another and press them into the bottom of the 'U' to get a traditional pretzel shape.

6.) One by one, drop the pretzels gently into the boiling soda water. They should be left for approximately 30 seconds each and removed with a large, flat spatula, preferably one with slotted holes to allow the water to drain off. Place boiled pretzels on to the greased baking sheets. You'll notice that the bagels grow in the boiling water. If you think this is too big or too small for your preferences, readjust the size of the preboiled pretzels accordingly.

7.) Brush the boiled pretzels with the egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the salt. Bake the pretzels for about 15 minutes or until a nice brown color has emerged.

8.) Cool about 5 minutes before eating (I know it'll be worth the wait).