Baking Alsace Bretzels ... biting off more than I can chew?

After visiting Alsace earlier in the summer with work, as an ostensible excuse to escape work, I returned with a tea towel and some possibly out-of-date biscuits as gifts for my grateful family.

The perfect gift: a tea towel.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend I noticed that the tea towel again and it's recipe for bretzels (aka pretzels), so I thought I’d write the recipe down and make the bretzels to make up for returning with such a moderate gift.  The recipe is, however, a little sparse on details (befitting perhaps for a decorative tea towel), and so I've been doing some research online to expand on the instructions.

Pretzels ... je t'aime

There is, it seems, a lot to be said about Pretzels.  The Pretzels wiki page alone has 51 footnotes (three times as many as the entry for the nation of Grenada).

Pretzels originate from Europe in medieval times, the exact origin is uncertain, but I like the theory that they may have developed after the 743 ban on the pre-Christian baking patterns such as sun wheels.  However, by the 12th century it was ubiquitous enough to have become the emblem for bakers and their guilds in southern Germany. 

..  

The first prezel!  An illustration from the 12th century Hortus deliciarum from Alsace 

showing a banquet with Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus

The pretzel is, however, a rather complicated beast of a baked good, and (depending on which blogs you read) require glazing with caustic soda (lye) while wearing industrial rubber gloves.  My goodness.

Why the caustic soda?  The original recipe came about (apparently) when a baker dropped a batch of pretzels into a tray of soda which was being used to clean his baking tools.  Being a time of less stringently enforced health and safety legislation, rather than jettisoning the batch he cooked them anyway.  They turned out better than ever, and the recipe for lye pretzels was born.  

I am not convinced that cooking with lye will not end in disaster if I try it, so I propose to use the alkaline but less caustic alternative suggested on the tea towel: bicarbonate of soda.   

The Fresh Loaf blog has a more detailed investigation into reaching the perfect pretzel recipe if you are interested in variants.  I've also drawn on the recipe on The Kitchen Project to expand on the instructions a little. 

Alsace bretzels

For the bretzels

300g strong, plain flour

15g fresh yeast

 a pinch of fine salt

70g bicarbonate of soda (note – to place in the pan of water to make it alkaline)

For the glaze

1 teaspoon of cumin

2 egg whites

25g water

A heaped teaspoon of Maldon salt

Mix the water, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add flour and mix until dough is smooth. Add more flour if sticky. (If possible let the dough sit overnight in a bowl in a cool place.)


Divide the dough into 6 or 12 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a rope, very thin, a little bigger than a pencil.  If you want to make them look like traditional pretzels, shape into an upside down U shape on your table. Bring the ends together and twist them.  Flatten the ends and bring to the top of the pretzel and press in the dough to secure making it look like a pretzel.  Place on a grease proof paper on a baking tray.  Let the pretzels raise in a warm room covered in a slightly damp cloth for 45 minutes or until almost doubled in size.

It is here that the alkaline solution comes in.  Plunge the pretzels into the water-soda solution and then place on a greased baking tray. Brush with the mixture of egg white, cumin and water and sprinkle with the Maldon salt.

Bake in hot oven at 225 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until well browned.  Serve fresh with butter.