bknifefight
Well-Known Member
I've made these a few times and stored them only to have them end up soggy. Maybe a paper bag would work?
I've made these a few times and stored them only to have them end up soggy. Maybe a paper bag would work?
Come and get it! Love the hot pretzels
here's what works for me:
1. let the dough rest at least 15 minutes, longer if the weather is cold, before rolling the pretzels.
2. roll the ends as thin as possible. i usually roll mine out at least 24" inches.
3. if using the lye method (they won't the correct taste or texture without lye), use a wire rack to allow the lye water to drip off before placing on a baking sheet. I line mine with Sil-mats.
4. Make sure to rotate your trays in the oven between the top and bottom third of your oven halfway between the cooking time.
Have you tried the pretzel recipe that I posted? The taste and texture is very close to the pretzels in Bavaria.
Got the old hankerin this weekend for German food and since I'm down to my last few bottles of Helles I'd thought I'd make pretzels. Man are they delicious!
I was over in Munich a few weeks ago. As you know there were pretzels everywhere. I had a bunch and they were very good, but they tasted different than mine. The German pretzel tasted a little dryer if that makes any sense. I have to keep mine in the freezer or they get all soggy and mine also seem breadier. The German ones seemed harder and could sit in open air without any issues. Anybody know what the trick is??
what about using star san solution instead of baking soda soda or lye solution as the dip?
Yep.Star san is an acid. Lye and baking soda are both alkaline. So, very different animals. Would it work? I'm 99% sure it would not.
The lye speeds up the maillard reaction for browning and umami taste ... acid will not do this.
As an alternative to both lye and baking soda, one can use Sodium carbonate (commonly known as washing soda).
Sodium carbonate can be purchased directly, or produced by spreading sodium bicarbonate thinly onto a sheet of aluminum foil and baking for 1 hour at 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
edit: For reference, the pH of sodium bicarbonate is 8.2 while the pH of sodium carbonate is 11.6
from 2011, worth bumping too ...
Baked baking soda is somewhere's between unbaked baking soda and lye. If ya got no lye, this would be better than un-baked baking soda.
re: this ... found online ...
" Just spread a layer of soda on a foil-covered baking sheet and bake it at 250 to 300 degrees for an hour. Youll lose about a third of the sodas weight in water and carbon dioxide, but you gain a stronger alkali. Keep baked soda in a tightly sealed jar to prevent it from absorbing moisture from the air. And avoid touching or spilling it. Its not lye, but its strong enough to irritate.
Baked soda is also strong enough to make a good lye substitute for pretzels. In order to get that distinctive flavor and deep brown color, pretzel makers briefly dunk the shaped pieces of raw dough in a lye solution before baking them." ...
... "Baked soda does a much better job of approximating true lye-dipped pretzels. Just dissolve 2/3 cup (about 100 grams) in 2 cups of water, immerse the formed raw pretzels in this solution for three to four minutes, rinse off the excess dipping solution in a large bowl of plain water, and bake. "
My recipe is 20 oz of flour, 4-5 grams of instant yeast (SAF red label), two teaspoons of kosher salt, a heaping tablespoon of light DME, and 12ish oz of water.
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Finally obtained the lye and hoping to try to make some pretzels this weekend. I have a couple of questions:
1. I saw where aluminum bowl was cautioned against, for the lye solution. Is plastic ok?
2. For the rack to let them "drip" from, what material do I need? Most I have seen are metal.
3. Someone mentioned using tongs to lift and dip the dough. Rather than SS, would plastic, like salad tongs work?
Hopefully someone is around these days with experience with this recipe.
THANKS!
I don't think plastic would be a problem. Just make sure you add the lye to the water (slowly) and not the other way around. Hydration of NaOH is exothermic, and it generates enough heat to warm the bowl a little. If you add water to the powdered lye, though, that small amount could briefly get warm enough to damage a plastic bowl. Maybe.
As far as tongs, I find it sortof annoying to use an additional tool while dipping the shaped pretzels. I tried using a wire spider and a wide slotted spatula and in every case I found it was stretching and tearing the dough. Now I just wear long sleeves and chemical handling gloves and dip them by hand, lifting them out with two hands supporting the pretzel (imagine the same motion as a clamshell bucket on a crane).
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