Authentic Soft, Puffy German Pretzels

Adapted from Comfortable Food who adapted them from Alton Brown

Perfectly puffy, slightly chewy German yeasted pretzels dusted with coarse sea salt.

We’re preparing for my daughter’s birthday party … she is having an International theme this year. We settled on the menu today … it was tough because we had sooo many recipes we wanted to try, but these pretzels were SO definitely on the list.

I like these because I thought I could bake them ahead of time, freeze them and then warm them up on the day of the party. The only problem is, they turned out so good, we are tempted to eat them all! Out of 12, there are only 7 left. My kids each ate two and I had one. I need to stick them in a bag to put in the freezer soon before we eat more.

We are definitely going to be making these yummy pretzels again … My daughter helped shape them while I prepared the egg wash and the boiling water. Then my son lined the ones (that had yet to be bathed) on his big arm and timed the water bath for us, while my daughter brushed the bathed pretzels with the egg wash and sprinkled with salt. Of course, right in the middle of all this, their dad called and it couldn’t be much worse timing, but we did ok. We put him on speaker phone and somehow my son managed to check his soccer schedule without missing a beat on timing the pretzel baths. By the time we got off the phone with him, we were almost ready to pop our pretzels in the oven.

Authentic German Pretzels

• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 2 hours
• Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
• Yield: 12 large pretzels 1x

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the pretzel dough:

• 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 teaspoons of yeast
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached white whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups water

For the bath:

• 10 cups of water
• 2/3 cup of baking soda

For the tops:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 Tablespoon water
• Coarse sea salt or pretzel salt

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Instructions

1. Put all the pretzel dough ingredients into a bread machine or mixer and set it on the dough setting.
2. When the dough is near done, pour the 10 cups of water and baking soda into a large pan or wok (I used my Swiss Diamond wok … perfect for this!), cover and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the baking soda into the water and keep covered but still boiling. You might need to reduce the heat a bit to keep the pan from boiling over while you prepare the pretzels.
3. Preheat the oven to 425 F. and prepare two baking sheets by spraying them with cooking spray or lining with a non-stick silicon baking mat. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and water and set beside the prepared pans with a brush close by for basting the pretzels.
4. When the dough is done, plop it onto a floured surface and cut into 12 equal pieces.
5. Shape each piece of the dough into a long snake about 1 1/2 feet long, then form each snake into a pretzel shape.
6. Carefully set each pretzel into the boiling bath water, cover and let them bathe for 30 seconds. I did three pretzels at a time.
7. Remove each pretzel carefully from the bath with a slotted spoon or spatula and set onto the prepared baking sheet. Brush with the egg wash, then sprinkle with coarse salt.
8. Bake at 425 for about 10 – 14 minutes or until they are a beautiful golden brown in color.
9. Remove from the oven and let cool a bit before eating.

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Notes

Cook time includes time for the dough to rise. For traditional instructions without the bread machine, visit Comfortable Food

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

© Copyright 2013, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe.

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Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 pretzel

This recipe was shared at Saturday Spotlight, Mop it Up Monday, Mommy’s Manic Monday, Marvelous Mondays, Tuesday’s Table, Try a New Recipe Tuesday, Wednesday Extravaganza, Tried & True Recipes and Clever Chicks Bloghop.