Soft Pretzels

A few weeks ago I made sourdough German pretzels, also known as laugenbrezel. Before that, I have never eaten pretzels before. A friend then asked if I have tried Auntie Anne’s and I realized I have not? I don’t know why. I’ve always seen it in malls in KL. I do know for sure something sold in malls, or a franchise like that surely have a softer texture and richer taste. Not that the ones I made were hard, but they’re definitely on the denser side and tastes leaner. After all, it’s made only with flour, water, salt and a bit of butter. Unfortunately, there is no Auntie Anne’s here in Melbourne. I will have to wait for a day when I visit a mall in KL to try some. 

She said her favourite was the one with cinnamon sugar. Upon googling for recipes sure enough many popped up. 

Comparing to sourdough pretzels, these were definitely softer and sweeter. The preparation was simple although incredibly challenging to shape! It was difficult to roll the dough into a long, pencil thin-cigar shape before they start breaking and tearing. Somehow the dough kept resisting the form. Those two in the picture were the most decent looking ones out of the lot. The rest sort of looked like 💩 and penises haha. 

I used this recipe, as usual, with a few tweaks. This is half the recipe which makes 6 small pretzels or 3-4 larger ones depending on your preference. From my experience, I recommend dividing this amount into 3 large pretzels for it to look decent.

The dough 

1/2 cup milk
1 1/8tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2tbsp brown sugar
1 1/8cups plain flour
1 tbsp butter, softened
1/2tsp salt

Warm milk in the microwave for roughly 30 seconds or warm to touch. Add yeast into warm milk and stir. Let it sit for a few minutes. Place sugar, flour and salt in a stand mixer with hook attachment. Add milk and yeast mixture and mix on medium speed until dough comes together. Add the butter and continue mixing until the dough is very stretchy and smooth, or it passes the windowpane test. Shape into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise until double in size; about 1 hour in a warm, humid environment. After 1 hour if not in use, place dough in the fridge. Otherwise, divide into 3-4 equal sizes.

Preheat oven to 220c degrees and have a baking sheet lined with parchment paper ready (not in the oven). Roll out dough into a long, pencil-thin cigar shape or like a thin rope.  Start from the middle, roll towards the ends. Do not apply too much pressure or the dough will tear. Thirty inches or more would be ideal. Form each rope into a pretzel shape. Place the shaped pretzels onto the baking sheet lined with parchment and place it into the fridge for 20 minutes uncovered so that they are easier to hold onto when dipping into the lye bath.

Lye bath 
Traditionally, authentic pretzels go through lye/caustic soda/sodium hydroxide bath. However, lye is not easily obtainable (it's a strong alkali which can cause chemical burns if not handled properly), so baking soda bath (in original recipe) is more commonly used as a substitute. I used lye, which bakes the pretzels into that rich, brown shade and imparts a unique "pretzel" flavour which soda bath cannot do.

300g cold water
16g food grade caustic soda/lye/sodium hydroxide

Wearing protective gloves, place water and lye into a stainless steel bowl. Whisk slowly using a stainless steel whisk until all the lye has dissolved and water is clear. Dip the chilled pretzels into the lye solution then place the pretzels onto the baking sheet.

Bake in the oven for roughly 7 minutes.

Topping

2tbsp melted butter
1/4cup sugar (mix of brown and caster) + 1/2tsp cinnamon

Brush baked pretzels with melted butter. Dip in/sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture.