Both the cinnamon sugar and the classic salted pretzel is in question here... And we're going to make it completely from scratch with a homemade dough in a home oven.
INGREDIENTS:
Dough:
2 cups (500ml) water @100f
3 1/4 teaspoon (14g) instant yeast
1/3 cup (72g) brown sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) neutral-tasting oil
5.5 cups (825g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (6g) fine sea salt
Lye Bath:
30g food-grade lye
1000g filtered water
Salted topping:
flakey salt for topping
melted butter for brushing
Cinnamon Sugar:
1 cup (225g) melted SALTED butter
3/4 cup (155g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (55g) dark brown sugar
2.5 teaspoons (7g) ground cinnamon
INSTRUCTIONS:
Dough:
Preheat oven to 450F
In a large bowl, mix water (100F), yeast, begin whisking, add brown sugar, and whisk until dissolved. Cover with plastic wrap at room temperature and let it sit for about 5 minutes; then whisk in the oil.
In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour and sea salt. Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture, begin mixing it by hand, then knead that for five minutes or until relatively smooth (it’s okay if the dough is sticky still). Next, transfer the dough to a large greased bowl, cover it with greased plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature for 1.30 hours or until double the size.
Punch down the dough to release the gas, turn the dough onto an unfloured surface. Divide the dough into 12 to 14 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, place them on a baking sheet, let them rest for ten minutes, covered. Using both your hands, roll that ball out into a very long rod, try to get it as long as you can while applying more pressure to the ends to get pointing tips, and once it is about 13 to 14 inches long, bring the ends together, twirl them together once, and bring them back to the center of the rod to create a pretzel shape.
Put on rubber or latex food-safe gloves. Gently dip the pretzel into the lye bath, let it soak for a few seconds, and carefully transfer it onto a Silpat (silicone mat) lined baking sheet. Generously sprinkle flaky salt. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, brush some melted unsalted butter and let it rest until warm.
Lye Bath:
In a large metal or glass bowl, make the lye bath: add the water to the bowl, and whisk in the lye until dissolved. (Use rubber or latex food-safe gloves and be careful not to splash any lye on yourself)
Reserve in a safe place.
Salted Topping:
Brush the pretzel with melted unsalted better and serve.
Cinnamon Sugar:
In a bowl, whisk sugar, brown sugar, and ground cinnamon. In a large saute pan, melt salted butter, dip your pretzel entirely in the butter (fully coated), and quickly toss in a bowl of your cinnamon sugar until completely coated.
Does anyone knows how many pretzels yield from this recipe? Thanks in advance ☺
As a German who enjoys pretzels so much, I was scared what you´re going to do. I´m very impressed with that recipe. If I wanna change something it is the yeast. I love fresh yeast. It gives more flavour to the pretzel. In Germany there are 2 types of pretzels: In Bavarian their pretzels stomache (the thickest part of the pretzel) breaks while they baking. In the rest of Germany some bakeries cut the stomache with a razerblade or something sharp to have an even breaking in the oven. If you wanna eat a pretzel to feel like you eating it in Germany than I would recommend your recipe Joshua. Great Job. For all of you who would like to…
Food grade Lye is caustic and isn't readily available in supermarkets. A heated baking soda bath is universally excepted as a more readily available, and safer substitute with identical results. Also, the MS Office short cut for the degree symbol (°) for recipes 450F vs. 450°F is as easy as Alt+0176.
how to they hold up if we cannot eat them all or want them for later?? I made some once, different recipe and they were awful 10 minutes after cooking....I will make these but I really want to know if they keep well.
Un... frigging... believably good... they should be illegal!...