German Pretzels

Submitted by Sydney Mike

"This recipe comes from www.germanculture.com & is posted here to help fill out my German contribution to the ZWT6. Preparation time does not include the several hours needed for the dough to rise twice."

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Yields: 12 pretzels
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• 1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 1⁄2 cups warm water
• 1⁄8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 4 cups unbleached flour
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt

directions

1. In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water, then add salt & sugar to the yeast mixture.
2. Blend in the flour & knead the dough until smooth, about 7 or 8 minutes.
3. Cover & let dough rise for 1 to 1 1/4 hours or until double in bulk.
4. Grease several cookie sheets, then punch dough down & cut it into 12 pieces.
5. Slightly beat the egg & set aside.
6. Roll each piece of dough into a thin rope about as round as your little finger, then twist each into pretzel shapes before placing them on a greased cookie sheet.
7. Using a pastry brish, coat the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg & sprinkle with coarse salt, before allowing the pretzels to rise until almost double in bulk.
8. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F & bake the pretzels for 10 to 15 minutes, or until browned.
9. Best if eaten while stlil warm, but if allowed to cool, store in an airtight container.

Reviews

[Nif_H]

I've never made pretzels before and these are fabulous! The only change I made to the recipe is to add the salt after the flour because I wasn't sure if the salt would be OK with the yeast. I read that the other chefs didn't know how to knot the pretzels so I found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwy9c0foFTc and it was easy to do after watching it. I also served these with Recipe #460243, which was a perfect compliment. Made for Went To The Market tag game. Thanks Syd! :)

 

[EmmyDuckie]

Tasty! These are really good pretzels, nice and crusty, with a tender inside. My only problem was shaping and rising. I didn't realize how hard it would be to get a nice, smooth, pretty pretzel. But, that's not a problem with the recipe so much as it is with my own two hands. And they taste great, which is what counts.

 

[gailanng]

Made for ZWT #6's Oma's Kitchen Challenge. Great recipe, but need Oma to come over and teach me how to better 'tie them in a knot, or tie them in a bow.'