Introduction: Pretzel Bread
Baking bread, whether as an occupation or as a hobby, is extremely satisfying. Bakers have almost complete control over their bread, requiring little more than some very simple ingredients, time and the willingness to get his or her hands a little messy.
Pretzel bread is not quite a simple as flat bread or dinner rolls, but the loaves come out of the oven with a deep, brown pretzel crust and a slightly sweet, tender center. This particular recipe should be treated as a base to which other ingredients may be added. Cinnamon and extra brown sugar can create a sweet pretzel, or garlic and other spices can create a more savory pretzel. The loaves can be baked into mini-loaves, sandwich loaves or just cut into chunks and served as a snack. If you come up with something good, leave it in the comments.
But now for the bread.
Makes : 2 small loaves.
Prep time : 3-4 hours (including rise time).
Ingredients :
1 packet dry active yeast, or 2 tsp.
2 cups warm (110F) water.
1 tbsp dark brown sugar.
1 tbsp honey.
2 tbsp half-and-half.
3 tbsp unsalted butter.
1.5 tsp salt.
3-3.5 cups bread flour.
3 tbsp baking soda.
Step 1: Preparing the Dough
Combine the warm water, dark brown sugar and honey in a mixing bowl and stir. Add the yeast carefully to avoid clumps. Stir again and let the mixture stand until the surface of the water starts to turn a light brown as the yeast begins to foam. It should take no longer than a few minutes. If your water is too hot, too cold or the yeast is bad it will not foam. It's a lot easier to deal with bad yeast or water early on.
Also, note that this recipe uses dry active yeast. fresh yeast or fast/self rising yeast can be used, but be sure to read the instructions on the packet to adapt the recipe.
The yeast, when added to the warm, sugary water, starts to consume the sugar and multiply like crazy. They are what gives the bread its ability to rise and expand later on. While the yeast is started to get going, melt the 3 tbsp of unsalted butter, then add the half-and-half. By adding the half and half to the melted butter, the half and half warms up a bit if it is straight out of the fridge. Add the tsp of salt to the yeast mixture with the butter and half and half then stir well.
Step 2: Mixing the Dough
First of all, to avoid future heartache and dough everywhere, make sure you lightly butter the bottom and sides of a large bowl at set it aside. Be sure the bowl is beg enough for the dough to fit in after doubling in size.
Measure out two cups of flour and add the to the mixing bowl. If you have a mixer with a dough hook, feel free to let it do most of the work at this point. If not, grab a rubber spatula or flour your hands and start mixing the dough. Rather than using a mixing motion like when working with a cake mix, fold the flour into the water. scrape along the sides and bottom of the bowl and fold it into the flour. As the dough starts to come together it will be nearly impossible to stir anyway. Think of flipping a pancake when scraping along the bottom and flipping it to the top.
Once the dough forms a wet mess, add a little of the third cup at a time and fold the new flour into the dough. Do not add the entire cup at one, as it may not be needed. Add a little at a time (a couple tsp) and knead. After a few minutes the dough should stop sticking so the sides of the bowl as much and start to form a ball. Add flour and knead until the dough ball is just slightly sticky. At that point, turn it out of the bowl onto a clean, lightly floured surface or just flour your hands and pick it up. Knead the dough by fold it over and over in different directions until it gets sticky again, then sprinkle just a little more flour on it. Knead until the dough is smooth and just slightly sticky. It should form a fairly solid ball.
Step 3: Pretzel Bread Rising
All of the hard work is done once the dough is kneaded. Take the now-smooth ball of dough and place it in the buttered bowl from earlier. Don't worry if the dough is just a little sticky, but it shouldn't stick to your floured hand anymore.
After the dough is in the buttered bowl, flip it over once so that all sides are coated.
Cover the dough with either plastic wrap or a moist cloth and set it somewhere it will stay warm. If the house is particularly cold, turn the oven on just until it starts to warm a little and turn it back off, then set the bowl in there. If the dough doesn't stay warm it won't rise well, but if it gets too hot it will rise very quickly or, even worse, start to bake. About 70-75 degrees is fine.
After an hour, check on the dough. Because there is not much yeast in this particular bread it will probably take longer than an hour to get nearly doubled. If it is slightly cold, the dough could take more like an hour and a half to two hours to rise. If you really need the bread in, say, two hours total, add another half a packet of yeast when starting it.
Once the yeast has nearly doubled, get a wide pot of water on the stove and add baking soda. More soda will add a stronger pretzel flavor. Additionally, a little honey can be added to sweeten the crust a bit. Let the water come to a boil while getting the dough together.
Step 4: Boiling and Scoring
Get the oven pre-heating to 450 degrees.
Uncover the dough and punch it down. If the dough is sticky again, sprinkle a little flour around the sides and over the top. Peel the dough out of the owl and turn it out onto a floured surface. At this point it can be cut and shaped into what will be its final shape. Keep in mind that the dough is going to have to be boiled and then removed from the water. Smaller loaves will be easier to handle.
Shape the loaves and set them on a lightly floured surface then cover lightly to rise while the water comes to a boil. Once the water has come to a rolling boil, carefully drop the loaves into the pot one at a time with the side that will be the bottom facing up. They should float right back up to the surface. If the water is not hot enough they will sink and stick, so be absolutely sure the water is boiling strongly. Also keep in mind that it can bun rather badly if the loaves and dropped into the water too quickly.
Let each loaf float around for 30 seconds on each side. Using spatulas or a large, slotted spoon, remove the loaf from the water, let it drain for a second, and place it on either a floured baking sheet, a lightly greased sheet or, the easiest option, a silicon baking mat . Sprinkle the still-wet loaves with kosher salt to taste.
Using a very sharp knife, cut an "x" onto the top of each loaf. Be sure to cut at an angle. The slices will let the loaves expand in the oven.
Step 5: Bake and Enjoy
After the oven is up to temperature, set the loaves in the top 1/2 or top 1/3 of the oven. Let them bake for ten minutes, turn them, and drop the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for another 10 or so minutes. The loaves should sound hollow when tapped on the top.
During the last few minutes of baking, the loaves should hit their maximum size and turn a dark brown.
Once the loaves are out of the oven, brush them lightly with melted butter for a softer, chewer crust. If they are not buttered the loaves will keep a crunchy crust.
Keep in mind that baking times may vary based on your oven.
Serve the loaves warm with butter or a dip. A cheddar and sour cream dip is particularly good. Store them at room temperature in a bag. The loaves will keep several days.
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42 Comments
5 years ago
Very tasty bread recipe Its a different way to cook bread.I like the way of cooking this bread.
6 years ago
Pleasant work!! Awesome
8 years ago
love the 'ible , tastes great too :)
9 years ago on Introduction
When, where do you add the baking soda. Nothing is mentioned.
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
You add the baking soda in the boiling water before you boil the bread.
10 years ago on Introduction
This sounds delicious! I've got to try making it soon! I love to bake and I love pretzels. :)
10 years ago on Introduction
I have made this recipe twice, and its flavor is fabulous (obviously, since I have made it twice!), but you need to know that it calls for exactly half of the amount of flour that is actually needed.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
Sorry, I didn't see that people have actually mentioned this before. ItsJeremy, you really ought to change the recipe. Unless someone has bread baking experience, he or she is going to try this recipe, not know to just add more flour and think it is a dismal failure. thanks for posting though! Kids love it!
10 years ago on Introduction
Just made this - turned out pretty good! I think I'll follow some of the comments, and use less water. I'll also try to use the soda water basting instead of the boiling - the boiling foamed up and I spent most of the time fighting that. BUT - but, the bread is DELICIOUS. The crust was just right! The wife wanted to make some smaller pieces too, so we made some "sticks" also...
The dark lines in the middle of one of the loaves is the soda water mixture, it soaked into a fold and didn't bake out completely.
12 years ago on Introduction
I have been using a similar recipe for a yearish now. I have not upgrade to the lye bath yet as most recipes say that improves the crust to a more brown crispiness. I have been wondering if your loaves are dense. I have tried many things to get more "air" in the bread, but it always seems to stay dense. what are your experiences?
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Yes, these loaves are extremely dense, but very soft. If you want loaves with more air pockets in them, let them rise for a while (half an hour or more) after you boil them. That will allow the yeast to create air pockets. Be careful that you don't slice the loaves until they are ready to go into the oven or they will just spread all over. You could also try letting them rise longer before boiling, but the problem there is that they will likely lose a lot of the air during the boiling unless you handle them very carefully.
With respect to the lye bath, I would suggest giving it a try if you can do it safely. I didn't mention lye because I wanted to limit it to things I figured another might have. The lye will give you a much better crust, but baking soda still does a good job.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
my wife found lye pellets on the internet. supposed to be safer. but i bought a 15# of soda, so I'll work o n the recipe until i get it where I want it the move to the lye
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
lye flake is safe enough. its really just the order that you use it. adding it too the water instead of water to the lye.
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
Let them rise for 45-60 min after forming, then instead of submerging in boiling soda water, just brush them with it. (i add some salt to the soda water mix)
This keeps the dough handling gentle and thus less dense. After brushing the breads, pretzels... shove them into the oven immediately. The heat in the oven speeds up the reaction, like submerging it in boiling soda water.
The submerging method works of course, but it's traditionally used when making bagels.(without soda of course)
Brushing with lye would be even better, with this method you only need minute amounts.
Nice instructable, two things i like to add.
Yeast doesn't like fat or salt, so it would be better to add the fatty components later in the mixing process. With the salt, it may not be practical to add it too late, because it could be unevenly distributed in the dough. But i would add it to the second cup of flour.
Happy baking
11 years ago on Introduction
I tried this today. I think the water measurement is of by double, instead of two cups it should be one cup.
With two cups water and three cups flour you end up with a nice flour paste, no were near a dough. I had to add another 2 1/2 cups of flour to get a dough.
Instead of two small loves I ended up with six about 5 to 6 inches in diameter and an inch and a half tall.
They taste great. I will make this again with either 1 cup water and about 3 cups flour or the 2 cups water and about 6 cups flour.
You should change the ingredient list one way or the other.
11 years ago on Introduction
wow wat are the odds of stumbling to this after this
http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/532
11 years ago on Introduction
so haven't made this bread yet... but "your kicks are growing plants and baking bread"? best ever :)
11 years ago on Introduction
Oh yum! I think these would be good split in half, spread with mustard and a lunchmeat (probably ham), for a nice pretzel-y sandwich.
11 years ago on Introduction
Combine the cool water to make a soft dough texture.
11 years ago on Introduction
I made this recipe today, and it turned out excellent!
For the record, I live at 5400+ ft elevation and had no problems whatsoever. I did add a little extra flour when kneading, but other than that, I followed the measurements given to the letter! Thanks :D