Bavarian Pretzel Recipe—Baking During Quarantine

My mom, Ursula, gave me the pretzel recipe below. Whenever she comes to visit, we end up making a batch or two.  I’ve even hosted pretzel making parties when she’s been in town to teach my friends the art of making a good German pretzel (see the video below).  And when she visited my college bestie, Tina, earlier this year in Florida she gave her a pretzel making lesson too.  Needless to say, these pretzels are not only tasty but they make me happy because they remind me of my awesome mom.

So during this challenging time of sheltering in place, I’ve found myself seeking comfort in making these pretzels for my family.  While there are several steps involved, overall they are pretty easy to make and they require very little ingredients.  The biggest challenge, these days, is finding yeast.  I actually accidentally purchased wine yeast on Amazon and it worked just fine.  So if you are having trouble locating yeast, maybe try that out.

Anyway, I hope you love these pretzels as much as I do.  If you do make them, let me know what you think.

Here’s a little video and the recipe below. Shout out to my friend Tina who actually took the time to write out my mom’s recipe when making the pretzels with my mom earlier in the year and to my friends Yamile and Tracy for being a part of this video 4 years ago.   

 

• Put ¼ c. warm water (not too hot or will kill yeast) in bowl in mixer along with 2 packages of yeast,  1T brown sugar and 1T flour. Mix and let sit until bubbly. Looks like this:

• Add 2 T butter (can be cold and sliced up), 2 teaspoons of salt and 2 c. of warm water to above.  Start mixer very slowly and start adding flour (about 6 c.) Put mixer on low, no higher than 4.

• Cover with towel and let rise for about an hour- it doubles in size.

• In dutch oven size pan on stove, fill about ½ way with water and add ½ cup of baking soda.

• Take dough out (dust flower on rolling surface).  Roll into pretzels. Place on parchment paper on cookie sheets.

• Simmer water to low boil and drop pretzel in for about 10-20 seconds.  Sort of binds it into shape. Use spatula to take out and try to drain water off.

• Beat an egg and wash the tops of the pretzels and salt if you so desire.  I like kosher or larger sea salt.

• Bake at 400 degrees for 17-20 minutes until golden brown.

 

Serve with cream cheese and enjoy!