Is there anyone who doesn't like pretzels, pretzel sticks, pretzel rolls or other pretzels? Hardly! The typical taste that everyone loves comes from the caustic soda that is used to make it. This also gives them their name. Today we would like to show you two recipes with which you can make delicious pretzels yourself. While one (classic) version requires caustic soda, for the other you can use a substitute that you usually always have in stock in the kitchen. There is also the option of making pastries vegan. Decide for yourself which recipe you would like to try.
In addition to the delicious recipes, we also have some great ideas on how to braid and lay the dough into more interesting shapes if the classic pretzel shape is too boring for you or you especially want to impress children. You can spice up the lye pastry in a variety of ways, as you will see. Also find out whether this type of pastry is really as unhealthy as some people claim.
Recipes – lye for lye baked goods or not?
You are spoiled for choice: Do you want to stay true to the original recipe and use real caustic soda or would you rather quickly use ordinary household baking soda? If you choose the classic, you should know that the lye is probably only available in pharmacies and is caustic. But don't be afraid. This caustic property disappears during the baking process. Precautions are still a must during production! Gloves and safety glasses should definitely not be missing.
Caustic soda for pretzel biscuits – production
The correct concentration is 3 to 6 percent. This means that for 500 ml of water, for example, 20 g of solid caustic soda is required. The desired amount can usually even be prepared for you in the pharmacy. The solid baking soda is offered in this form to be used for exactly this type of baked goods. So if you want to make your own pretzel pastry, you can use the so-called pretzel beads or pretzel eyes. They are either in the form of balls or cookies. If you mix the lye yourself, you should always prepare the water first and only then add the baking soda, as the chemical reaction causes heat to be generated. Finally, the dough pieces are dipped into the lye.
Advantage of caustic soda
Although ordinary household baking soda can also be used and is preferred in everyday life, the caustic soda gives the lye baked goods exactly what makes them special and that is the familiar taste and the beautiful reddish-brown discoloration. The latter occurs because the lye accelerates certain reactions during baking. In this case, these are the reactions between sugar molecules and amino acids.
Make your own lye pastries with caustic soda
- 500 g Flour
- 300 ml lukewarm water
- 1 cube of fresh yeast
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 300 ml caustic soda
- Rubber gloves
- Safety glasses
- coarse salt for sprinkling
For the dough:Place flour in a large bowl, form a well andCrumble in the yeast. Add sugar and a little warm water and roughly knead or stir a pre-dough, which you then let rise for about 15 minutes. The yeast should double in size during this time. Add the salt, but not directly into the yeast! Then gradually add the remaining water. Whether all the water is really needed depends on the flour. Therefore, do not pour everything in at once. Knead until you have a dough that doesn't stick. You can take it out of the bowl and process it on a work surface. Then put it back in the bowl, cover it and let the dough rise in a warm place. During this time it should almost double in volume.
If you make pretzels yourself, you can form classic pretzels. For this you need strands that are wider in the middle and narrower towards the ends. A length of around 30 cm is sufficient for the classic size. But rolls or simple sticks are also suitable. In principle, it is up to you how exactly you shape the dough. It is best to let the dough rise for another 10 minutes.
Lyes:For beginners, we recommend freezing the prepared dough pieces for about 20 minutes. This makes the dough firmer and makes lyeing easier. Use rubber gloves and safety glasses. Take the ready-made solution or mix it yourself by providing the water and adding the lye cookies or beads (notvice versa!).
For example, dip the pastry into the lye using a perforated metal spoon, take it out again and let it drain, then place it on a baking tray lined with a silicone mat (baking paper can also be used as an alternative). Repeat with the other pieces of dough. Cut the dough (always wear gloves) and sprinkle with salt. Don't leave the pretzels standing for too long, but start baking as soon as possible: on the middle rack at 220 degrees for about 22 minutes.
Use household baking soda
For the dough:
- 7g dry yeast
- 280 ml warm water
- 600g self-rising/self-raising flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 50 g golden yellow caster sugar
- 1 tsp olive oil
For the lye:
- 900 ml warm water
- Baking soda (e.g. Kaiser Natron brand)
- 1 pinch of salt
- Butter
- Sea salt
Place the warm water and yeast in a bowl and set aside for 20 minutes to allow the yeast to rise. In the meantime, in another bowl, mix the flour, sugar and salt. Once the yeast is ready, you can add it together with the olive oil to the dry ingredients you have just mixed and knead a dough out of it. You can do this either with your hands or with the dough hooks of your hand mixer.
Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with cling film and place in a warm place where you let the dough rise for about 2 hours until it doubles in size. Then you can use the dough to make pretzels, rolls or other interesting pastries. Some ideas can be found below.
Before you dip the baked goods into the lye, you can preheat the oven to 230 degrees. Also line a baking tray with baking paper. Then mix the baking soda with the water and salt. Then gradually dip all the prepared pastries into the lye, place them on the tray and sprinkle them with the sea salt.Bakethe pretzels for 8 minutes, take them out of the oven, brush them with a little butter and put them back in the oven for another 2 minutes. This way, the baked goods made with improvised lye will more closely resemble the “real” ones.
Vegan recipe
Since the recipe above does not use eggs, milk or other animal products, you can also choose the recipe with baking soda if you want to make the pretzels vegan. The only thing you need to change is to use vegan butter instead of regular butter. You can use all other ingredients as directed.
Is “real” pretzel baked goods unhealthy?
Opinions vary as to whether pretzels are healthy or unhealthy. On the whole, however, it can be said that these types of pastries are neither healthy nor harmful if they are prepared correctly. They also have some good qualities. On the one hand, the lye pastries are said to relieve heartburn. This is thanks to the baking soda used in its preparation and, more specifically, the chemical reaction that takes place in the stomach after consumption. The treat also supplies the body with important carbohydrates so that it can produce energy.
Anyone who suffers from high blood pressure should avoid the salt that is sprinkled on them. If you make pretzels yourself, be careful not to place them directly on the baking tray. The lye decomposes the aluminum, although not visibly, which in turn gets into the pastry and is then consumed and can be harmful. Otherwise, the nutritional values and level of healthy properties can be compared with those of ordinary rolls. Whole-grain pastries are and remain the healthier choice.
Spice up pastries
Not only if you want to make pretzels for children, but also if you just want to try something different, you will probably want to play with the molds. Feel free to experiment a little instead of always choosing the classic pretzel or roll shape. We would like to show you a few suggestions below.
A few classic shapes
In the two instructions you will see five classic ways to shape the dough to create versatile and interesting baked goods. There are also simple sticks and rolls that do not require special instructions.
Mickey Mouse pastries
A great idea for children's parties or other events are Mickey mice, which you can make yourself from pretzels. You will again need several strands, but in different sizes. In the instructions you can see how to put the individual pieces together to imitate the cartoon character.
Mini pretzels
The mini pretzels are almost never missing from the snack mix. But you can also prepare these little friendly snacks yourself if you make pretzels yourself. But plan for more time because it will take a while until you use up all of the dough. Since the pretzels then logically have to “wait” longer on the tray, it is recommended to either use household baking soda instead of lye or to shape the pretzels and only then dip them into the lye one by one to get them as quickly as possible to put in the oven.
Bake appetizers
Such appetizers are very practical for a party or as finger food. You can also prepare delicious dips and serve them with the pretzel snacks. Feel free to experiment with sesame, poppy seeds and other healthy seeds to replace or combine the salt.
Sweet and salty with chocolate
Salt and sugar are an interesting combination. For this reason, you can dip the finished pretzels into melted chocolate and decorate them with sprinkles, edible beads or other treats. These treats will not only be well received visually. So it's better to prepare a little more so that everyone gets something.
Pastries for Halloween
Be really creative and conjure up something effective with glazes and other tricksPastries for spooky Halloween. Whether witch fingers, spiders or simple sticks with glazes in typical Halloween colors doesn't matter. Any of these variations will look great on the buffet. The sight of this makes your mouth water, doesn't it?
A few more ideas:
