[ENG] Almost German-style Pretzels

I've made pretzel once and i really loved it, so i'm making it again! But this time, i used a different recipe that doesn't contain milk in it, since my sister is lactose intolerant so she couldn't eat much of the pretzels i made last time :( I'll talk more about the recipe in the next post so this won't be a super long post, well it's already long enough with just the baking directions lol
Btw this recipe will make just 4 pretzels, so i doubled it to make 8 pretzels yum :9

Original recipe from The Bread Kitchen - Soft German-Style Pretzels

Ingredients (for 4 pretzels):

250 g bread flour 
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp unsalted butter
150 g lukewarm water
1 1/2 tsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp dried yeast (i used instant yeast)
1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water for glazing
coarse salt
salted butter, melted (about 3 tbsp)

dipping solution:
1/3 cup baking soda
6 cup (1500 ml) water

toppings (optional):
italian seasoning
grated cheese
cinnamon sugar

1. Mix together the lukewarm water, brown sugar, and the yeast. Leave it for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.

2. In a medium/large bowl, mix together flour, salt & unsalted butter. Rub any lumps of butter into the flour with your hands, breaking it into tiny little pieces.

The yeast water after 10 minutes...

it's alive! :O

3. Make a well in the center, and pour in the yeast water. Gradually incorporate the flour from the sides, stirring with a wooden spoon until you get a thick paste in the center. Flick some flour from the sides over the paste to cover it. Leave it for at least 30 minutes (you can leave it for up to 2 hours). This is called a "sponge".

4. After 30 minutes the sponge should be nice & bubbly. Mix the sponge & the rest of the flour altogether with your hand to form a slightly tacky dough. Add some water if it's too dry or add some flour if it's too wet. (i don't know why but mine was too dry) 

5. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead, adding enough flour if needed, until smooth & elastic for about 10-15 minutes. Shape it into a ball. (if you double the recipe like me, it'll take longer to knead it, mine took about 20-30 minutes)

not yet...

knead it some more...

you're almost there...

okayy! now, shape it into a ball...

6. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, brush the top lightly with oil/butter, cover with plastic warp or kitchen napkin. Let rise in warm spot until double in size, about 1-1 1/2 hour.

7. After it doubled in size, turn out the dough in a lightly floured surface, punch the dough to deflate it. Shape it into a ball. 

If you double the recipe like i did, cut the dough in half & form each half into a ball.

8. Flatten the dough ball down a little bit, then divide it into 4 equal pieces. 

Take a piece of dough, shape it into a kinda rectangular shape, roll it tightly & pinch the seams. Repeat for all the dough pieces. Rest the dough for 10 minutes. 

(Optional) 

If your oven isn't big enough to bake all the pretzels at once, wrap the remaining dough pieces in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge immediately after you shape them. 

9. Preheat the oven to 200 C. In a shallow pan, dissolve the baking soda in the water & bring it to a boil then turn down the heat to low. If you bake the pretzels in batches, don't forget to reboil the baking soda solution.

10. Roll the dough into a 75-90 cm long rope. Shape it into pretzel shape. Repeat to all of the dough pieces. (Check the links at the end of this post to see the video of how to roll & shape the dough)

if your surface isn't long enough, use the diagonal ;)

11. Dip the pretzel in the solution for 10 seconds & flip them carefully. Leave for another 10 seconds & remove it from the solution. 

Place it on a kitchen napkin to drain the water on the back of the dough. Arrange on a lightly buttered baking sheet. Repeat for all the pretzel dough. Brush them with egg yolk & water mixture. Slash the dough with sharp knife. For original salt pretzel,   sprinkle them with coarse salt.

12. Bake them in the oven at 200 C for 12-15 minutes. Depending on your oven, you may have to adjust the temperature. 

Mine looked like this (picture above) after baking it for 15 minutes on the middle rack, and they didn't look brown enough, so i raised the temperature to 220 C and baked them again for a few minutes until fairly dark brown (picture below). And for the next batch i baked them at 220 C.

Making the italian herb butter...

Toast some italian seasoning in a small pan for a minute, stir in salted butter & cook until fragrant. Brush it on your baked pretzel instead of the regular salted butter. 

i also added some dried rosemary

Making the cheese pretzel...

Bake the pretzels for 7 minutes, take them out and top with grated cheese. Make sure you use cheese that will melt when heated. I mistakenly used cheese that doesn't melt :( It couldn't stick to the pretzel & just crumbled apart.

References:
The Bread Kitchen - Soft German-Style Pretzels
How to make Autie Anne's Soft Pretzels
Disney World Pretzel Recipe



more details + Pretzel Taste Test...
[ENG] Almost German-style Pretzels "The Sequel" + Pretzel Taste Test

Also check my other pretzel recipe...
[ENG] Simply Pretzels!