This Chemical Makes German Pretzels Chewy and Golden Brown | America’s Test Kitchen

Byamazingfoodstv


To make great German-style pretzels, you need a chemical shortcut with food-grade lye. Today, Bridget Lancaster shows Julia Collin Davison how lye contributes to that golden-brown shine and snappy bite, highlighting the importance of letting the dough rest between stages of shaping. After they dip the dough in a diluted lye solution (with protective gear in place), Julia explains lye’s chemical effect on proteins and starches, and the best way to make these pretzels with maximum ease–and safety.

Laugenbrezeln (German Lye Pretzels) Recipe:

00:00 Intro
00:25 Making The Dough
02:22 Shaping The Dough
07:18 Dipping The Dough
11:50 Trying The Laugenbrezeln (German Lye Pretzels)

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32 Comments

  4. You should NEVER use a sodium hydroxide solution in a glass container. A strong base will dissolve the glass to form silicates. This is why your glass bowl feels slippery when you cleaned it out. Silicates are soluble, and will be deposited on your food. PLEASE advise your viewers to use plastic containers when working with sodium hydroxide. Even better, take down and reproduce this video using proper techniques. And for the love of all that is holy, please don't grab another person when you have caustic solution all over your gloves! (I'm a PhD chemist and professor. So, this isn't just Googling knowledge.)

  9. We've been making pretzels this way for years in our bakery. Some hints though
    1. The lye will eat through aluminum so don't use aluminum pans or utensils that will come into direct contact with the lye or lye-dipped pretzels. Put some drops of the lye water on some tin foil to see what I mean.
    2. Use either stainless steel or glass bowl for mixing and holding the lye water. We found that our plastic containers developed many cracks after using them.
    3. Wear gloves like they did. Just wash your hands off if you get something on you though
    4. The silicone mat is the key! We found they tend to stick to parchment paper but never to silicone. We take them directly from the lye water and straight to the sheet pan with the silicone liner. Then into the oven ASAP. Letting them sit too long before baking will alter the look and feel of the exterior
    5. If you don't have pretzel salt, kosher salt will work in a pinch. Don't use table salt.
    6. There will be some slightly noxious fumes that come off the water as you're mixing it. Don't lean over the bowl as you're mixing the lye into the water. The fumes are usually gone in about 30 seconds.

    Great video! So many people don't know how to get that real pretzel flavor!

  10. Oh, and do you know how the Brezel got its shape? The story goes like this: A swabian baker was in debt and asked the devil for help. The devil said: ok, I‘ll cover your debt when you bake me something that the sun can shine through three times. If you can’t, your soul is mine. And this is how the Brezel got its shape.

  12. In Germany, we add powdered barley malt or barley malt syrup to the dough and then give them a lye bath. In Bavaria we serve them with a cheese dip called "Obatzda;" it's made from mixing Brie or Camembert, cream cheese, butter, paprika, parsley, spring onions, shallots, a splash or two of beer and apple cider vinegar. Look that up, there are plenty of recipes even in English how to make Obatzda. Your pretzels will never be the same after that!

  22. Some comments from a long-time Swabian Brezelbäcker: 
    it is more traditional to use lard instead of butter, it will make the Brezel softer. I like a mix of 50% butter and 50% lard for a nice crispy thin crust and a fluffy interior. We also use 50% whole milk and 50% water instead of only water. 
    I advise to keep the ingredients rather on the cool side as the dough benefits from 10-15 min of kneading to develop the gluten. 
    Brezeln also benefit from a pre-ferment, just mix some flour, milk and a tiny bit of yeast the evening before and let it ferment in the fridge overnight. A dollop of sourdough starter is also not wrong. 
    Oh, and we use some malted barely in the dough, to improve the crust and also the browning. 
    For German standards, your Brezeln are way to big, both overall and in diameter of the dough in the individual pieces: a classic Brezel weighs in at 85-90 grams and it is important that you roll the dough so that the ends taper. This provides you with what we call "crispy arms and a fluffy belly". Some more tips: once the Brezel has piece-proofed, put it in the fridge for 10 min, this will help to form a thin skin, which helps with keeping it more shiny after baking. Oh, and please cut the belly with a sharp knife, so that it can oven-rise and become even more fluffy. Last tip: spray the Brezel with some water right after baking, to get a nice sheen.

  24. I love making pretzels! I've not tried using lye, although this all take me back to my college chemistry labs. I'm not sure how soon I dare try it. For now, I'll stick with baking soda. You're right, though. The color and texture of the crust just aren't going to be the same. My favorite thing to eat pretzels with is a really good mustard. Yum!

  26. 100 % ! 🎉
    I worked at a hot pretzel store at a mall in the 90s. The pretzels would dunk through the caustic lye solution before hitting the oven. We were supposed to use gloves when handling the stuff but never did 😅

  28. You could also just use baking soda to make an alkaline solution. Food grade Sodium Hydroxide is really caustic on skin and there really is no reason to have it in your kitchen unless you REALLY like pretzels or nixtimalizing corn to make homemade masa for tortillas, for example.

    You mentioned in your written recipe/for a moment in the video but you should put the the target pH you are shooting for in my opinion.

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