Bavarian Pretzels dipped in lye (aka Laugenbrezel)
These Bavarian pretzels are done the authentic and traditional way, dipped in food safe lye. They also use a pre-ferment dough and use specific bread making ingredients like diastatic malt and barley malt syrup. The entire project requires sometime to let the pre-ferment develop, as well as the dough to cool and chill in the refrigerator so keep that in mind.The effort is absolutely worth it for authentic tasting Bavarian pretzels that taste like they’re from an actual German pub.
Course Appetizer, bread, Snack
Cuisine German
Keyword bread, pretzels, yeast
Prep Time 1 hourhour
Cook Time 18 minutesminutes
Rest Time 6 hourshours
Servings 8
Author Irvin
Ingredients
Pre-ferment dough
1/4cupwarm water90 to 100°F
1/4teaspoonactive dry yeast
1/2cupall-purpose flour70 g
1/2teaspoonkosher salt
Dough
1 1/4cupswarm water90 to 100°F
1tablespoonbarley malt syrup or dark brown sugar
2teaspoonactive dry yeast
3 3/4cupall-purpose flour525 g
2tablespoonsunsalted buttermelted
2 1/2teaspoonkosher salt
1teaspoondiastatic malt powderoptional
Lye solution
1quartroom temperature water950 g
2tablespoonsfood grade lyealso called caustic soda, 35 g
To finish
Coarse salt
Instructions
Make the pre-ferment dough by placing the water in a glass measuring cup and dissolving the yeast in it. Mix in the flour and salt. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour at room temperature. Then refrigerate the pre-ferment dough for a minimum of 3 hours, or up to 12 hours.
In the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the warm water and stir in malt syrup or brown sugar. Add in the yeast and stir to dissolve. Set aside for 5 minutes to proof or until foam starts to form on the surface of the liquid.
Add the flour, melted butter, salt, and malt powder to the bowl. Add in the pre-ferment dough as well, scraping the measuring cup to make sure all of it is added.
Stir together with a spatula, until a shaggy dough forms, then on slow speed mix and knead with the dough hook until the dough is smooth or elastic, increasing the speed to medium as the dough comes together. It should take about 4 to 5 minutes. You may need to scrape down the side of the bowl a couple of times.
If you don’t have a stand mixer or want to hand knead the dough, stir all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough has formed and most of the dry ingredients are absorbed. Knead the dough by hand on a clean surface for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Grease a large bowl with cooking spray. Grab the dough and pull/stretch the sides of it until a smooth round ball is formed. Place the dough, rough side down, in the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Set in a warm place to rise until double in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours depending on the warmth of your kitchen.
Once the dough has risen, dump the dough onto a clean surface. Divide the dough into 8 pieces, about 4 ounces (115 g) each.
On a clean bare surface, roll the dough out into a long rope. To get a more traditional German style pretzel shape, taper the ends of the rope thin and leave the middle of the dough thicker and more fat. Do not flour the surface, as you need a bare surface for the dough to properly roll out.As you roll the dough, you might encounter some resistance from the dough itself, with the ends of the rope becoming super elastic and bouncing back. If that happens, just step away from the dough for about a minute or two. This will allow the gluten in the dough to relax. Once the gluten has relaxed, this will allow you to roll out the ends easier. You want your rope to be about 24 inches long or longer.Form the pretzels by first making a “U” shape with the rope.
Cross the arms over once. Then cross them over again in the same direction, twisting them.
Then bring the arms down to the bottom of the “U” firmly press the ends to the belly, forming a pretzel shape. Move the pretzel to a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining dough.
Cover the pretzels with plastic wrap for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they start to look a little puffy. Remove the plastic wrap and let the pretzels sit out to help form a “skin” on the dough for about another 15 minutes.At this point you can either move the pretzels (uncovered) to the freezer for a faster chill or the refrigerator for a slow cool down. If you have room in the freezer, place the pretzels in there for 15 minutes to chill and firm up. If you don’t have room in the freezer, place the pretzels in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Chilling the pretzels makes them easier to handle when dipping them in the lye.While the pretzels are chilling, preheat the oven to 450°F. Line two baking sheets with silicon baking mats or parchment paper then generously spray or brush each of them with cooking oil.
At this point you can prepare the lye solution. Lye is a concentrated basic solution that is caustic and can burn. See my section above on working with lyehttps://www.eatthelove.com/bavarian-pretzels/#bakingsoda. Prepare the lye solution by pouring the water in a large plastic bowl (preferred) or stainless-steel bowl. Add the lye powder to the water. Carefully stir the lye solution. It will first seem cloudy, as the powder is suspended in the water, but then it will start to clear up as the lye powder dissolves. Once it’s clear, set it aside.Once the pretzels have chilled and firmed up, take them out of the fridge/freezer. Dip one pretzel in the lye solution and leave it there for 30 seconds, making sure it’s completely submerged. Pull the pretzel out of the lye and place on the prepared oiled baking sheet. The pretzels will be a little slippery so keep that mind. Repeat with the remaining pretzels.
After all the pretzels have been dipped, sprinkle the pretzels with coarse salt. Slice the belly of the pretzel with a sharp knife or razor.Bake the pretzels for 16 to 20 minutes, depending on how deeply brown you want the pretzel and how crisp you want them. You may want to check your pretzels halfway through and rotate the pans if your oven heats unevenly. Enjoy the pretzels warm from the oven or at room temperature.
If you want to make these German pretzels even MORE traditional, you can use 1 tablespoon melted butter and 1 tablespoon pork lard instead of just butter.