Pretzels - Laugenbrezeln

One of Amanda's favourite breads/snacks, Pretzels are delicious German bread that some say were first baked by German monks long time ago. Their toppings vary from sweet to savoury, coated or sprinkled. We prefer the traditional savoury ones sprinkled with coarse sea salt. Personally I thought that pretzels are hard to prepare but after doing them for the first time I can confirm that they are easy to prepare. We prepared them know to commemorate the start of the Oktoberfest season in Germany, we also prepared some Obatzda, a German Camembert based spread which is served with the Pretzels. We will post the recipe for Obatzda in our next post. Give these home-made Pretzels a go and you and all your loved ones will love them. You can top them up with sesame seeds, poppy seeds or even grated cheese. If you love them sweet you can dip them in melted chocolate...why the heck not!! So, for about 10 medium sized Pretzels you will need...

• 500g plain flour
• 1 packet instant yeast (7g)
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• 350ml lukewarm milk (2 minutes in the microwave)
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

• 1½ litres water
• 2 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda

• Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

How to...

1. In a large bowl mix the flour, yeast and sugar. Add the milk and salt and knead into a sticky dough (you might want to flour your hands). Knead for 5 minutes, put back into the bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm/dry place until doubled in size, about an hour.
2. On a lightly floured surface, knead for about 10 minutes and shape into a 20cm sausage shaped roll.
3. Cut 10 equal pieces from the roll and re-roll into long strands. Shape the pretzel by twisting the ends towards the centre of the strand.
4. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
5. In a large pot, bring the 1½ litres of water with the bicarbonate of soda to a rolling boil, leave to boil for about 10 minutes. Now carefully drop each pretzel into the boiling water separately, leave for about 30 seconds and take them out with a slotted spoon. Put them on a baking tray covered with greaseproof/baking paper and sprinkle with the coarse salt. Repeat the process for the remaining nine pretzels. 
6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes.
7. Serve warm
8. Enjoy!!

R&A