Sunday, March 04, 2007

Pretzel Bread

And, if there's "part 1" of homemade snackage, you know there's a part 2... I made a batch of the intriguing-sounding "pretzel bread" rolls from The Bread Bible. They're rolls crossed with soft pretzels: how bad can that be?

First, the with-flash shot of the full batch right out of the oven:
Pretzel Bread


And here's the nicer natural light shot:
Pretzel Bread

I take SEVERE issue with this recipe claiming that you should be able to get 12 rolls out of the amount of dough it makes. I had 8 normal-sized rolls, and they'd have to be really tiny in order to give you a full dozen.

Other than that minor problem, this was a nice recipe. I was raised on Philly soft pretzels, the ones from the street carts that are big and doughy and wonderful, and I miss them. These rolls are definitely NOT soft pretzels, but they have that same dense chewiness that I love.

I didn't do the lye glaze, because lye kind of scares me. You're not supposed to touch it with bare hands because you might get a chemical burn from it... but I'm supposed to put it on rolls that I'm going to eat? Maybe somewhere down the line, but not today. I did the same sugar/baking soda glaze used for the bagels in the book, with good results.

This is a nice, easy, fast recipe -- a yeast bread that takes 2 hours total? Yay!

2 comments:

Jody said...

Yum - I love aoft pretzels too.

I have fond memories of begging for soft pretzels from the "carts" whenever we went to New York or Philly for the day ;)

Anne Boulley said...

Don't wimp out on the food grade lye for your pretzels. The heat chemically changes it so it's safe to eat. They use it in other foods sometimes. It is the only way for that authentic crust and flavor. Hundreds of thousands have eaten them in Germany alone and survived! lol