bretzel rolls
Oh, my lovely bretzels! What happened to you? When we went to bed last night, you were the absolute height of bretzel perfection: round, dark, shiny, speckled with tiny cubes of sea salt and popping out from your plus signs, as if your goodness inside was just too much for you, also, to bear. This morning, you are damp, your exterior has shrunk a little and your salt particles wish to slide off your crust. I know it rained cats, dogs and elephants last night but not in here, not in your zip-lock bag!
I’m not kidding about that storm, though; I could argue with some confidence that the world did actually tip upside down last night. Specks from the bathroom ceiling are on the floor, water dripped through the kitchen skylight as well, and the top of it, as if it were the most normal thing on earth, is crowded with leaves. This is Manhattan, people, there are no trees anywhere near this window.
All pre-Halloween spookiness aside, let me go back a few steps further. Bretzel rolls came into our life in a par-baked frozen format from Fresh Direct, a really-not-bad-at-all grocery delivery service in New York City. Curious if they would really taste like those street pretzels we both loved as kids (not as adults, you see, because these days, they’re morbidly dry and disappointing), we ordered a bag of six and, oh, they did! I’d top mine with a poached egg and a sprinkling Dijon vinaigrette and eat it for breakfast; Alex would slather his with the spicy brown stuff, and while I could have gone without Fresh Direct deliveries for 99 percent of my grocery needs, these bretzels kept us coming back.
That is, until they were discontinued for reasons undisclosed to us, if you can imagine that nerve. I’ve been promising Alex for eons that one day, I would try my hand at them. But, I have to admit confusion when I looked at pretzel after pretzel recipe. Do you know what makes a pretzel a pretzel? That gives it that tell-tale scent, color and almost tinny flavor on the surface? I didn’t, and the recipes I found were no help, just having the water, flour, salt, sugar and yeast found in almost any basic bread. Speckling a roll with salt does not a bretzel make! But now I know what does: it’s the bath of water you boil it in, and not just any water bath, as you would use to make pretzel’s cousins, the bagel, but the baking soda and sugar you add to the water. Not only does it make the water foam furiously (really, use the largest pot you have, to save yourself the crusty stove we have awaiting our attentions this morning), but the moment you drop those rolls in, that unmistakable pretzel smell emanates from your kitchen. It’s fantastic.
The one we split last night was perfection; Alex declared it even better than the original, and I do agree. I just wish I’d read this little gem before I put left them in that bag overnight.
Pretzels are best when eaten the same day, but will keep at room temperature, uncovered, for two days. Do not store in covered container or they will become soggy.
D’oh.
Pretzel Rolls
Adapted from Bon Appetit January 1994
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 envelope quick-rising yeast*
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (about) hot water (125°F to 130°F)
Cornmeal
8 cups water
1/4 cup baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg white, beaten to blend (glaze)
Coarse salt
Combine bread flour, 1 envelope yeast, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon sugar in food processor and blend. With machine running, gradually pour hot water through feed tube, adding enough water to form smooth elastic dough. Process 1 minute to knead. Grease medium bowl. Add dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then towel; let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 35 minutes.
Flour baking sheet, or clear area of counter. Punch dough down and knead on lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide into 8 pieces. Form each dough piece into ball. Place dough balls on prepared surface, flattening each slightly. Using serrated knife, cut X in top center of each dough ball.** Cover with towel and let dough balls rise until almost doubled in volume, about 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease another baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal.*** Bring 8 cups water to boil in large saucepan. Add baking soda and 2 tablespoons sugar (water will foam up). Add 4 rolls and cook 30 seconds per side. Using slotted spoon, transfer rolls to prepared sheet, arranging X side up. Repeat with remaining rolls.
Brush rolls with egg white glaze. Sprinkle rolls generously with coarse salt. Bake rolls until brown, about 25 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Serve rolls warm or room temperature.
Though slightly soggy, those look amazing - I must try!
One minute in the toaster oven on a bake setting will do wonders for damp, 1 day old pretzels. Trust me …. really!
Pretzel rolls? I’m all over this!!!
the salt sucked out whatever moisture there was left in the rolls. Salt looks for moisture and with the bag closed, it snatched it from the rolls. Same kinda premise they tell you about salting meat.
Next time Id only salt the 1’s you plan on eating that night. The next day you can spritz them and put the salt back on.
Love the granola recipe.
Jessica - Thanks. They taste really great, too.
Santadad - It did. We toasted up two in the oven for lunch, and it really perked them up. Yum.
Peabody - Woohoo! Let us know how it goes if you try it.
Cupcakes - Thank you! That makes perfect sense. Like a lightbulb going off, though, uh, in my case, of course a kinda dim one. :)
Details, details… This sounds like something I would do, although I doubt my bretzels (which I love the sound of btw) would look as nice with perfect little crosses!
YUM. I want bread so badly. I’ve been on Atkins for rwo weeks preparing for my trip to LA on thursday. I know how unhealthy it is but you know what? It works!
Okee dokee. Ciao for now
Two irresistible recipes in a row!! Better Half won’t eat mac n cheese, so I may have to make a one woman portion. And mmmmm — must try these! Too bad it’s so late or I would embark on a bretzel adventure tonight. How much regular yeast did you use (in substitue for the envelope of quick rising)?
Brilynn - Oh, they will. You just make those little slits with the sharpest knife you have right before you put it in the oven. My bread-baking teacher told us to make the marks “with confidence” and “intention,” you know, quickly. Good luck!
Joc - I’d pretty much die on Atkins being a mostly non-meat or fish eater, but I do need to get on that crazed yoga schedule of yours. Have fun in LA!
Sweet Potato - I’m sure that mac recipe would halve easily. As for the yeast, I just substituted one for one. Not sure if that was correct, but it worked! It’s a pretty high yeast to flour ratio, I think, so it rises pretty quickly.
You really MUST try the pretzel bread at Almondine (in DUMBO). With or without the cheese filling, it is spectacular.
Of course Martha had the answer. Haven’t commented since your move - but I love the blog…oh the things I will do when I have my own kitchen again!
Soggy or not, your pretzels look AMAZING. Just like they look in Germany! Yum. Though I feel like they add something like lye to the water bath. Can that be? I’ll go research that. For future reference, a plastic ziploc bag is humidity central for all manners of baked goods (which is nice if you want soft, chewy cookies, but not so nice if you want crusty bread).
Those look tastey! I will definately give those a try! I love pretzels like this.
Mk - Okay! Sounds delightful. I haven’t tried them yet, but I know that the lovely Loreley biergarten serves baskets of fresh soft pretzels along with their bucket-sized beer mugs and brats. It’s also, though completely off the subject, where Alex and I went on our second date; I do say he has some excellent taste.
LM8815 - Welcome! And thank you.
Luisa - You know, I did read that about lye somewhere… ah, here. Despite the explosion as the baking soda hit the boiling water, this method was far less terrifying. And thanks for the tip - I was about to take down my bread-baking credentials from the wall after such a fop!
Lisa - Thanks, let us know how it goes if you try it.
Great recipe! I tried with egg whites once, and water and baking soda once and I preferred the look of the egg white batch better. Getting the X right is tough with a knife, next time I’m going to try snipping the X with scissors. I’ll let you know how that works.
I made these last night and they were just about perfect. These rolls were a staple of the years that I lived in Germany as a kid, and I now bump into them about once every two years back in the US. I can’t tell you how cool it is to be able to do this myself!
I would definitely recommend cutting the X after boiling in baking powder…otherwise you won’t get that cleanly defined X shape in the top and the inside of the X will be brown and crusty like the rest of the roll.
I’d also like to figure out how to make these with the *really* smooth and shiny brown crust…mine had great taste and texture but looked a little like your fingers after you’ve been in the pool for too long.
Mine got horribly soggy during the long cooking time (30 minutes per side?), and then managed to resist baking all the way through — even after they were burnt black on the outside. This was an awful shame, because the dough turned out so nice (I used 2 1/2 cups white whole wheat and 1/4 cup wheat gluten). Any ideas where I went wrong?
Well, that was stupid of me. Somehow I read seconds as minutes… ah well. This second time they’re turning out wonderfully!
I am in the midst of making these with my kids — and so excited eat them (they’re in the oven; tomato soup is waiting). But I did want to say that “water will foam up” is something of an understatement! I would recommend putting your 8 cups of water in a tall soup stock pan rather than a 3 quart saucepan as I did. That will prevent a tsunami of water drenching the stove, putting out the gas flame, and scaring the heck out of your 4-year-old. I personally thought it was funny. But, you know, overflow of boiling water and small children and all that… probably best to avoid. :)
I can’t belive I found this recipe. I grew up in Germany eating them and how I’ve missed them so. My weekend cooking project.
thanks !
I was fortunate enough to try these in my visit to Germany several years ago and I loved every bite. I used this recipe this morning and they turned out perfectly. The taste and texture is right on the money. I’ve decided that I will make them every Saturday morning. I added one tablespoon of vegetable oil to the batter recipe and following recommened tips. The buns were so pretty that I had to take a picture. Thanks for sharing the recipe. :)
I almost forgot to mention, yeast dough turns out better when you make it on a nice, sunny day.
Carmen :)
do you have to use bread flour?
these look great by the way.
No, I think you can certainly get away with just using AP flour. However, if you can find any Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten at your local Whole Foods or whatnot, it’s a great thing to have on hand when you want to “make your own” bread flour without buying another kind of flour.
OMG Pretzel ROLLLS from the Glendale Bakery! You can always get them there if u need toooo! Thank you for sharing this recipe I found my way here today from Pioneer Woman……..
Dottie