Review: easy to follow for a great pretzel
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 4, 2013
Our local German restaurant sells wonderful pretzels, at 4.25 each! Time to try making my own. I have tired other cookbooks with variable results, but this is the pretzel recipe and technique I have had the most luck with. The main pretzel recipe is easy to whip up, I use a stand mixer. The dough is easy to work with though I need to be more patient and roll mine thinner.Not having worked up the courage for the lye yet, I tried the baked baking soda. It did seem to work better than recipes that just use baking soda but don't dump all the baking soda into the 5 cups of water. I did that the first time and had a huge clumpy mess. Now I mix the cup of Soda with a cup of really hot or boiling water, stir to dissolve, and put in the other 4 cups. Other than that little adjustment I follow the recipe exactly as written.Freezing the formed pretzel is an amazing tip! I don't know how many times I've the shape right-ish only to watch is unshape and half dissolve in water.. blah! This way my pretzel stays firmly formed through both dips and onto the parchment paper. Such an easy step to save so much trouble and frustration during the dipping!There are some dips, but the this book really shines in making pretzels, pretzel bread, pretzel bowls, pretzel pizza crust, and pretzel sticks. Versatile and delicious, this is the book to get. and hey, I think I just might try the lye method next!