Pretzel Log, part I

“I’m a pretty good pretzeler.”
— from the last words of ‘Dutch’ Schultz

This quest for the secrets of soft pretzels began more or less by chance: I wanted to bake something to eat that same night, and soft pretzels happened to be the first thing that struck my eye as a bread product which I enjoy and which wouldn’t take any kind of overnight starter or sponge.  Little did I suspect that while making acceptable crispy pretzels is relatively simple, making soft pretzels appears to involve some more subtle art.  As James’ Dad points out, what I’m searching for is the making of pretzels that are more akin to a bagel in consistency; whether this turns out to be a matter of recipe, preparation, or both is the riddle which the Pretzel Log seeks to unravel.

For the first entry in this series, I’m going to  be using a recipe which I know doesn’t quite work — it produces crunchy pretzels which, although nice, can’t be described as soft.  I’ve made several batches of these already and they’ve worked out pretty well for what they are; today I’ll be making another batch and documenting my progress as I go, to create a record of what I’m doing already, for reference as I proceed to experiment with other recipes and methods.

This recipe I tried first simply because it was the first one I found after Googling ‘soft pretzel recipe’ that didn’t call for any ingredients I didn’t have.  It’s called ‘Ballpark Pretzels‘, submitted by ‘Flora’ of Columbus, OH, on the site CDKitchen.com.  Strictly speaking, though, I haven’t used exactly this recipe at all — while I was mixing the first batch, the dough was too dry, and instead of adding more liquid, I decided to add two teaspoons of softened butter instead, which worked so well that I’ve made this substitution in every batch since (I was amused to learn later that this inclusion of butter matches my variation up with Alton Brown’s soft pretzel recipe).

My version of the Ballpark Pretzel recipe will be posted under LNB’s Recipe section as soon as I get around to writing it up.  This post is going to be a running description of the pretzelry process as I make today’s batch.

So, first things first: 1&1/4 cups warm water, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 tablespoon active dry yeast combined in a mixing bowl and allowed to stand for fifteen minutes or so, until foamy.  One thing that does distinguish today’s effort from previous batches is that I now have in my possession a set of measuring spoons, which reveals right off the bat that I’ve been consistently underestimating the volume of a tablespoon and a teaspoon — not by very much, but I’ve definitely been underdoing ingredients measured by spoonfuls.  So we’ll see what difference that makes.

While that’s sitting and fermenting, I’ll be finishing up the dishes and cleaning off the counterspace for rolling pretzels later, and also putting the two tbsp. block of butter in a Pyrex measuring cup near, but not on, a lit oven burner to soften.  I’ll also be watching Naked Gun 33 1/3 on Hulu, but that probably doesn’t have any direct impact on the pretzels.

(Later – a bit more than fifteen minutes) The extra yeast has certainly made a difference in the behaviour of the ‘foamy soup’ stage — thicker and sludgier, whereas previously it had been a bit more like the head on a pint of Guiness.  The next step is to mix in 1&1/2 teaspoons of salt and half the flour (2 cups) to make a dough, then turn that out onto a floured surface and knead in the remaining 2 cups of flour and the softened butter.

All right, with the dough kneaded into a firm but slightly sticky ball, I’ve put it into an oiled bowl and turned the ball over to make sure the whole thing is oiled, then covered the bowl tightly with plastic wrap.  Now for another half hour or so of waiting, while the dough rises to about twice its current volume.

(Still later, about half an hour) Okay, now with the dough good and risen, here comes the effort-intensive part: splitting the dough into twelve balls, rolling them into pretzels, boiling them in a mixture of water and baking soda, and then baking them.

The boiling part is probably the part that makes the most difference in the end texture, I’m guessing.  The instructions in the Ballpark recipe helpfully say to boil each pretzel ‘until it floats’, which would be a more useful instruction if they didn’t float to start with.  Approximately 30 seconds of boiling seems to be the consensus among several recipes.

The Ballpark recipe also states that, after being boiled and salted, the pretzels should be allowed to rise for another five minutes before baking, a suggestion that varies from recipe to recipe (others recommend letting them rise before boiling, or omit any further rising entirely).  Since it takes far more than five minutes to roll and boil a full tray of pretzels, I’m not entirely sure how to manage this step, so I’m going to let them rise for just a couple of minutes before putting the tray in the oven and see whether there’s much difference, in the end, between the ones that were boiled first and the last to go on the tray.

Final update to come when the pretzels are baked, and their quality assessed.

(Approx. 1 1/2 hours later) Okay, review time.  The pretzels were baked on two cookie sheets, in batches of six; since the second six were allowed to stand while the first baked, they got more time to rise before baking.  This doesn’t seem to have affected their size any, but they did emerge generally softer and with a chewier crust.  On the first tray, there doesn’t seem to be any notable difference between the first pretzel boiled and the last, so overall, it seems that allowing them to rise after boiling is a good idea, but it needs around fifteen or twenty minutes rather than five.

With both trays, I took them from the oven when they had reached a much lighter brown than any previous batches, which certainly contributes to a softer interior; however, it’s still the case that the bottom side gets crispy long before the topside is even mildly browned.  On the whole, both trays have turned out a little softer and chewier than previous batches, which may be due to the increased proportion of yeast, the shorter baking time, or both.  However, they still don’t have a genuine soft-pretzel texture — the second, more risen tray, although softer, does not have a very distinct crust and may simply be slightly undercooked.

They are delicious, mind you, but they don’t quite have that distinctive pretzel-y flavor, and the texture, although nicely crisp on the bottom, is still not quite what I’m aiming for.  Today’s batch, however, was made simply as an ‘official’ start to this blog, to make a record of where I’m starting from; future editions of the Pretzel Log will feature more deliberate experiments with assorted variables, in pursuit of the elusive Perfect Soft Pretzel.  Stay twisted!