Hallo! Und willkommen! The Cakes We Like World Tour continues as we work our way, in a rather meandering fashion, across Europe and beyond. This month, we’re in Germany, exploring what they can offer us in the way of bread. If you’ve ever conversed with a German you will most likely be aware that they are VERY proud of their bread making prowess and will happily mock the limited selection available in uncivilised countries such as the UK and the USA. They’re not mistaken in their pride, the German people have a long history of bread-making and a huge number of regional recipes to choose from, so I found myself reaching out to the source for advice on choosing this month’s recipe. On that note, I have to credit my daughter and her German friend Jannis, who put their heads together and came up with the Laugenbrezel, or Pretzel, as a suitable historic subject for November. The Laugenbrezel bears little similarity to what is sold under the description of “Pretzels” in the UK and the USA; the German Laugenbrezel is a deep brown knotted bread with a crisp, salty, crust which gives way to a soft and fluffy interior. The Leugenbrezel originated in the Bavarian region of Germany, where it remains a staple of bakeries and Oktoberfest tents. It is typically served on wooden boards, still warm from the oven, and accompanied by a pot of butter. It is very difficult to resist immediately breaking off a piece, spreading it with a generous amount of creamy butter, and wolfing it down, so why even try? Let’s imagine walking the streets of Munich, heading for the Marienplatz and its famous Glockenspiel. We might walk past brightly lit bakeries, with shelves upon shelves of freshly baked bread, the delicious aroma tempting us to abandon our plans and indulge our stomachs instead. Let’s take a seat and treat ourselves to a beer or cider as we explore a delicious, freshly baked Laugenbrezel and learn about the origins of this iconic German treat.
A Slice of History
The Laugenbrezel can trace its origins all the way back to around 610AD, when an unnamed monk supposedly tied leftover bread dough into knots which resembled hands, brought together and held against the chest in prayer. The monks took to handing these early pretzels out to children as a reward for praying, and the practice spread throughout the local area. The name brezel is thought to derive from the Latin term bracchiola (little arms), or braccelus (bracelet). The original brezel seems to have been a simple bread knot; it wasn’t until much later that the distinctive deep brown, slightly bitter crust was developed. This unique feature is the result of dipping the brezel into a lye bath before baking it. Like many popular recipes, this development seems to have occurred as a result of baker error rather than intention. One story tells of a baker in Munich in 1839 who accidentally brushed his dough with a lye based cleaning solution instead of the glaze he had intended to use. It is unknown whether the baker realised his error before putting his bread out for sale, or decided to sell it regardless — possibly trusting to the lack of regulations of the food industry during this period of history. Fortunately, this error did not result in customers becoming unhappy, ill, or worse, and the new product proved incredibly popular. Not that there would have been much in the way of consequences if the lye glaze had caused a public health event back then — they might as well have had RFK Jr. in charge of Health and Human Services. Speaking of ... it would be better to avoid sharing this information with RFK Jr., he might see it as a lack of regulation providing opportunity for innovation instead of mass poisoning being avoided by pure, dumb luck. Sometimes, that’s how it goes though; from one monk’s innovation in bribery techniques for children, though hundreds of years to a baker’s mishap, leading to one of the most recognizable snacks in the world, even if many never get to experience it in its ultimate form.
The Laugenbrezel uses a pretty standard bread dough recipe, it’s really simple to make and only requires flour (high gluten content, sold in the UK as strong white bread flour), salt, water, yeast, a little sugar, and some melted butter. I’d suggest serving it with good quality salted butter, German cheese, sausage and saurkraut or chutneys. It would make an excellent addition to a charcuterie board. Accompany it with a glass of beer or cider (ideally hard cider, but regular cider, apple juice in the UK, would work too). I chose to make two giant brezels with this recipe, I’d suggest making 4 or 6 smaller ones unless you’re confident of your ability to flip them in the lye bath without damaging them.
For my friends and fellow members of the Dead Pancreas Society, this recipe comes in at 354g of carbohydrates for the whole recipe, or 177g each for the two giant brezels I made. According to my Diabetic Nurse, the best way to calculate the carbohydrates for bread when you’re cutting your own slices is to weigh your portion in grams, then divide the weight by 2 for the number of carbohydrates. Be sure to check the carbohydrates of any accompaniments you decide to serve alongside it.
Your Equipment
Digital kitchen Scales
Large mixing bowl (a stand mixer or hand mixer with dough hooks is a good time-saving alternative)
Damp tea towel
Large saucepan / pot (this is for the lye bath)
Slotted spoon
Baking tray
Baking parchment
Your Ingredients
For the dough:
500 g Flour (look for a high gluten content flour, or Strong White Bread Flour in the UK)
4 g Fine salt
300 ml Warm water (17 US fl oz or 1 US pint)
7 g Fast acting yeast
4 g Sugar
30 g Melted butter, plus extra for brushing the dough once baked
Coarse Salt, for dusting
For the lye bath:
30 g (2 lvl tbsp) Baking soda / Bicarbonate of soda
1 ltr (1000 ml), or roughly 34 US fl oz / 2 US pints water
The Important Bit
Place your warm water (500 ml / 1 US pint) and sugar (4g / 1 level tsp) into your large mixing bowl. Give it a quick stir and then sprinkle your fast acting yeast (7g) over the top. Leave it for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to activate, you’ll know it’s working when the yeast forms a layer of foam across the top of the water.
Add the flour (500g), melted butter (30g), and salt (4g or 1 level tsp) to the yeast mixture and mix with your hands until a rough dough is formed (or use the slowest setting on your stand mixer for around 2 minutes). If you’re kneading your dough by hand, transfer it to a lightly floured work surface and knead it until the dough is smooth and elastic, this should take around 10 minutes (or give it 5-6 minutes on the lowest speed setting of your stand mixer).
Place the dough back in the mixing bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave it to rise for 1 to 1.5 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.
When your dough has finished its first rise, give it a few punches to knock the air out of it , then divide it into the number of portions you intend to bake. Roll out each portion into a long tube, slightly thicker in the middle, take each end of the tube and bring them round until they cross in the centre, with the ends pointing towards the middle of the dough tube. Secure each end so that you have two smaller loops with a larger loop underneath in the standard pretzel style. Cover your dough with the damp tea towel and leave it for 45 minutes for its second rise.
*Please note that if you want your Laugenbrezel to more closely resemble the traditional Bavarian version, you will have to roll out your tubes of dough to a much greater length than I did. I would suggest doubling the length you initially thought, then doubling it again. If it still works out too thick, just do what I did and accept that you now have a perfect knotted loaf which makes excellent brezel sandwiches.*
Preheat your oven to 430 F / 220 C.
As you get towards the end of the second rise, you’ll need to prepare your lye bath. (Baking soda is a much milder version of a “lye bath,” you are not going to burn your eyeballs.) Pour 1 ltr (2 US pints) of water into a large saucepan or pot and bring it to the boil. Once it has boiled, reduce the heat so the water is simmering and add your baking soda / bicarbonate of soda. Give it a good stir and allow it simmer for 2 minutes.
Line your baking tray with baking parchment.
Take your brezels and carefully dip them into the lye bath for 30 seconds using a slotted spoon, then turn them over and repeat for the other side.
Place your brezels onto the lined baking tray and sprinkle the tops liberally with coarse salt. Be sure to allow them plenty of space to expand as they bake. Bake the brezels in the oven until the crust is a deep brown colour and the underneath sounds hollow when tapped. The baking time will vary, depending on the size and number of brezels you are baking. I would suggest checking them after 15 minutes, and then again after 5 minutes if they need longer. My two giant brezels took 30 minutes for fully baked, smaller ones will bake more quickly.
Place the finished brezels onto a wire rack to cool for around 20 minutes, then sit back and enjoy them with some delicious, salty butter, as part of a charcuterie board, or maybe alongside a creamy potato soup. Beer or cider is optional, as is the lederhosen.
Or you could throw a curveball, and enjoy it with a tea, Earl Grey. Hot. It’s what Captain Picard would do.
I’ll be back for the Festive Season, when my travels will be taking me North again in the quest for sweet Festive treats.
Until then…
Share joy, share love, share cakes.
This looks so good, I must give it a try.
Reminds me of the big soft pretzels you can buy from food carts back in NYC. With mustard.
Oh, Cakes!
I cannot bake at all, but you have no idea how much I look forward to your posts!
It’s like spending a bit of time with the most lovely friend. You could write anything and I would feel happy and cozy.