Papa Drexler's Bavarian Pretzels

"Out of the oven, the first bite gives a crisp crunch and wonderful pretzel flavor with the softest dough in the middle. Absolutely delightful! Once the boys heard the crunch, it was all hands on the c..." See moreooling rack and nothing left in minutes. The flavor is good enough not to need extra butter (as my husband is wont to do at times) but also goes well with a goood coarse ground mustard and yes! a nice beer. It was so easy I made multiple batches to play with. I reccomend not changing a thing in this recipe. I split the batch into 12 moderate sized pretzels rather than big ones. so that they would last longer (they didn't :) One thing I did try that showed interesting results: Kneading by hand made the inside very soft like frsh white bread. Kneading by Kitchenaid made the center more tough for a heartier chew. Also tried wrapping around already simmered turkey brats after dipping pretzels in baking soda solution and made fantastic pretzel brats. This recipe is a definite keeper. My thanks to the Drexlers for passing this on! "

"Awesome! You probably saved me from going to jail!!! Having grown up in Bavaria, I miss pretzels terribly and always play with the idea of trying to break the law and smuggle them back with me to the ..." See moreU.S., not a good idea if you don't want to get to know customs and who-knows-what agencies from up close. I knew that usually the pretzels get washed with lye in Germany and that always stopped me from even trying to make them over here. Then I saw your recipe and the baking soda wash and went to work right away. They were absolutely delicious, the best thing you can make without lye. I followed the recipe exactly and found the dough to be just the right consistency but I also didn't overknead the dough. I made my baking soda wash a little stronger by using only 2 1/2 cups of water. If you use a smaller pot the fluid is deep enough that you don't have to flip the pretzels over, the will simply swim in the solution and be coated all around. A large slotted spoon is just the tool for the task and works perfectly. To get the pretzels off the baking sheet, be patient and let them cool a bit on the sheet before going to remove them. Then a turner will slide them off easily enough."

"This was a good basic recipe and made a delicious pretzel. The only complaints that i had with this recipe were one; the directions were somewhat lacking and two The dough is much better when you let..." See more it rise right after kneading, then separate the dough into portions, let it rise again then make one ball into a pretzel and dip immediately into the soda bath, then make the next and so on. one additional tip that helped to give the pretzels a lovely brown color was to give it an egg wash instead of brushing them with butter. A really good recipe on the whole though."