Pretzels

ChicagoEgghead20

Followed the recipe on the BGE site, didn't get them as brown in color as I would have liked, but they tasted amazing.  (I need some more practice rolling them)

SkinnyV

Nice effort....arent there some hard to find ingredients. For true pretzels?

Mattman3969

I'll take 2 with a cup of nacho cheese please

Botch

Ooooh, something new!   :-bd

Tjcoley

SkinnyV said:

Nice effort....arent there some hard to find ingredients. For true pretzels?

Lye is the ingredient. Be careful how you store it and who has access to it.

cook861

nice weres the beer

ChicagoEgghead20

@Mattman3969 - The cheese really set it over the top, 

Thanks everyone for the view!

Skiddymarker

Prefer mine with a nice German mustard - looking pretty good. I have never been able to get them to brown in the egg, under the broiler for colour, yes, but never in the egg. 

Griffin

Nice. I'm a huge fan of pretzels. Keep saying I'm gonna try to make some. Never do. :( One of these days...

clintmiller

Did you give them a baking soda bath? I put the pretzels in a gently boiling pan of 6 cups water and 1/3 cup baking soda, one at a time for 30 seconds. That causes them to brown up nicely.

Another trick... Grill up some brats ahead of time. Then instead of rolling out the pretzels like normal, roll them flat and wrap each around a brat before the baking soda bath and baking.

fishlessman

SkinnyV said:

Nice effort....arent there some hard to find ingredients. For true pretzels?

the red devil stump killer was traditionally used but they took it off the shelf, you can find food grade poison  (lye) on line though. the lye makes a better pretzel over the baking soda. it is some good stuff, the brush i used completely melted/dissapeared in a few hours after using it to baste a little extra on top to get some salt and carraway to stick

ChicagoEgghead20

@clintmiller - the recipe said to just dip it in a mixture of baking soda, water and butter, but that didn't do it enough. I'll try to boil next time.

@Fishlessman - That makes me nervous! I don't know if I would feel comfortable using that with food.

paqman

ChicagoEgghead20 said:

That makes me nervous! I don't know if I would feel comfortable using that with food.

It will not be a problem if you follow ratios and use food grade lye... Do not use "non food grade" lye as it may contain traces amounts of other harmful chemicals. Food grade is totally ok.... Kinda like curing salts, they are poison but used in the right quantities, they are not dangerous.

paqman

Baking soda and lye are used to lower the PH at the surface of the pretzels to enhance the maillard reaction. Lye is commonly used to make all commercially made pretzels...

CarolinaCrazy

Lye is the key ingredient

I use that same Essential Depot Lye that @fishlessman called out.

Use it as directed, in small quantities, with gloves on, and it delivers a far superior product.

Not only does it get them to brown to a nice dark mahogony, but it also creates more of a chewy exterior, kind of like a skin, on the outside with the warm, pillowy interior.

The dough, is your basic pizza dough, so often I will create a double batch of dough, and then cooks some as pretzels, before heating the egg or oven up to pizza temperatures.

Shiff

Tjcoley said:

SkinnyV said:

Nice effort....arent there some hard to find ingredients. For true pretzels?

Lye is the ingredient. Be careful how you store it and who has access to it.

I don't use lye. I follow the Alton Brown recipe and he says to use baking soda instead of Lye. Works great and is a lot safer.

Shiff

I've eaten commercial soft pretzels (presumably made with Lye) and my own made with Baking Soda and painted with an egg wash before applying the salt and putting in the oven and I like mine better.  They do have to be boiled first (like Bagels) or they won't come out right.

I also make pretzel dogs by taking hot dogs and wrapping with the pretzel dough.  Once wrapped I boil them and bake.

jhl192

This was my batch.  I used the recipe and instructions on the BGE site.  They were AWESOME!  

ChicagoEgghead20

@jhl192 - those look great! What type of Flour did you use? The King Arthur all purpose?

Thanks!

paqman

ChicagoEgghead20 said:

@jhl192 - those look great! What type of Flour did you use? The King Arthur all purpose?

Thanks!

Agreed! @jhl192‌ You did a great job, they look awesome!

jhl192

@Chicago EggHead‌ I used King Arthur in the white bag with blue label. Not the all purpose. It's labeled "unbleached bread flour" and claims it is higher protein for bread and higher temps.

ChicagoEgghead20

jhl192 said:

@Chicago EggHead‌ I used King Arthur in the white bag with blue label. Not the all purpose. It's labeled "unbleached bread flour" and claims it is higher protein for bread and higher temps.

thanks, i'll try that one next time

theyolksonyou

Interesting cook. Put it on my list.