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Felicity Cloake’s pretzels.
Felicity Cloake’s pretzels. Photograph: Dan Matthews/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot.
Felicity Cloake’s pretzels. Photograph: Dan Matthews/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot.

How to make pretzels – recipe

Soft yet chewy, sweet yet bitter, this delicious Germanic bread is best enjoyed straight out of the oven

Pretzel, bretzel, brezel or brezn: this Germanic bread has almost as many names as its homeland has sausages, but who cares what it’s called when it’s this delicious. Soft, yet satisfyingly chewy, with a sweet, burnished crust and a faint but delicious, bitter edge, frankly it’s a mystery why pretzels aren’t easier to find in this country. No matter – they’re best warm from the oven, anyway.

Prep 10 min
Knead 15 min+
Rest 2 hr 30 min-24 hr
Shape 20 min
Cook 12-15 min
Makes 10

500g strong white bread flour
5g fast-action yeast
1 tsp fine salt
25g room-temperature butter

1 tbsp malt extract or syrup (see note 1)
150g bicarbonate of soda (see note 1)
Rock salt, to finish

1 Alternative ingredients

A couple of ingredients-related notes: malt syrup can be found in health food shops, larger supermarkets and online, but if you can’t get hold of any, treacle or soft, brown sugar can be substituted instead. The food-grade sodium hydroxide that’s traditionally used instead of bicarb isn’t widely available in the UK, but if it is where you are, use that according to packet instructions.

2 Start on the dough

Whisk the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl (or the bowl of a food mixer) until well combined. Cut the butter into small pieces, then stir these in, too. Whisk the malt syrup with 255ml warm water (about 25C, if you happen to have a thermometer), then add this mix to the bowl as well.

3 Bring together, then knead

Stir until you have a firm, dryish dough; it should just come together to leave the bowl clean, without being damp, so add a little more flour or liquid if necessary. Knead on a low speed for about 15 minutes, or on a clean surface by hand for about 20-25 minutes, until smooth and very elastic.

4 Rest, split, then rest again

Cover the dough with a clean tea towel or similar and leave to rest in a draught-free place for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, line two baking sheets with lightly oiled greaseproof paper.

Divide the dough into 10 pieces of about 75g each, put them on the baking sheets and cover again.

5 Shape the pretzels

You might at this point find it helpful to go online and watch someone rolling a pretzel. Roll out one piece of dough into a sausage about 35cm long (don’t worry if it’s fatter in the middle).

Form into a circle, cross over the two ends at the top, then twist them around each other again, bring them back down across the middle of the circle and stick them down firmly on the bottom of the circle at about four and eight o’clock.

Return the pretzel to the baking tray and repeat with the remaining dough.

6 Rest again, then chill

Make sure the pretzels are well spaced out on the baking sheets, then cover again and leave at a draught-free room temperature for 30 minutes.

Remove the tea towel and put the baking sheets in the fridge for between two and 24 hours: the longer you leave them, the better the flavour will be.

7 Turn the bicarb into sodium carbonate

Just over an hour before you want to bake, heat the oven to 150C (130C fan)/300F/gas 2, spread out the bicarb on a clean baking tray and bake for an hour – this turns it into sodium carbonate, which, while not quite as strong an alkali as the one traditionally used for making pretzels, will still give them a satisfying sheen.

Remove the powder from the oven and leave on the tray to cool slightly. Turn up the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7, and put on some rubber gloves to protect your hands.

8 Dip the pretzels in the alkali

Mix 100g of the alkali with 500ml cold water in a large, glass bowl, carefully drop in the pretzels (you’ll need to do this in batches) and leave for four minutes (this is what gives pretzels their classic deep-brown hue).

Lift out, gently shake off any excess liquid clinging to the surface of the dough, space out again on the lined baking sheets and repeat with the remaining pretzels.

9 Bake, then eat warm

Scatter with salt (or toppings of your choice: black onion or sesame seeds look nice, but anything from za’atar to grated cheese will work), then bake for 12-15 minutes, until nicely browned. Remove and tuck in – pretzels are best enjoyed warm from the oven (and look up recipes for obatzda, a German cheese dip, if you’re stuck for an accompaniment).

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