My mom gave me a book called Recipes from the Old Mill for Christmas. I’ve been looking for a good whole grain bread recipe, and this is full of them. I just sat down while the porridge simmered to have a look at it, and ran across this sweet introductory paragraph to pretzel making:
“Pretzel comes from a Latin word meaning “a small reward.” The pretzel was first made by monks in southern France as a reward for children who learned their prayers. It was shaped to represent the crossed arms of a child praying with palms on opposite shoulders, making a crisscross.
Lent, the 40 days prior to Easter, is often considered a special time for prayer and fasting. Pretzels were baked for Lent to take the place of bread. Milk, eggs and fats were forbidden during Lent, and these little loops of bread are made only of yeast, flour, water and salt.”
Here’s the recipe for you- it would be a tease to just tell you about them and not share. I enjoy the idea of foods as a liturgical activity- largely, I think, because I love the physicality of the world God has made. Christmas is passing, with its rich fare, sweets and goodies as we delight in a birthday. Easter will come, with its time for contemplating the reason for that birth, the living, passion, death and rising of Jesus on our behalf. Happy baking- pretzel time.
Yield: 12 pretzels
How to mix the dough:
1. Combine:
1 pkg dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2. Add:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2-1 cup flour
How to Twist:
1. Divide dough into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope 12″-15″ long. Work on floured surface.
2. Lay one rope in a U-shape. About 2 inches from each end, cross the dough ends. Picturing the dough as the face of a clock, bring ends down and press into bottom of the U at 5 and 7 o’clock. Repeat with all remaining ropes.
3. Dip pretzels into a solution of 1/4 cup cold water and 2 tsp baking soda.
How to Bake:
1. Place dipped, shaped pretzels on a greased cookie sheet.
2. Sprinkle with a small amount of coarse salt.
3. Bake at 400-425 for 15 minutes.
4. Best eaten warm. Serve with mustard, if desired.
I have baked a fair share of these in my time and if you want them to be a little more on the salted side you can boil them in salt water for a couple seconds before baking… To do it I make a batch of salt brine and set to boiling on the stove in a steel skillet when it boils you can take a large skimmer with holes in it (it’s best to keep the pretzels about the same size as the skimmer) lay a pretzel on the skimmer and lower it under the water for a few seconds, long enough for the surface to get a little tacky… then lay em on the pan and spinkle with coarse sea salt and bake!
If you have a stainless steel skillet be sure to rinse the pan as soon as possible after boiling as the alt water can do some damage to “stainless” steel. (Left to sit long enough it can break down the alloy)
You can also do one with feta and spinach that really goes over well with guests.
I’m so glad you’re blogging (about food) again!
Thanks Katherine! This Coal Train business, along with a lot of unexpected little- ok, not all little- other parts of life took a lot of my brain and heart. We’re so grateful to be all snowed in and have a little time to nurture ourselves. And make pretzels.
Caleb, I should have known I could learn from you on this, our pioneer/renaissance man friend! Thanks! This particular recipe is oven baked and very simple. I may pass yours on to my friend Margie Haack, though- she’s teaching a course on cast iron, and I wonder how pretzels would go over in a cast iron skillet, instead…
Exciting new vistas of comfort baking, here.
My daughter and I just made these. She had a blast, they were not very pretty. But it was a fun and easy activity for us. I tried to explain the prayer thing to her. Katy, I posted pictures at my blog of her working on these. Thanks, I love things like this!