Laugabrezla II
Swabian Pretzels for American Kitchens

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Makes 12 pretzels 

1.5c (12 oz) cold water
34 g (1/6 c) vegetable oil (liquid)
1 1/2 tbsp SAF "Perfect Rise" yeast (previously branded "instant" yeast)
1 tbsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp SaCo buttermilk powder

1 1/2 lbs  King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour

1 liter lye dip

Pretzel salt (King Arthur sells a nice formulation)

Heat oven to 475°F.

This recipe is adapted from one told to me by Stephen Arbuthnot, in response to my first posted recipe.  I think it's better than that gluten-developed risen dough formula I was previously using.  This dough is much easier to handle and shape, so the results are more consistent, and they taste very good.

Prepare the lye dip. Lye is the bizzare secret ingredient here, and it's absolutely required. I've seen and tried other pretzel recipes that specify baking soda instead, but they're completely inferior products: the color is splotchy and weak, and the flavor is simply not the same. So forget about baking soda.

Lye can be dangerous: it's a powerful base, and in concentrated form it'll eat right through skin and other useful materials. Lye is the main ingredient in drain cleaners like Drano and Red Devil.  If you have kids, make sure you have a plan for keeping them away from this stuff. Use rubber gloves when handling it.  Still, in the concentration appropriate for pretzels, it's not going to eat through your hand right away.  Just wash off any spills. 

Why on earth would you add it to your baked goods? Apparently, the brief contact with lye sort of precooks the surface; it breaks up the gluten so it caramelizes in the oven. The pretzels are perfectly safe once they've been baked. Some other foods are treated with lye before cooking, but hominy is the only one that comes to mind. Anyway, if a pretzel is still wet from the dip, then it's still dangerous, so be careful with it.

In Swabia (in southwestern Germany), I had good luck getting the lye dip by asking a friendly pretzel baker. I found it much harder to come by food-grade lye in the U.S. But, once you know where to go, it's not hard. I ordered 500 g from Fisher Scientific, catalog number S320-500, and paid something like $38 in 1999. That's a lot of lye, good for several years of lye dip. Here's a link to Fisher. You need Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) pellets rated NF/FCC ("National Formulary / Food Chemicals Codex"). The FCC designation is what makes it food-grade.

Once you have the pellets, measure out 40 grams and carefully add them to a liter of cool water. If you don't have a scale, you can probably wing it with 3 tablespoons of pellets per liter of water, assuming your pellets look like mine. See the indistinct photo on the right; my teaspoon there weighs 4g. It will take 10 minutes or so of stirring with a nonreactive spoon for the pellets to dissolve. I use stainless steel for this, and I haven't had any problems. As you reuse the dip, bits of dough will collect in it over several batches, but it's not clear to me that this hurts the pretzels. Still, mix a new batch whenever you feel the need.

Now for the dough.  Whisk up the first group of ingredients before you start adding in the flour.  Reserve the last 1/2 cup of flour, and omit  it unless the dough turns out to be unworkably sticky.  Add the flour in roughly with a spoon until it's incorporated, but don't knead it.  This is a "green" dough, and is supposed to have minimal elasticity.  It'll do all of its rising in the oven.  It should look rough and unappetizing, as at right.

Divide it into two equal-weight balls, and roughly roll each ball into a disc, as if you were making a pie crust.  The dough should be very malleable. Cover each disc tightly above and below with plastic wrap.  Put them in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to relax further after this minor workout.   You want them to offer no resistance when you begin shaping the pretzels.
Remove one disc from the fridge and cut it into six equal-size wedges.  Keep the waiting wedges covered with plastic wrap.
Put one wedge in front of you and roll it out so that it's noticeably thinner (see photos).  You might need a very light dusting of flour, but no more than that.  
Roll the wedge into a tube, starting from the point.   
Using the palms of your hands, roll the tube out so that it's thick and solid in the middle and tapered at the ends.
Now twist it into the characteristic pretzel shape, squishing the strands up against the thick body.

I form a tray of pretzels at once and keep them covered with a moist  kitchen towel before going on to the next step.
After you've formed the batch of pretzels, dip each one  in the cold lye solution, bobbing it around for 30 seconds or so, and place it on your lined baking sheet when done.  Parchment paper might work, but I use a reusable polymer baking liner -- these are pretty easy to find in the baking sections of cooking stores.  But you'd better use something, or the wet pretzels will stick to your sheet.
Now you have to cut open the bellies so they don't burst in an uncontrolled way in the oven. Get a sharp knife, dip it into the lye so it won't just gum up against the wet dough, and cut a gash in each of your batch while stabilizing the pretzel somehow so it doesn't slide.  Sprinkle salt as you please, and put them into the oven.
Bake for 8 minutes, then turn the pan around (unless your oven heats more evenly than mine) and bake another 6 minutes or less.  Here they are, right out of the oven. See how they've burst open where they were cut?  Better than splitting randomly!

You still have enough dough for another sheet of pretzels.  Bake them at the same time, or one after another, depending on your work flow, oven, mood, etc.

Storing the pretzels. Unfortunately, pretzels don't stay fresh very long. I'm often willing to eat day-old pretzels, but they're always a little disappointing. If you're not going to eat them in the next few hours, then pop them in the freezer. I've been pretty satisfied with pretzels that have been frozen for up to about a week.  To rejuvenate, put them in a 300F oven for 8 minutes or so.

Eating the pretzels. The standard Swabian approach is to cut them in half like a bagel, smear them with a little sweet butter, and munch. You could also try mustard or cheese if that sounds good. They don't really require much.