I made the pretzel bread recipe from BB for a dinner party last night. Wow what a hit. The theme was beer pairings and the pretzels were superb. I was a little thrown by the recipe since the numbers for dividing the dough are transposed incorrectly in my edition. I weighed the ingredients but I had to add nearly a quarter cup more water than specified. Could have been my fault though. The recipe calls for bread flour. Which I don’t stock. So I added some gluten to all purpose as a substitute. It is a bit unnerving to buy baking ingredients in the plumbing section of the hardware store! I hope my drains clog. I am never going to use that bottle of lye from baking. Sorry I did’nt take any photos.

I think the BB Pretzel bread sounds wonderful!  Any pics?

I tried to make soft pretzels once with Harlod McGee’s baked baking soda (much more alkaline than plain baking soda) as a substitute for the lye, but it didn’t work out very well.  I think that the science is spot on, but working out the proper details to get it to the implementation stage may take a few more tries.

As usual, Rose’s recipe seems to be well worked out just be sure to review the errata.

I couldn’t resist having a second go at this recipe. This time I doubled the recipe and the dough came together easier in the KA. The single batch just doesn’t catch the dough hook. Instead of the little footballs from the recipe I formed up some actual pretzel shapes. Of course I used both of the optional ingredients malt and butter. This recipe is highly recommended.

Those really look good

They look awesome, I’d love to have one!

Ditto!!!!  What is it (besides the shapes you made) that makes it “pretzel bread”?  Does it have the “soft pretzle” texture of the firm chewy exterior and the soft chewy interior or is it something else?

Not sure why Rose named the recipe pretzel bread. I guess because of the mini loaf like shapes. They have a very authentic pretzel flavor. I was able to achieve a bit of crunch on the exterior but they have a firm chewy center. It is a very easy recipe.

Wow, Gene, those look delicious!

You mentioned that you used AP flour (unbleached?) and gluten to replace the bread flour…....may I ask what ratio of flour:vital wheat gluten you used? I’m relatively new to bread baking and am a little hesitant about making substitutions

Hi Gene,
I can’t stop looking at those pictures (and drooling). I am with Julie, I want one too.

For the double batch which uses about 500 grams of flour I used 1 tablespoon of vital wheat gluten. It wouldn’t be hard to calculate the correct amount but I just guess and I know from experience to err on the side of caution.

Thank you Gene, I’ll make a note of that ratio.

mouth is watering….