Help Me Make Pretzels?!

Robdude

I'm trying to make this:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/almost-famous-soft-pretzels-recipe/index.html

But when I do the bottoms get burnt and the top stays white instead of turning brown.

Can anyone tell me what I should do?

Morag

Sounds like your oven is too hot and that you are not pre heating it.

Little Alex

As insane as it sounds pretzels are made of Laugenteig which translates as "lye dough"; lye being another name for NaOH or caustic soda, into which the pretzels are dipped before baking. That is what gives them their taste and brownness. Your recipe makes no mention of caustic soda.

So it's up to you if you want to go ahead with it. You would need to be careful, of course. Maybe you can make them without the caustic soda too, I don't know.

Morag

it does.

Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups warm water in a shallow baking dish. Gently dip each pretzel in the soda solution, then arrange on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with the coarse salt. Bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes.

Little Alex

Sharrow wrote: »

it does.

Baking soda and caustic soda are very different.

Using caustic soda in cooking sounds just about as crazy as using battery acid, but that's what is used and I don't think baking soda will give the same effect.

I see Lidl are selling pretzels now in their new bakery sections, if all else fails.

Robdude

Thanks everyone!

I lowered the temp on the oven, made sure to pre-heat and added more baking soda to the solution and it turned out much, much better.

Morag

Pics?

Little Alex

Nice one, Robdude. Glad they worked out for you!

I'm going to give them a go myself at some stage.

Robdude

Sharrow wrote: »

Pics?

Sorry - I didn't think of it But I'll be making them again this weekend and will snap some. Mine didn't look exactly like the images on the website with the recipe, but I was very happy with them the 2nd time (1st time was pretty bad).

tfak85

I made pretzels a few weeks ago, it's a bit of a pain in the ass to dip them in the baking soda solution but they turned out perfect!!!

Look forward to seeing pics of yours...

These were mine

http://i.imgur.com/7LDn3.jpg

(I can't seem to embed the image, it's coming out giant!)

Robdude

tfak85 wrote: »

I made pretzels a few weeks ago, it's a bit of a pain in the ass to dip them in the baking soda solution but they turned out perfect!!!

Look forward to seeing pics of yours...

These were mine

http://i.imgur.com/7LDn3.jpg

(I can't seem to embed the image, it's coming out giant!)

Wow! I'm impressed; those look like they are from a bakery

Mine weren't quite so photogenic

Robdude

Like I said, it's not very pretty, but adjusting the oven made it so much better! Thanks everyone.



I still would like to get the tops darker without the bottoms getting burnt; but this is a step in the right direction.