If this was in Bavaria I would have called the police if I saw someone eating a fresh pretzel with Nutella.
I jest, this was a succinctly nice post to read about something that I take for granted all my life. There is a certain warmth and familiarity to this post.
I love my bakeries around here and regularly prefer their breakfast over the hipster chia super ultra food life bowls with yoghurt and 2 nuts for 15€ around here.
Sakrileg! Zefix Halleluja! Aber a ausgeglichene Ernaehrung is scho wichtig ah
Its also very tricky to get the bretzel to become perfect, you need a real baker oven that can bring the heat. Then you dunk it into the solution, you shoot it into the oven, and leave the oven door open for about 2 minutes of the baking time. This allows for the "mirror" finnish of the bretzel, you only get when they are properly baked.
Frozzen with the lye solution already on it, then unfrozzen, salten and baked, will always be dryed bad bretzels, unless you dunk them into the lye solution after unfreezing. The "shop" baked bretzen will always be inferior.
My first time in the UK shook my world: Where is the bread? This is it? That is not bread! After that visit I realized that Germany has a rich baking culture. And yes, we do love a hard crust once in while. So please, leave the Knäusele for me, if you don't like it.
First thing we did after moving to the UK was to buy a bread baking machine. Not quite bakery-level bread, but good enough for daily consumption, and it leaves a nice smell in the house.
It's worth pointing out that in the context of Germany, the bakery described in the article is not unusual or extraordinary. The town where I grew up, a suburb of 13000 people, has at 7 bakeries that are just as good. I assume most towns are similar in this regard.
It is when you live in a large city. Where I live the “good old German bakery” is almost extinct and and you have to either travel a lot and queue up for bread, buy cheap bread which consists mostly of some kind of corn Sirup and water or go to a hipster “sourdough” bakery where one loaf costs 8-13€.
I really don’t like to complain but it is so crazy to me that when you go to southern Germany or Austria that good bakeries are just that much more common, whereas in large northern cities they have been evicted by large bakery chains or cheap bakeries which all get their bread delivered from the same factory in the morning.
In Berlin, famous for bad bakeries, the best non-bobo bakeries are... the supermarket internal ones. They have to somehow compete on quality in all of Germany, and they don't go out of their way to reduce quality where standards are lower. They are more expensive than most local "bakeries", too.
It's true that there are many large chains, it's not true that they only sell "cheap bread which consists mostly of some kind of corn Sirup and water".
South German pretzels are the highlight of any trip there for me (I was born there). Why oh why can't we have this as a product in North America, aside from making a reasonable imitation of it yourself (you need food grad sodium hydroxide, which used to be hard to find, but these days you can order it online).
But they're not even popular in all of Germany! The "Weisswurstequator" - a rough dividing line north of which the white sausages just aren't a thing - also largely applies to soft pretzels.
Nutella also sounds like an abomination to me, though savoury toppings - butter, cold cuts, cheese - are OK. Though a fresh pretzel is such a treat you've usually eaten it before giving much thought to toppings.
> Why oh why can't we have this as a product in North America, aside from making a reasonable imitation of it yourself (you need food grad sodium hydroxide, which used to be hard to find, but these days you can order it online).
As an American living in the US, I'll just say that my user name is a testament to what I do for a living.
The "Weisswurstequator" - a rough dividing line north of which the white sausages just aren't a thing - also largely applies to soft pretzels.
They are popular enough all over Germany for them to be sold in virtually every bakery all over Germany. Weißwurst, on the other hand, is only available in specialty restaurants (though I assume it's sold in all large supermarkets). Having eaten both, it's not hard to understand why.
For the record there's no "German" brezel but two variants: the bavarian and the swabian brezn. See the two pics in the Wikipedia article: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brezel
The swabian brezel is cut before baking and therefore has a (bigger) "Ausbund" in the thicker section :)
It's also interesting that in the past the Brezn was made with lard in many bakeries.
I’ll second that and add that in the south of Germany also Bretzels and Obatzda is a thing [1], which is a very tasty creamy cheese and spice mix you dip the Bretzel in.
But this time you do not cut the Bretzel, but break off the pieces at the break points. Start with the thin parts of the Bretzel.
1.) It is very important most of this stuff is local. Franzbrötchen are popular in Nothern Germany (Mentioned in Thomas Mann's Buddenbrook).
2.) When I was in Warsaw, I figured out Poland has a very similar bread culture. So you can go there and good bread and sweets, too. (for Non - Germans: It is a very popular out of Germany complaining about the lack of good bread)
It's actually quite satisfying when you manage to shape the brezel properly. However I am always a bit nervous when handling the Sodium hydroxide. Wearing gloves and goggles is mandatory.
You can also "half bake" some of the brezels and deep-freeze them for later.
You can totally make them at home, it's worth it. I don't use sodium hydroxide so they're not authentic but still delicious. Everyone I share them with loves them.
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I jest, this was a succinctly nice post to read about something that I take for granted all my life. There is a certain warmth and familiarity to this post.
I love my bakeries around here and regularly prefer their breakfast over the hipster chia super ultra food life bowls with yoghurt and 2 nuts for 15€ around here.
Its also very tricky to get the bretzel to become perfect, you need a real baker oven that can bring the heat. Then you dunk it into the solution, you shoot it into the oven, and leave the oven door open for about 2 minutes of the baking time. This allows for the "mirror" finnish of the bretzel, you only get when they are properly baked.
Frozzen with the lye solution already on it, then unfrozzen, salten and baked, will always be dryed bad bretzels, unless you dunk them into the lye solution after unfreezing. The "shop" baked bretzen will always be inferior.
I really don’t like to complain but it is so crazy to me that when you go to southern Germany or Austria that good bakeries are just that much more common, whereas in large northern cities they have been evicted by large bakery chains or cheap bakeries which all get their bread delivered from the same factory in the morning.
One of the largest chains has the ingredients for their bread up on the web: https://malzers.de/produkte/brote
I don't think there's corn syrup in any of them; I checked a few rye breads and they had not added sugar of any kind.
But they're not even popular in all of Germany! The "Weisswurstequator" - a rough dividing line north of which the white sausages just aren't a thing - also largely applies to soft pretzels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei%C3%9Fwurst%C3%A4quator
Nutella also sounds like an abomination to me, though savoury toppings - butter, cold cuts, cheese - are OK. Though a fresh pretzel is such a treat you've usually eaten it before giving much thought to toppings.
As an American living in the US, I'll just say that my user name is a testament to what I do for a living.
Deleted Comment
They are popular enough all over Germany for them to be sold in virtually every bakery all over Germany. Weißwurst, on the other hand, is only available in specialty restaurants (though I assume it's sold in all large supermarkets). Having eaten both, it's not hard to understand why.
As a Bavarian living in Berlin, I am shocked both about the (lack of) quality and the (high) prices of pretzels.
The swabian brezel is cut before baking and therefore has a (bigger) "Ausbund" in the thicker section :)
It's also interesting that in the past the Brezn was made with lard in many bakeries.
But this time you do not cut the Bretzel, but break off the pieces at the break points. Start with the thin parts of the Bretzel.
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obatzterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obatzda
The german version has an image with a Bretzel
Edit: just this morning, I was wondering if I could make pretzels at home.
conclusion: too much trouble for the size of oven I have. I'd probably eat them all inside of a day.
You can also "half bake" some of the brezels and deep-freeze them for later.