Starting with a classic, it’s Pretzels! When we were fortunate enough to visit Berlin all the way back in 2018, we found a little café round the corner from where we were staying that made delicious pretzels and other treats. Naturally we popped in here for breakfast in the mornings and took a couple of pretzels to have for lunch later in the day. With these fond memories, it made a lot of sense to us to learn how to make them ourselves.
We found a wonderful recipe from BBC Good Food which was very simple to follow and gave us a great result.
Most of the ingredients can be found in your kitchen cupboards already, so hopefully this will be a fun recipe to follow on any random weekend (as long as you have the free time – it is a little time consuming!)
The Dough
After the final dough was kneaded it had a glossy quality to it which was quite interesting for us, as we haven’t made a dough like this before, but we hoped it meant we were doing something right.
The dough was pretty straightforward to make, although there was a lot of proving time involved. Of course if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, feel free to use that for all the dough steps and save your arms a little! However, we did find that it wasn’t completely necessary for this recipe.
Shaping
While the dough was easy enough, we knew it was coming up to the point where we’d have to attempt to shape it into the distinctive pretzel shape.
The first step here was to roll the dough into thin batons which could then be folded up into the correct shape.
I think it’s safe to say we had some better attempts than others, but maybe we’ll just need to make them again and again to practice!
Once they were shaped and proved again, it was time to give them the distinctive ‘skin’ to add the perfect pretzel texture. Fortunately we were making these in the winter so it was very easy to find a cold window to place them in front of!
After the cold burst, they were boiled in water and baking soda, before being covered in salt and baked in the oven.
The rock salt really was the star of the show here. Some was added before the oven and some after. This can be amended based on personal preference, but we really felt it boosted the flavour. Particularly when it was served with the best dip we’ve ever made!
Beer and Cheese Sauce
You thought we’d get through German week without mentioning beer?! While the pretzels were absolutely delicious alone, we found a recipe from The Inspired Home who served their pretzels with a beer and cheese sauce that we had to try.
The sauce was very straightforward overall, particularly if you’re familiar with making a roux. Add the butter and flour to a saucepan and mix to form a paste, to which you gradually add milk and beer (while whisking!). Then add the cheese and you’re good to go!
Overall this was a wonderful meal that was relatively easy to make, however it certainly took a long time!
Please let us know via our social media channels if you give this a go and let us know what you think!
For the main – visit here
For the dessert – visit here