Pretzel logic.

Massive pretzels from the other day.  That wire rack is 9'x12"

I mentioned pretzel sandwiches the other day, and boy were they delicious.  It's worth mentioning that I made an ingredient change that makes a huge difference in my opinion.  I've replaced the brown sugar from my original recipe with a malted barley syrup.  

The syrup provides food for the yeast as well as an unmistakable flavor, and makes for a nice earth-tone dough.  A few other tweaks worth noting: I've tried bread flour, AP flour, and whole wheat flour.  The bread flour makes the dough too hard to work, with no benefits.  Similarly, whole wheat flour alone makes dough harder to work than steel cable thanks to massive amounts of gluten.  The best solution I've found is to use AP flour with a small portion of wheat for flavor, color, and texture. Here's the updated recipe. (The procedure is unchanged)


1 cup warm water (plus some more to bring your dough together.)
1/3 cup malted barley syrup (ish.  hard to measure because it's thick and sticky)

2 ½t active dry yeast

1 stick melted butter

4 1/2 cups AP flour
2t salt

1/2 cup wheat flour

COARSE kosher salt for the tops (far better than even regular kosher salt)

The recipe volume has been increased for a few reasons. First, my Kitchenaid mixer does a better job kneading a slightly bigger dough ball. Secondly, I can make bigger pretzels and more of them. After all, it's just as easy to make more if you're already making some.  Who doesn't like that?  If you're in the fence about trying pretzel making, you really should give it a shot.  It's not hard, you just need to roll up your sleeves and set aside an hour or two.  It's totally worth it.