When I left Germany some 20 odd years ago the only thing I really missed were freshly baked Laugenbrötchen (Pretzelbread) with Butter! There simply is no better comfort food! Of course, one can buy Pretzel bread in the US, but honestly I have not found anything that came close to the originals.

So what Alternative did I have but to come up with my own recipe … turns out it is rather simple, if you have the right ingredients.

For about 6 rolls, I use the following:

You start out with a slightly tweaked yeast dough:

3 1/4 cup of white flour; ½ cup warm water; ½ cup Pilsner style beer (cold); 2tbsp. butter (or olive oil); 2tsp sea salt (fine); 1tbsp brown sugar or barley malt syrup; 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast.

I usually use the bread machine to mix the ingredient and have the dough rise, but of course you can simply use your hands or kitchen machine.

After the dough has risen (I give it a good two hours), roll it into an approximately 3-inch thick log. Cut 6 pieces of equal size and shape them into the rolls. Let them rest for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450 Fahrenheit

While the rolls are resting heat approximately ½ gallon of water in a pot and mix in 2tbsp of food grade lye. The water does not have to be hot, just very warm. Stir until the lye is all resolved.

Submerge the rolls for about a minute into the lye. Take them out with a slotted spoon and place them on parchment paper on a baking sheet.

IMPORTANT: Be careful handling the lye, do not breath it in and do not let it get in contact with your skin. Lye is very corrosive and will leave marks on your baking sheet if you place the rolls directly on it. Finally, when you open the oven do NOT breath in as there will be a lye steam coming out of the oven!!

I have gotten the lye on my fingers, and took a breath of the steam. Also, my aluminum baking sheets have markings from the first time I made the Pretzelbread. The solution is very low, so it is not dangerous, yet why not using parchment paper, gloves, and holding your breath when opening the oven?

Cut a cross into the rolls, so they can rise in the oven, and sprinkle coarse rock salt.

Place the sheet in the oven and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, until the rolls have the typical chestnut color.

Place the Pretzelbread on a rack and let them cool down a bit, before eating them with butter or however you like them best!

Pretzel bread is best fresh, even after only a day it starts tasting old. However, you can freeze the dough (and take it out as needed), which makes it really fast and convenient to make your own freshly baked Laugenbrötchen.

Laugenbrötchen make fantastic buns for burgers; here I used them as the basis for a blackbean burger. Don't tell me they don't look delish!

Guten Appetit aus Nashville,

P.S. And remember, everything is better with good food!

German Pretzel Bread - Süddeutsche Laugenbrötchen

Norbert Ross

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