White Chocolate Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is baking soda or lye better for pretzels? ›

That said, if sourcing and handling lye isn't for you, you can use a simmering baking soda solution instead. With a pH of roughly 8.3, it reacts less than lye and yields pretzels that are lighter in color and flavor, but the results are still impressive.

The most benign substitute for lye is baking soda. You'll get a little bit of browning and some chew, but don't expect it to taste very pretzel-y. You can also used baked baking soda, which is a stronger alkali than baking soda but not as caustic as lye.

In a large, wide pot, bring 6 cups water and 2 tablespoons baking soda to a boil. Then, transfer one shaped pretzel to the bath using a slotted spatula and let sit for 1 minute. Then move the pretzel to a cooling rack on top of parchment paper. This allows any excess solution to drip away.

Carefully sprinkle the lye into the water. Use a heat-safe silicone spatula to carefully stir the lye to dissolve. The lye is dissolved when the water looks clear (the container will feel warm to the touch – this is normal). Dip a shaped pretzel into the lye bath for about 30 seconds.

Well, the cheery ladies were very clear with me: they do NOT use lye. No sodium hydroxide/poison/caustic soda—none whatsoever—in their pretzels. (They do, however, dip their pretzels in a baking soda solution.) So there you have it.

Good Snack 2: Oatmeal

Oatmeal is high in carbs -- the good kind. “The soluble fiber in oats helps absorb cholesterol and blood glucose," Grotto says. "Fiberless carbs in a food like pretzels, for example, can send blood glucose and insulin levels spiraling upwards."

Not for diabetics. Most brands of pretzels contain the same ingredients - white flour, yeast, salt, vegetable and corn syrup. Because they are baked, they don't have as many calories as chips. But the refined carbs will send blood sugars soaring.

Sugar – I use regular white granulated sugar but you can also use brown sugar, it will give your soft pretzels a slightly caramelized flavor. Egg – beaten egg is used to brush the pretzels before baking, it adds extra color and gives them a shiny exterior.

But it's the distinctive "pretzel" flavor that makes this bread extraordinary. That comes from dipping the shaped dough in an alkaline solution — traditionally a small amount of food-grade lye dissolved in water — before baking.

What is the best flour for pretzels? ›

Bread flour provides more structure

Gluten helps provide structure, allowing a baked good to have more body and sturdiness. As a result, bread flour will make it easier for a pretzel to hold its shape. This can be an advantage to beginner bakers, especially since the shape of a pretzel is so important.

Lye is primarily used to make pretzels, and it's the reason for their unmistakable shiny, mahogany color. To prepare, shaped pretzels are dipped in a lye bath, then baked in the oven. This method can also be used with rolls or buns. Once lye-dipped pretzels are baked, they're totally safe (and delicious!) to eat.

If your pretzels have any sort of a metallic, bitter taste, it all comes down to the baking soda bath.

Like lye, baking soda is an alkaline substance, and when mixed with water and brushed over the pretzel dough, it changes the pH of the dough and gelates the surface starch. In the oven, the starch gel hardens and the alkaline baking soda makes browning happen fast.

As a result, the pretzel darkens better in the oven (if this step weren't taken, pretzels would have the same color as plain bagels) and the soft pretzel develops its crispy — yet chewy — texture for which it's known. Typically a half cup of baking soda is used in two quarts of water for the solution.

Lye is a stronger alkaline than baking soda or sodium bicarbonate, with a pH reading ranging from around 13 to 14. Its base of sodium hydroxide is created commercially by the electrolysis of sodium chloride solution, as well as reacting calcium hydroxide with sodium carbonate, according to the FDA.

Lye is primarily used to make pretzels, and it's the reason for their unmistakable shiny, mahogany color. To prepare, shaped pretzels are dipped in a lye bath, then baked in the oven. This method can also be used with rolls or buns. Once lye-dipped pretzels are baked, they're totally safe (and delicious!) to eat.

As noted above, baking soda is a staple ingredient for making homemade pretzels. Dunking your pretzels in a baking soda bath prior to baking is what enables them to develop their distinctive color and crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside texture.