Soft Pretzels with Smoked Salt

Let’s talk about pretzels for a quick second: malty, doughy, pillowy soft pretzels fresh out of the oven. There’s nothing better for October, Oktoberfest, or a saturday afternoon baking therapy session. Now let’s talk about these Soft Pretzels with Smoked Salt!

Here’s the kicker…they smell like whiskey malty baked goods.

We make these pretzels at home when the craving for fresh bread hits. This hits normally at 2 AM and is generally preceded by a difficult week that one of us had. Either Alicia or I just find ourselves in the kitchen pulling out bread flour and measuring cups.

Its our way to bring some control to a situation that feels unhinged. And if by the end of the bake, no solution has been found, at least we have some fantastic carb loaded pretzels to sink our teeth into.

This is primo comfort food people!

 

What Makes a Great Pretzel

 

Pretzels are all about the gluten development. Gluten is what allows the dough to rise in breads and gives breads that satisfying chew when biting. The more developed the gluten, the better the texture.

For this dough, you really want to use bread flour instead of All Purpose, the higher protein content in Bread Flour will help develop that gluten. If you use AP flour, you may end up with a denser product that has less elasticity and a shorter crumb structure.

The second part of a great pretzel is the rise. How the dough will rise from the yeast is largely dependent on whether enough gluten was developed.

How it’s made

You have 4 major steps to go through in the Pretzel making journey:

1. Making the dough
2. Rise
3. Baking Soda Bath
4. Bake

Making the Dough

It’s very useful to have a mixer for this process, it takes care of the kneading and stirring, and eliminates sticky hands in the process. But if you don’t have one, never fear! People have been making pretzels before they were making mixers.

In a mixer or a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients and mix into a paste. As you keep folding the dough in the bowl, it will stretch out, catching lose flour and incorporating it into itself. When it’s smooth and shiny, you got the right consistency.

Rise

Letting the dough rise at least an hour covered and oiled allows the yeast to develop the flavor in the dough and improve the texture.

Some bread recipes call for a second rise, however, in pretzels it’s not necessary as the warm baking soda bath gives them that second rise.

Baking Soda Bath

Bring the water to a simmer and add the baking soda. This is what gives the pretzels their distinct color and unique flavor. Don’t immerse them for longer than 5 seconds, they could come apart and become too bitter.

Bake

Baking for 20 minutes at 400 F will ensure the right color and texture. Because every oven is different, check them periodically and test them. They may need less time.

 

A note on Smoked Salt

Smoked Salt is salt that’s been smoked in a particular wood for a period of time, usually around 14 days. In that process, the salt takes on the smoky flavor of the wood and can lend very interesting results to food.

For this recipe we used Maldon Smoked Sea Salt Flakes (Affiliate link) which were smoked in English Oak. If you are familiar with charred English Oak, it’s what Whiskey is generally aged in. So when you smell this salt, you’re smelling Whiskey immediately!

Topping that salt in our pretzel recipe added a smoky flavor that goes really well with the Malt and yeast flavors found in the dough.

 

Because these salt flakes are quite large, we ate the pretzels with honey instead of mustard. The honey mellows out the salt and prevents a salt bomb in your mouth. But feel free to experiment and find your own flavors.

Though….try out sandwiches with this bread. Seriously, anything in a sandwich on this bread is crack.

 

A final note on Diastatic Malt Powder:

Diastatic Malt Powder may not be generally known for home cooks, but you need to know its merits. DMP is powdered Malt grain (barley, wheat, or rice). Diastatic refers to the diastatic enzymes that are created as the grain sprouts. These enzymes convert starches to sugars, which feed the yeast and allow for a greater rise in the dough. Which creates a lighter Pretzel!

Now go bake your therapy!

-M

If you’ve tried this Soft Pretzels with Smoked Salt recipe or any other recipe on the blog then rate the it and let me know how it was in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what we’re developing every week.

 

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