Brimborium- Florian Schroiff’s Blog

This morning I made some Brez’n for a traditional Bavarian breakfast. This breakfast consists of the Brez’n, some Obazda (heavily seasoned cream cheese mixture), Weißwurst (white sausage) and beer.

We had imported some canned Weißwurst from Käfer in Munich and bought German Pinkus Pils at the green supermarket. Obazda we’d made before (Camembert, cream cheese, paprika powder and onions).

But where to get the Brez’n? They are not very common outside of Germany. For the last Bavarian breakfast we had brought some from Munich as well, but they were pre-baked and hard. A fresh Brez’n is soft and chewy. So I decided to make them from scratch.

Traditionally the Brez’n is dipped into caustic lye before baking. That stuff is super hazardous and therefore quite hard to come by. A lot of recipes say you can also use boiling water with baking soda, so that’s what I did. The baking soda solution is much less agressive than the caustic lye, but it is still quite corrosive, so do not use any utensils that are made from aluminum.

Ingredients

• 600 g flour
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp sugar
• 2 packs dry yeast (á 7g)
• 360 ml milk
• 50 g butter
• 2 l water
• 6 tbsp baking soda
• sea salt

1. Warm the milk and butter a little bit in the microwave. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar, yeast). Mix in the milk and butter with the dough hook until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined and the dough is soft and elastic. Cover the dough and let it rise at room temperature for ½ hour.

2. On a floured surface knead the dough with your hands. Make a roll and cut it into 18 pieces. Roll out these pieces into about 30cm long strands and form the pretzels. Cover them and let them sit for another 20 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200°C and bring 2 liters of water to a boil. Add the soda.

3. Lower the pretzels, one by one, into the boiling water with a slotted spoon. Boil them for 30 seconds, turning them once. Remove from water and put on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Cut into the thick part with a knife. Sprinkle some sea salt over them. Then put them into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Remove from baking sheet and cool off on a grid.

Guten Appetit!