Did You Know that Dutch Pretzels Are Sweet? Here's the Recipe. (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret ingredient which makes a pretzel taste like a pretzel? ›

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.

The Pretzel is a baked bread product, typically twisted into a signature shape. Usually served salty, there are now also pretzels coated with sweet yoghurt which could be considered dessert. But they aren't usually dessert.

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.

Salt is the most common seasoning, or topping, for pretzels, complementing the washing soda or lye treatment that gives pretzels their traditional skin and flavor acquired through the Maillard reaction. Other toppings are mustard, cheeses, sugar, chocolate, cinnamon, sweet glazing, seeds, and nuts.

Auntie Anne Pretzels are somehow more delicious than your average pretzel. A healthy dose of sugar makes for a tasty dough, and a topping of melted butter and salt makes them positively addictive.

Bake longer

If you're not baking your pretzels long enough, they'll come out pale and dull. It's important to bake them until they're a deep golden brown. Likewise, the dough inside is cooked through and won't taste raw or doughy when you bite into it.

Yes, "Auntie Anne" Beiler founded Auntie Anne's in 1988. She and her husband, Jonas, opened a farmers market stand that originally sold many different snacks, including pretzels and her Old-Fashioned Lemonade. After a little experimentation, the dough our company uses for all of our fresh pretzels was born.

Its origin is often attributed to Germany, specifically to the region of Bavaria, although its precise beginnings are somewhat debated. The pretzel was invented by European monks in the early Middle Ages, possibly in the 6th or 7th century.

If you think pretzels are the “safer” of the traditional snack items, think again. “While this salty treat can be low in fat, they hold no redeeming nutritional value whatsoever,” Grotto says. “In a side-by-side comparison, 1 ounce of pretzels raised blood sugar higher than 1 ounce of potato chips.”

The area roughly considered to constitute the Pretzel Belt, identified with Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Pennsylvania in general produces 80% of the pretzels consumed in the United States, with many of the top producers located in York County alone.

What is the secret solution for Auntie Anne's pretzels? ›

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often. After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet.

Like bagels, pretzels are made in boiling water prior to baking to give them their snappy outsides and chewy insides (messy!). Soft pretzels must be boiled, or dipped in a baking soda bath (or lye if you're gusty and strict with your pretzel traditions). THEN, they can be baked.

While regular salted pretzels typically don't have much added sugar or saturated fat, chocolate-covered or otherwise sugar-sweetened pretzels may have a lot. This is especially true for pretzels with added butter or a cinnamon-sugar coating.

When you place the nutritional information of pretzels and potato chips side-by-side, you'll notice why pretzels are the healthier choice. Pretzels have less calories than potato chips and less saturated fat. As we all know, excessive calories and saturated fat can ruin a diet.

Seen as a symbol of good luck, prosperity and spiritual fulfillment, pretzels were also commonly distributed to the poor, as a way of providing them with both spiritual and literal sustenance.

What Gives Pretzels Their Pretzel Flavor? You have baking soda to thank for that distinct pretzel flavor. Baking soda is highly alkaline and imparts that subtly metallic taste onto the dough before your pretzels go into the oven. Some recipes call for a lye bath, which does the same thing.

They're Boiled, Not Baked.

The dough is first shaped into a long rope and then boiled in water before being baked at a higher temperature than bread. This process creates a distinctive pretzel shape and gives them their unique taste.

After removing other scent molecules individually, the researchers found two molecules that are essential to the unique pretzel scent: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which has a roasted smell, and 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone, which has a caramel smell.