Brezelherzen
I’ve been a bit obsessed with pretzel breads since making the Silserli in the beautiful Swiss Bread book by Heddi at Cuisine Helvetica.
That’s mostly because of the ease of getting that great pretzel topping.
Pretzel-making in baking school required a lye solution and rubber gloves (and felt very authentic thanks to our Bavarian instructor), but with a simple baking soda solution you can easily get similar results without the fuss.
In German-speaking Switzerland, pretzel breads are denoted by the terms brezel, laugen (lye), or silser (likely also named for the dip the pretzel takes before baking).
Form your bread into a heart for your Valentine, a traditional pretzel shape, or in the style of my four-year-old, a snail family.
500 g flour
12 g salt
300 ml milk, warm
15 g fresh yeast (5 g dried)
40 g butter
Dipping solution:
100 g baking soda
1 l water
coarse salt to garnish
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
In a large measuring cup, whisk together the milk and yeast.
Make a well in the flour and add the liquid ingredients. Stir this together until a dough starts to form, then add the butter and begin to knead it on the table. Knead for about 15 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic. Alternatively, mix for about 10 minutes in a stand mixer with a dough hook.
Cover and let rise for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
When you are ready to bake:
Preheat oven to 200 C / 400 F / gas mark 6.
Separate the dough into twelve pieces, then start rolling into logs. It is easiest to do this in stages—first roll them all into short logs, then roll those logs out into longer logs and then twist them into hearts or pretzels (or snails).
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the baking soda.
One by one, dip each pretzel into the boiling water, count slowly to ten, and place on a cooling rack to let the excess water drip off.
Place the pretzels on a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until they are a deep brown on top and bottom.
When forming the hearts, be sure to press the ends together firmly so they don’t come apart in the hot water solution.
100 g is quite a lot of baking soda, just make sure you have enough before you start.
