Recipes with Julie Van Rosendaal: Pretzels

We made pretzels and talked about about pH and the role alkaline solutions play in our food on the Calgary Eyeopener this week.

Chewy baked pretzels are traditionally dipped in a solution of three to four per cent food-grade lye before baking to enhance the Maillard reaction, which is responsible for that deep mahogany colour and more complex flavours.

At home, a more common method is to use baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, a weaker alkali. But while doing some research, I came across a 12-year-old story in the New York Times that talked about baking your baking soda first.

You do it by spreading it out on a parchment-lined baking sheet and baking it at 250-300 F for about an hour. The heat transforms the sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate, which is a stronger alkali you can then turn into a dipping solution (about ½ cup sodium carbonate to 2 cups water) that's closer to lye. 

Though it's easy to identify acidic ingredients like vinegar, lemon juice and buttermilk, it's trickier to think of alkaline ingredients. Baking soda is perhaps the most common. It's sodium bicarbonate — a crystalline salt that works with acidic ingredients in a recipe to create the carbon dioxide bubbles that allow your baked goods to rise.

Alkalis are used in various ways in the kitchen and in food production. Sodium carbonate is also called jian, a key ingredient in wheat noodles that makes them springy, slippery and sometimes gives them a yellow colour. The process of nixtamalization involves soaking and cooking maize (corn) in an alkaline solution to make it more easily ground and the nutrients more easily accessible.

Alkaline solutions are responsible for the extra-dark, almost black cocoa in Oreo cookies, and some of those smooth, buttery olives. And many people are familiar with the dark colour and slightly metallic tang of chewy pretzels, which are dipped in an alkaline solution (most often food-grade lye) before baking. 

Homemade Pretzels

Pretzels get their signature dark colour, slightly metallic flavour and chewy-leathery exterior from being dipped in a solution of water and food-grade lye, a strong alkaline ingredient.

In the kitchen, baking soda is far more common, but it's a weaker alkali, so doesn't produce quite as dramatic an effect. But if you bake the baking soda itself first — at 250-300 F for about an hour — it transforms from sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate, and is a more potent substitute for lye. 

Boiling with regular baking soda first will produce a tasty pretzel with the texture of a soft breadstick, but dipping in a baked baking soda solution will produce a deeper colour and more pretzel-like flavour.

Read more about the chemistry behind baked soda, and its other culinary applications.

Ingredients

Dough:

• 1 cup warm water or milk
• 2 tsp active dry, instant or quick-rising yeast
• 2½-2¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp brown sugar 
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter (or a combination)
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ cup baking soda or baked baking soda, for boiling or dipping
• flaky salt, for sprinkling

Put the water or milk into a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer, if you have a dough hook) and sprinkle the yeast overtop. Let it sit for a few minutes, then stir to dissolve.

If you're not sure of the age of your yeast and are worried it might be inactive, let it sit for 10-15 minutes, or until it starts to bubble and foam. If it does nothing, it may be inactive and you may need fresh yeast.

Add 2½ cups of the flour along with the sugar, oil and salt and stir until the dough comes together. Continue to knead, adding more flour as needed (using the dough hook on your stand mixer, or turning it out onto the countertop) until smooth and elastic. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes to let the gluten relax. 

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400 F and either bring a pot of 8 cups water and ½ cup baking soda to a boil, or make a solution of 2 cups water and ½ cup baked baking soda in a shallow baking dish, and fill another bowl or baking dish with plain water. Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil or a silicone liner. 

• Bookmark cbc.ca/juliesrecipes to keep up with all of Julie Van Rosendaal's dishes.

Cut the dough into 8 pieces and roll each into a long rope — about 20-22 inches long — then shape into a pretzel. If you have a boiling water solution, boil 2 pretzels at a time for no longer than 30 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon and put on your baking sheet.

If you're using the baked baking soda solution, dip each pretzel into the solution and let it sit for 30 to 60 seconds, then dip in plain water to rinse the excess solution off and place on your baking sheet. The dough will get soft and stretchy — don't worry! Move quickly and they'll turn out fine!

Sprinkle your pretzels with coarse or flaky salt while they're still wet, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until deep golden.

Makes 8 pretzels.