[Sca-cooks] Pretzels & bagels
Samrah
auntie_samrah at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 17 01:25:03 PST 2004
This whole "malted water" thing has me fascinated. I had many bagel making discussions with a Hebrew chef. He didn't add anything to the water, nor have any of the recipes I have seen added stuff to the water. He did insist of refrigerating them for an hour before baking....
Samrah (who used to make a good batch of bagels and still makes a good bread)
Chris Stanifer <jugglethis at yahoo.com> wrote:
--- Stephen Bloch wrote:
> MALTED water? Hmm... from what I've read about modern pretzels,
> they're boiled in or sprayed with lye water; the lye is supposed to
> denature the starch on the surface to make that hard shiny surface.
I believe that's just for modern 'hard' pretzels, but don't you dare quote me on that ;) The malted water (same used for bagel making, I believe) gives the pretzel a nice, golden crust and slightly sweet flavor, but the crust remains soft.
I'll do some checking on that, though. I know I have at least one recipe which does call for a treatment of lye.
William de Grandfort
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