[Sca-cooks]pretzels [was bagels]

[Marian Walke]

Stephen Bloch wrote:
(regarding bagels, pretzels, and his attempts to make pretzels)

>  From what I've read, commercial pretzels are sprayed with lye solution 
> before baking<snip>
> 
> I've tried it myself twice, with poor results <snip>
  I'll have to try again some time with ordinary bread dough.

I presume you know that flour can vary greatly in protein and 
gluten content, from very soft to quite hard.  For pretzels and 
bagels and such you want the hardest flour you can get.  In 
period that would have been durum (in Italy and southern France) 
or northern, Russian, or Middle Eastern wheat (in northern 
Europe).  The English liked their native soft flour, but then 
they didn't go in much for pretzels.

Nowadays, I'd use a bread flour (such as King Arthur unbleached) 
if making it by hand.  If you have a mixer with a dough hook you 
can use the King Arthur Special for Bread Machines, which is very 
high gluten.

I suspect our modern American/Canadian hard wheats (bred from the 
hardest Russian/Armenian strains) are even harder than the 
strongest period flours.  But in any case, avoid "general 
purpose" flours such as General Mills, Pillsbury, etc for this 
purpose.  What King Arthur calls "General Purpose" flour is 
already harder than the mainstream brands.  This is particularly 
true in the Southern states, which have a preference for softer 
flour, so the General Mills, Pillsbury, etc meant to be sold 
there are formulated differently than the same brands sold in New 
England.

Best of luck!  This is a good time to be making pretzels -- they 
are one of the symbols of Lent.

--Old Marian