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The #streetsfoodchallenge is officially here with its first recipe - Classic Pretzels but veganized!
As you're probably already aware, pretzels are a type of baked snack food made from dough. They come in both hard and soft varieties, as well as salty and sweet flavors.
One of the most popular street food in the world!
But what do you know about this delicious treat?
The origins of the pretzel have been heavily disputed, and its evolution no less tumultuous. Certain (unverified) sources claim the pretzel first appeared back in 610 AD, when a monk in Italy baked strips of dough and folded them into a criss-cross shape as a reward for those of his students who had learned their prayers. These were called ‘pretiola’, Latin for ‘little rewards’.
But the historic tale of the pretzel gets even more heroic. During the 16th century, the Ottomans attempted an invasion of Vienna, burrowing a tunnel under the city wall at night. Little did they know though that a few of the city’s residents would still be awake. Monks baking pretzels in the monastery were working through the night and were said to have heard the digging. They rapidly alerted the city to this, whose defences responded and thwarted the Ottoman attempts at invasion. The bakers were later rewarded with their own coat of arms, made of up of a number of angry-looking lions holding a pretzel that can still be seen hanging above the doorways of European bakeries today.
By the 17th century, the interlocking loops of the pretzel had come to symbolize undying love as well. Pretzel legend has it that in 1614 in Switzerland, royal couples used a pretzel in their wedding ceremonies (similar to how a wishbone might be used today) to seal the bond of matrimony, and that this custom may have been the origin of the phrase “tying the knot.” In Germany—the country and people most associated with the pretzel throughout history—17th-century children wore pretzel necklaces on New Year’s to symbolize good luck and prosperity for the coming year.
When did pretzels make their way to America? One rumor has it that the doughy knots came over on the Mayflower, and were used by the Pilgrims for trade with the Native Americans they met in the New World. German immigrants certainly brought pretzels with them when they began settling in Pennsylvania around 1710. In 1861, Julius Sturgis founded the first commercial pretzel bakery in the town of Lititz in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Sturgis also claimed credit for developing the first hard pretzels—or at least, for being the first to intentionally bake hard pretzels (rather than leave the soft ones in the oven too long by accident). The crispy snacks lasted longer in an airtight container, allowing them to be sold further away from the bakery itself and to stay on shelves longer. Eventually, hard pretzels would come to be arguably even more popular than their soft counterparts.
Until the 1930s, pretzels were still manufactured by hand. But in 1935, the Reading Pretzel Machinery Company introduced the first automated pretzel maker, which enabled bakers to put out some 245 pretzels per minute, compared with the 40 per minute an individual worker could make by hand. Today, Pennsylvania remains the American pretzel-making capital, as a full 80 percent of U.S.-made pretzels come from the Keystone State. *source
Find the recipe below!
Prep: 1 h 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Level: medium
Servings: 10 pretzels
Calories per serving: 133 kcal
Find the recipe & nutrition facts below :
For the dough:
1 cup warm water
2 tbsp sugar
1 packet dry yeast (7 gr.)
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp coconut butter (melted)
For the soda bath:
4 cups water
3 tbsp soda
For brushing:
2 tbsp coconut butter (melted)
small crystals of salt
Method:
Step 1: In a medium bowl mix together warm water with sugar, and add the dry yeast. Set aside for 10 mins.
Step 2: In a large bowl place flour and add in salt, melted coconut butter, and yeast mixture and start mixing until you form a non-sticky dough. Grease the bowl and place the dough in there
Step 3: Cover with a towel and let it sit in a warm place for an hour.
Step 4: On floured surface form from your dough around 10 balls. with hands create a long rope around (45-50 cm long) twist the ends together and press into the middle of the rope to create a pretzel shape. Let them rise for 15 minutes.
Step 5: Meanwhile prepare a water bath by bringing to boil water in a deep tin then add the soda.
Step 6: On a large spatula place one pretzel and dip it into the boiling soda bath for 5 seconds. Place the pretzel carefully on the baking tray covered with baking paper. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Step 7: Preheat oven to 220C.
Step 8: Brush bagels with melted coconut butter. Sprinkle with some salt.
Step 9: Bake them for around 15 minutes.