When I made these, I wasn’t that pleased with them, thinking that the outside should be crisper and the centre less dense. But then Hannah, my daughter, who’s been to Berlin twice, told me that they are just like the ones she bought there. My judgement was based on ignorance rather than knowledge!

Next time, though, I think I’ll leave them to rise a little after shaping and before boiling. I’ll also try different toppings: poppy seeds, sesame, celery seeds, etc. These use bicarbonate of soda – really traditional ones use lye – yes, believe it or not, they use caustic soda in commercial production.

Ingredients

500gm flour
285gm water
1 teasp salt
20g oil or softened butter
1 packet ‘instant’ yeast
1 egg yolk for glaze
Coarse sea salt for topping

Also
A pan of boiling water with 2 tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to each 500 mls water.

Use oil and omit the egg yolk for a vegan version.

Method

Make a dough with the first five ingredients.
Leave to rise until doubled in size.
Put the bicarb’ into the pan of boiling water and preheat the oven to 200°C.
Knock the dough back and cut into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 20″ (500mm) long.
Shape into a pretzel and boil gently in the water for 30 seconds, then drain.
Mix the egg yolk with a little water and brush the pretzel with it, then sprinkle with coarse grain salt.
Bake in the oven until brown, about 10 – 12 minutes.

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