Germany Starter – Pretzels (Brezel)

Starting with a classic — Pretzels! When we were fortunate enough to visit Berlin back in 2018, we found a little café round the corner from where we were staying that made delicious pretzels and other treats. With those fond memories, it made a lot of sense to learn how to make them ourselves.

We found a wonderful recipe from BBC Good Food which was very simple to follow and gave us a great result.

Most of the ingredients can be found in your kitchen cupboards already, so this is a fun recipe to follow on any random weekend — as long as you have the free time, it is a little time consuming!

After the final dough was kneaded it had a glossy quality which was quite interesting for us, as we haven’t made a dough quite like this before. We hoped it meant we were doing something right!

Once the dough was shaped into the classic pretzel form and proved again, it was time to give them the distinctive skin that adds the perfect pretzel texture. Fortunately we were making these in winter so it was very easy to find a cold window to place them in front of!

After the cold burst, they were boiled in water and baking soda before being covered in salt and baked in the oven.

The rock salt really was the star of the show here — some was added before the oven and some after. This can be adjusted based on personal preference, but we really felt it boosted the flavour.

We served them with a beer and cheese sauce from The Inspired Home — possibly the best dip we’ve ever made!

Let us know on social media if you give these a go — we’d love to see your pretzels!