Friday, July 04, 2008

Brezeln!

In honor of the Germany vs. Spain Euro Final, I tried my hand at making my first yeast bread by baking Brezeln, or, as we know them, pretzels. It's actually quite easy, and the recipe I found seemed pretty authentic. Unfortunately, Germany lost - but the food was good!

The dough is easy to work with and shapes well.

Before baking, the brezeln need to be boiled in water and baking soda,
kinda like the way bagels are, to produce that chewy goodness.


Here they are, all puffed up and cute
and sprinkled with coarse sea salt.

They really do puff out of control...next time I make
these I'll make them skinnier to begin with.

Here it accompanies some typical German fare: Leberkäse
(literally "liver cheese" in modern parlance, but really meant to
indicate something like "meat loaf," though not at all like our
American version, as you can see) and German potato salad,
which is sans mayo - it's made with vinegar, oil, and mustard.
Bier, of course, is a necessary part of the meal. Any meal.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I think the ghosts of my German ancestors just let out a collective cry of joy. I want to reach right into the screen and snatch a Brezel for myself :).

If you feel like honouring Spain at some point, have you ever had Spanish hot chocolate and churros? So bad for you, and yet so good. I probably gained about eight pounds when I was there, largely due to those little fat and sugar bombs!

janjan said...

:) Churros sound very tempting. I was thinking of making something appropriate for the 4th today...not the usual fried chicken or BBQ but maybe something Martha Washington would've cooked up. Hmmm.