Root Beer Rye Pretzels

Recipe (printable PDF)

Deities Anonymous Stories #4
EXCERPT: 

Anyway, our household? Not big on Hanukkah gifts.

But Grandma had given me a present—and only me. There are a few advantages to being the only male of my generation on either side of the house. First-born male has a certain gravitas in a Jewish household, especially to someone as traditional as Grandma, which I totally bought into because of how much it irritated Miriam.

It was one of Grandpa’s first recipes from when his grandpa had first taken him to Schwartzman and Sons deli—back when Gloucester was more about fish and less about tourism. Except it was a recipe I’d never seen before, despite playing in the flour bins there since before I could walk.

The index card, faded to mud-brown and handled until it was as soft as fine leather, was covered with a child’s scrawl. Half the ingredients were blurred past recovery. I could see there were a lot of steps, but the ones I could read made no sense. Of course, neither did the title.

Root Beer Rye Pretzels.

Grandma tapped the old card with a thwack of her knitting needle almost hard enough to scrape away a few more clues. “You make that. Make it good like your Grandpa. It will be very good for you.”

My instinctual agreement to one of Grandma’s mandates is what had earned me Miriam’s, You’re an idiot! assessment once she’d managed to read the title. Which only made me twice as determined to resurrect Grandpa’s recipe.

---

NOTE: Makes 12 pretzels.

Active time: 30 minutes / Cook time: 20 minutes / Total time: 1-1/2 hours

Ingredients - Wet

• 4 c. high-quality root beer (artisanal is recommended). Simmered until reduced by half to 2 c. then allowed to cool to room temperature. Do not boil or the sugar does strange things. (If off-the-shelf root beer, go from 6 c. to 2 c. to concentrate the flavor.)
• 1/4 c. butter
• 1 Tbsp. caraway seeds
• 1-1/2 tsp. salt

Ingredients - Dry

• 2 packets fast-rising yeast
• 200 g. rye flour
• 500 g. bread flour (all-purpose flour will create a slightly lighter texture)

Ingredients – for the Boil

• 2 Tbsp. baking soda
• Kosher salt (reserve to sprinkle on top)

Making the Dough

1. Place dry ingredients in a large or stand mixer bowl with a dough hook. Combine well.
2. Place all wet ingredients into a pot and heat to 110°F, stirring to dissolve salt. Don’t overheat. (You can still hold your finger in it comfortably.)
3. Pour of heated wet mixture slowly into the bowl with the flour and yeast, while mixing to combine.
4. The dough should be moist but not wet. Not sticking to the bowl or gluey on hands. If the dough is too dry, add a tablespoon at a time of fresh root beer or water. If too wet, add 1-2 tablespoons of bread flour.
5. By hand: 8 minutes. In a stand mixer: 6 minutes on low then 2 minutes on second-lowest speed.
6. Cover and let rest 45 minutes in a lightly greased bowl in a warm place until doubled in size. (On a chilly day, consider placing inside the oven with just the oven light on.)

Making the Pretzels

7. Preheat oven to 400°F (after removing the rising dough).
8. Heat several quarts of water in a wide, deep pan (a wok is about perfect).
9. From here work relatively quickly to avoid the dough drying out.
10. Punch the dough down, knocking out much of the air. Fold over itself a few times until the dough starts to fight back. Roll out into a thick log, 2-3” across.
11. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces of about 100 grams. Roll in a circle against a dry counter under your loosely cupped hand to make a ball.
12. Flatten each piece into a rectangle about 3” x 4”, then fold the long sides inward (see photos below).
13. Roll into a long rope under your hands on a clean, dry surface. Work the pressure from the center outward until about 15” long. Set aside and let rest while you prep the others.
14. Start again with the first rope. A five-minute rest relaxes the gluten for the final roll out to at least 24”.
15. Again starting with the first, give it a final roll as the dough will have contracted a bit. Then hold the dough by the ends in a U-shape. Either with a quick spin in the air or laid flat on the counter, create one-and-a-half twists near the ends of the dough. Rest onto the counter and fold so that the twist lies in the center of the U and the crossed ends land on the base of the U-shape (see photos below).
16. Pinch the ends into the dough. An additional dab of water under each end helps to anchor it in place.

Cooking the Pretzels

17. Add the baking soda to the pan of boiling water.
18. Drop 3-4 pretzels at a time into the boiling water so that they can float without being crowded. Boil for 15 seconds, flip, boil for 15 seconds more. Remove with a slotted spoon and place them on baking sheets covered with a Silpat, parchment paper, or lightly greased.
19. While they’re still wet from the boil, sprinkle with just a dash of Kosher salt (too generously and it overwhelms the subtle root beer flavor).
20. Repeat with the rest of the pretzels.
21. Bake for 18-20 minutes until darkish brown.
22. Serve with a brown mustard or honey mustard sauce for an extra kick.

From the left: flattened out, folded in thirds, and after the first roll out to 15”. (This photo was from a poppy seed test batch.)	One full U-shape pretzel twist.
Twisted 1-1/2 times and folded over. Pinch the tails into the ring, a little dab of water between them helps.	A root beer rye pretzel with salt (use less than this) just waiting for a dip of mustard.

 

Recipe (printable PDF)