Last week, an urgent communiqué was received from the European home baker’s underground via the Joe Pastry international signal station at Nova Scotia. It read: CHEESECAKE RECIPE NEEDED IMMEDIATELY. STOP. MUST BE NEW YORK-STYLE. STOP. NOT TOO HEAVY. STOP. NONE OF THAT GUMMY TEXTURE OR CHALKY DRIED-OUT EDGES NONSENSE. STOP. AWAITING REPLY. STOP. OVER. I’ve […]
READ ONSince I started pretzels over a week ago, I’ve been inundated with myths I’d never heard of before. There’s the one about the baker’s apprentice who burned some bread “braids” while his master was out on morning deliveries. There’s the one about how the Swiss gave them as gifts at wedding ceremonies, thus giving birth […]
READ ONHappy Super Bowl weekend to everyone! Back with more baking shenanigans next week!
READ ONIs this a Joe-style afternoon snack or what? Home made pretzels are another one of those things that will amaze you for their simplicity and make you wonder if you can ever be happy with the store-bought variety again. As you already know from the recipe below, my version calls for a stater. You want […]
READ ONReader Matthew chimes in with this key point: You’re missing one component in your discussion of why people use lye for pretzels. I learned this a few years ago when I compared several of the alternatives you mentioned against the lye-dipped pretzels. Only lye-dipped pretzels really taste like pretzels! It is a difficult flavor to […]
READ ONYou know we’re coming close to reaching the pinnacle of our civilization when even small local doughnuts shops are producing masterpieces like this: the maple bacon doughnut. I was given this artwork this morning and it was all I could do to contain myself long enough to take the picture. Crispy-sweet-salty-tender…oh mama, that’s the stuff.
READ ONJim C. of Chez Jim offers this article on the history of pretzels. For those of you who don’t (and I know I don’t), he offers this helpful summary: Hoefler says indeed that in old High German, the word meant bracelet and that it was eaten for Lent. He also suggests that it was linked […]
READ ONA few football fan readers who don’t keep bread starters at home have asked what suggestions I have for them with the Super Bowl fast approaching. The easy answer is to go conventional and just find a likely straight dough pretzel recipe somewhere on the internet (King Arthur Flour has several good ones). However before […]
READ ONWhat would any tour of bogus food myths be without at least a stop at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the most baking-intensive conflict in the history of man? Quite poor, methinks. To get a sense for how this one goes, start with the standard story about how the croissant originated there, and merely […]
READ ONReader Jacki writes in with this: You mention a “chewy” inside. Does this mean you have been talking about soft pretzels this whole time? I thought it was hard pretzels that you had been describing. Could you clarify, and maybe explain the difference between the two? I certainly can — because historically speaking, they’re one […]
READ ON