(OT) Brezeln!

Too hot here in the morning to go out for a Zweirad-ride

So I decided to try to make Brezeln... Never made before, it's a long time I wanted to make but I never found the right moment.

[Blockierte Grafik: http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/576/brezelnlz6.th.jpg]

Here they are (including 2 salt-free for my girlfriend :)). An error I made is that I shaped them too small, so at the end of baking they looked like Krapfen instead of Brezeln , they taste great all the same. Next time I'll shape bigger.

Gruessen

Simone

Zitat

Original von Hetzer

No, thinner.

Or thinner, right.

Wow, the Brezeln-affair hehehe

Thanks to everybody for replies. @ Hetzer: that's exactly how my Brezn looked like before baking... except for the colour. Oven heat and yeast have inflated them.
Anyway I found them both thinner and thicker: the ones I bought in Südtirol where thinner, harder and about 10 cm in diameter; while the others I ate in last "SeptemberFest" were thicker, softer and about 20-25 cm in diameter. (Both were extraordinary!)

Grüßen

Simone

Zitat

Original von Motte
@ Muffler 82: My wife is from Munic and she's missing it very much (we life in Zurich). She loves those Brezels: could you post the recipe here? (seriously) -> I will bake them for her then...
Thanks! (They do look too big, but beside that very nice, respect!)

Ooooops! Sorry for my late answering but I've been far from the Forum during last days!
Here's the recipe I followed:

- 500 g of wheat flour (not particularly fine: here in Italy we refer to it as a 0-type flour);
- 250 ml of water;
- 20 ml of oil (I've used maize oil; NOT olive oil because its strong flavour -expecially for the one we have here in Tuscany! - could affect the final product's flavour);
- a teaspoon of sugar;
- a teaspoon of table (fine) salt;
- some kitchen salt;
- 10 g of brewer's yeast.

VORSICHT! I've used a solution of caustic soda to create the Brezn's outer brown crust: somebody uses a solution of sodium bicarbonate, in different proportions, but the effects (colour and flavour) are not the same.
On the other side, caustic soda is more dangerous to handle (it can cause severe burns!): so, be VERY CAREFUL during its use. (How could you operate the Dekohebel if your fingers are gone? ;))
A solution of 30 g of caustic soda in 1 liter of cold water is OK to gain the result: put the cold water in a plastic bowl, and add caustic soda LITTLE BY LITTLE. Mix water with a ladle or spoon while adding, and keep on mixing until water is clear and transparent again. Notice that the bowl's temperature is increasing. (It should not reach dangerous temperatures anyway.) Put then the bowl apart until passage #3.

Description:

1) Work half of the flour with 2/3 of the water, the yeast and the sugar. When you'll reach a soft mixture, let it stand for (at least) an hour.

2) Then, work the mixture with the other ingredients, except for the kitchen salt (it will be put on Brezeln before baking). Add the oil as the last one: it's only to make the mixture more elastic. Work it very well, no lumps have to remain there. After, let it stand another time for 15 minutes.

3) Then, form the Brezeln: take a part of the mixture, lengthen it by rolling to reach a cylindrical strip and twist it... as a Brezel :).
Take then the so formed Brezel and plunge it entirely in the caustic solution (one second is enough!), a ladle could greatly help during this operation. When taking the Brezel out of the solution, be careful to shake it enough to make it loose as more caustic solution as possible.

4) Then, gently put the Brezel on the oven board (now, if you want, you can slit the upper side) and sprinkle with kitchen salt. I put a sheet of "greaseproof paper" (oven paper) on the oven board, to prevent the Brezeln from sticking.
Repeat passages #3 and #4 for the other Brezeln, then put them in the oven at 200°C for 20 minutes, or until they reach their brown colour.

Let me know how they taste!

Grüßen

Simone