Pretzels

banner
Preparation info
  • Makes

    16

    • Difficulty

      Medium

Appears in
Making Bread at Home

By Tom Jaine

Published 2005

  • About

There are two sorts of pretzel (called brezeln in German). One is a hard and salty biscuit that helps sharpen the thirst for a long cool drink of beer, the other is a larger and softer salted bread sold especially in America, having been brought there by German immigrants in the 19th century.

The name refers to the shape, which is very ancient made by early Christians as a Lenten bread, the crossed arms symbolizing the Cross. The derivation of the name is from the Latin bracellae, ‘