Hard or soft, salted or
seeded, butter dipped or not, seasoned with herbs and/or spices, anyway it is
made, is always a treat. Can you guess
what this baked goody is? The
Pretzel.
The origins of the pretzel
are dependent on which country is telling the story. 600s Italy, a monk created the “pretiolas”
(little rewards) to give to good children who had memorized their prayers. The shape represented the arms of the
children, crossed while saying their prayers.
The French have a similar story referencing a monk, while Germany tells
of bakers held hostage and forced to bake for royalty and high officials of the
church. However, the earliest
documented (key word for historical evidence) is from 1185 Germany. An illustration of pretzels appeared in the Hortus Delicarum, a manuscript compiled
by Herrad of Landsberg, at an abbey in Alsace, which was, then, a region of
Germany. Bakers’ guilds displayed the
pretzel within their crest.
By the 1400s, the pretzel
had become a sign of the Holy Trinity, given out for the Christmas holiday, and
even hung on trees. In the 1700s, German
immigrants followed William Penn to America, and his state of Pennsylvania
(Pennsylvania Dutch aka Amish). In 1861,
Julius Sturgis opened his pretzel bakery in Lititz, PA which offered up soft
and hard pretzels to consumers. Story is
that his factory was the first to develop hard pretzels, and no, it was not due
to a baker falling asleep while pretzels overbaked. The crunchy, salty snacks lasted longer in an
air tight container, than soft pretzels did.
This allowed them to be sold in stores far away from Lititz, and kept on
shelves much longer. Roy and I have
visited this historic place several times, and highly recommend, if visiting
Lancaster County, PA, to put this on your touring to-do list. Besides getting to feast on delicious
pretzels, hands on experience in pretzel twisting is part of the factory’s
tour. (https://juliussturgis.com/)
Personally, I feel so lucky that I was able to
experience, during childhood, getting a huge (as big as my head!) soft pretzel
from a street vendor. A pushcart full of
soft baked pretzels, kept warm from the heat of glowing charcoal. The saltiness mixed with a smoky aroma, the
soft consistency giving comfort physically and mentally. Talk about complete satisfaction!
Soft pretzels can be found
in your grocer’s freezer; who has not heard of “Super Pretzel”? However, I recently found a company called
“Eastern Standard Provisions Co.” (https://esprovisions.com/), located in Maine, and the photographs on their
website made my mouth crave soft pretzels.
The website describes their soft pretzels as, “a pretzel with the airy
qualities of a brioche on the inside and a traditional Bavarian-style crust on
the outside.” Sold!
I purchased the “Love at
First Bite” gift box which included five Wheelhouse pretzels and 3 types of
salt. Paying attention (see, I can!) to
the instruction guide, the oven baked the pretzels to perfection. Soft and blissfully chewy, the salt was a
crisp bite which tickled the tongue, and the butter smeared on, before baking,
had permeated the interior.
 |
| Spread butter onto pretzels |
 |
| Press salt onto butter |
 |
| After baking. |
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| Inside, pretzel is hot, soft and buttery delcious! |
Now whether you decide to
try this product, or purchase the one from the market, here’s a huge hint;
always bake them! Microwaving ruins the
entire experience.
Want to try your hand at
making your own? There are so many
recipes located online, video demonstrations, and in baking books. You will not know which recipe is right for
your tastes, unless you try. The San Juan Record Bookstore offers a
variety of genre, including cooking and baking.
Stop in and see if one of their books has the right recipe for you.
