Celebrating the Pretzel!

Flip, twist, and bake!

Today’s Doodle, freshly baked by Esther’s German Bakery, celebrates the one and only pretzel—one of the world’s most versatile and beloved foods! As Oktoberfest, the Bavarian fall festival, begins today, Brotfrauen (or bread ladies) will be carrying baskets of chewy Brezeln through Bierhallen (massive tents) in Germany, the center of Oktoberfest revelry.

The history of pretzels is a tale with many twists and turns, and some of the accounts over the centuries are still debated to this day. Made without dairy or eggs, pretzels have long been considered a staple during Lent. One of the more colorful pretzel legends involves a group of monks baking pretzels in a Vienna basement who overheard an invading army tunneling under the city walls in 1510. As a reward for helping to thwart the invasion, the pretzel bakers received their own coat of arms. Another story claims that the expression “tying the knot” refers to the 17th-century Swiss custom of using a pretzel during wedding ceremonies.

The soft pretzel’s unique texture is achieved by dipping the dough in a lye solution just before baking, resulting in a chemical process known as the “Maillard reaction.” Smooth and brown on the outside, chewy on the inside, soft pretzels are best eaten fresh. Julius Sturgis in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was the first to bake them until they got hard, extending their shelf life and allowing them to be shipped far and wide. In 1947, the Reading Pretzel Machinery Company unveiled a pretzel-making machine that cranked out up to 250 pretzels per minute! 

An up-close look of the freshly-baked Doodle!
 

Over half a century later, pretzels are just as awesome as ever, whether hard or soft, salty or sweet, buttered or plain, a bag of pretzel sticks from the supermarket or an extra-large Brezel at Oktoberfest.

Noch eine Brezel, bitte! (Another pretzel, please!)

Pretzel Baker Q&A with Jamie Orlich

The pretzels in today's Doodle were hand-flipped and baked by Berkeley-based baker Jamie Orlich at Esther’s German Bakery. Below he shares his thoughts behind making baking of this Doodle:
 

Q: What do you love about pretzels?

A: I like the challenge of consistently getting them right when I’m making them. And I’m always striving to make them identical. It’s a challenge to make the perfect pretzel.
 

Q: What makes for an authentic pretzel? 

A: The texture, flavor, color, size... they’re all important. A lot of people make pretzels and they’re really different. We make an authentic pretzel here and it all has to be right.
 

Q: Are you able to share any secret ingredients or techniques that make a great pretzel?

A: Relating to the dough is key. You need to relate the pressure of your hands to the dough, and that can all depend on the state and temperature of the dough. For example, if you roll the pretzel dough with your fingers and you have your fingers spread apart, it’ll break more easily. It can create peaks and valleys in the dough. Even if your fingers are together, you have contours there, which comes out in the dough. It can make a big difference. At the ends where the dough is thinner, I use my whole palms because it’s a flat surface. 

Early storyboard by art director Sophie Diao