Pretzel Rolls

I encountered my first real Bavarian pretzel when I was in Munich for Oktoberfest in 2008.  For the two days we spent there, I think there were only a few moments where you would find me without a big knotted pretzel in my hand.  So you might ask, "What's the big deal?  Aren't they the same as any other pretzel?"  To which I would reply, "Hell to the no."  They aren't like those "soft pretzel" things that you find at the ball park, which aren't soft at all.  Real Bavarian pretzels are truly soft and also chewy and have plenty of coarse salt sprinkled all over.  As you can see, I never stopped thinking about them. Ah... I feel like a forlorn lover, separated from her one true love by miles of land and sea.  Well, I am forlorn no longer.

Awhile ago, Phil suggested to me that I learn how to make pretzel rolls.  My reaction was, "Buh?  What's a pretzel roll?"  Well, it's a roll that tastes like a pretzel!  Those Germans.  Engineering geniuses.

The recipe I used can be found here.

As I've learned from Alton Brown, real Bavarian pretzels are first boiled in a bath containing lye.  Yeah, you know... the same stuff that Tyler Durden uses in Fight Club to burn a kiss into Ed Norton's hand.  Lye is an alkaline and it is used to create the deep color and crispness in the crust that is associated with pretzels.  All recipes that I've found online use a bath with baking soda, also an alkaline.  I've made these rolls twice now, and both times I've reached the deep dark brown that I was looking for.  Although, the crust isn't as hard as I would expect from a pretzel.  Phil didn't find any problem with that and neither did I so baking soda is ok by us.

Proof that these rolls were good:

11:03 AM Phil: pssssst

11:04 AM no more prezel rolls

  need more

  please

 me: lol

  ok

 Phil: :)