Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Burger Brezel (Burger Pretzel)


The traditional pastry that I am featuring today is called Burger Brezel (Burger Pretzel). They were  originally produced in an area around Burg Castle (Schloss Burg) in a region called Bergisches Land (North Rhine Westphalia). The Town of Burg nowadays belongs to the City of Solingen, world-renowed for the production of incredibly good kitchen tools such as the Wüsthof or Zwilling knives and scissors.




The Burger Pretzel is an artfully looped, manually produced pastry made with a lighty sweeted yeast dough. According to tradition, around the year 1795, a wounded French soldier from Burgundy stayed with the family of a baker in the Town of Burg while he recovered from his injuries. In his other life he was also a baker and it is said that he left his recipe for Pretzel with the Burg family as a way to show his gratitude for the care that he had received during his recovery. Based upon his recipe, the recipe for Burger Pretzel was developed. At first the recipe was kept a secret but a couple of years later,  almost every little town in the area had a baker who produced Burger Pretzel.

Last month, we received a copy of the traditional recipe for Burger Pretzel during  Pretzel Day at the outdoor museum.




So-called Kiepenkerle (peddlers transporting their wares afoot carrying wooden back frames and panniers) sold the Burger Pretzel throughout the region and beyond. And while we were visisting the museum that day, a woman wearing the traditional gear of the Pretzel vendors distributed the Burger Pretzel.




Today only a few bakeries still exist which produce the Burger Pretzel by hand and according to the traditional recipe. The traditional four-time loop of these Pretzel cannot be achieved with machines.




The Burger Pretzel differs from other Pretzels in its appearance. According to its size it has a minimum of four or five twists in its middle segment. In order to twirl the knot of the Pretzel (Schnackenstock), the baker throws a string of dough in the air and “spins” it by hand. Characteristically, the Burger Pretzel becomes hard and crispy within a few hours after baking. Its crust is golden brown and  it tastes a bit like rusk.

During the Pretzel Day, pictures of different forms of Pretzels were put on display. Here you can see the basic shape, the original shape as well as the Burger Pretzel shape with the traditional four-time loop, the Bavarian, and the Swabian shaped Pretzel.




Today, the Burger Pretzel is often served as an integral part of the menue of the so-called Bergische Kaffeetafel, an afternoon meal somewhat resembling an English Afternoon Tea and still very much alive today, in homes as well as in restaurants. On special occasions, when guests are expected or family celebrations are planned, everything that the country farm in the Bergish countryside can and could provide was put on the table.




The opulence of the food emphasized the special hospitality of the region and attracted many city dwellers out into the green countryside to enjoy eating sweet yeast buns (with or without raisins), various black and rye breads, sweet spreads as well as hearty things to put on your bread like honey, pear- or apple butter or sugar beet molasses.




There was also butter, quark, and cheese, in addition to blood pudding and liverwurst, ham as well as various cakes and, in some places, boiled or scrambled eggs. Another essential item is rice pudding with cinnamon and sugar and freshly baked Bergish waffles with hot sour cherries. And the Bergische Kaffeetafel is always dominated by the Dröppelminna (Coffee Maid), a special coffeepot made of pewter. While enjoying your coffee, it is traditional to dip the Burger Pretzel into your coffee.




Since 2010 the Burger Pretzel has been a passenger of the so-called Slow Food’s Ark of Taste (Arche des Geschmacks). The international project of Slow Food lists about 1.000 endangered, but regionally important products and points the public to the loss of food culture. In the region of the Bergish countryside (Bergisches Land),  a group has initiated a campaign to save the Burger Pretzel by organizing baking workshops, gastronomic weeks and special events like “German Bread & Butter Day”.




Recipe for Burger Brezeln (Burger Pretzel)
(translated and adjusted slightly from a recipe by the working group for the Burger Pretzel/Arbeitskreis Burger Brezel)

The recipe yields 10 to 12 pretzels

Ingredients for the Pretzel
  • 20 grams fresh yeast
  • 250 ml lukewarm whole milk
  • 500 grams AP (plain) flour or spelt flour 
  • 75 grams sugar
  • 50 grams unsalted butter room temperature or 50 ml of a neutral oil
  • a pinch of salt
  • sugar for decoration (optional)

Preparation of the Pretzel
  1. Dissolve the fresh yeast in in the warm milk. 
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, butter and salt.
  3. Add the dissolved yeast to the flour mixture and knead the dough either by hand or using your mixer with the dough hook for about five minutes or until the dough comes together and looks homogenous.
  4. Let the dough rest for about thirty minutes or until it has doubled its volume.
  5. Divide the dough into twelve portions.
  6. Roll each portion first into a bun shape and then into a strand of about 35 cm.
  7. Then form a loop and twist the ends around each other for four times, then lay them under the middle part of the loop to form a Pretzel.
  8. Carefully place the Pretzels onto a parchment lined baking sheet and let them rest for about thirty minutes.
  9. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Brush the Pretzels with a bit of water  - at this point you could also decorate them with sugar.
  10. Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned. 
  11. Transfer to cooling racks and serve the same day with butter and jams or store in tins or jars.



NOTE: the Pretzel will taste like sweet buns on the first day and they can be kept for several months if stored properly – at that point they will taste like rusks and can be enjoyed by dunking them into coffee or tea.





I  baked one batch using spelt flour (Dinkelmehl) and no sugar for decoration (you can the the results on the first and eighth picture) and the second batch with regular all purpose flour (Weizenmehl Type 405) and sugar (you can see the results on the forth, tenth and eleventh picture). Both times the Pretzel turned out wonderful - the recipe is easy and forgiving and we liked to eat them the same day while they were still soft and tasted a bit like regular sweet buns.



For more information regarding the Working Group for the Burger Pretzel and the local chapter of Slow Food, please click:

www.burgerbrezel.de
or
www.slowfood.de/biodiversitaet/die_arche_passagiere/burger_brezel






28 comments:

  1. What a fun blog post! I love your photos--these pretzels looks so tasty! Good job.

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    1. This is quite a delicious and easy recipe and these Pretzels are fun to bake - thanks for the kind words!

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  3. Great post Andrea. Love the photos - my favorite has to be the last one, the one of the tractor peeking out - lovely shot. Your pretzels look delicious, and I'm liking the shape a lot! Too bad it will be a lost art. Hopefully the Slow Food's Ark of Taste can save it!

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    1. Cathleen, this post took a while to put together but I am glad I did and it was quite interesting to learn all about these almost forgotten Pretzel.

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  4. What a fun and interesting post, these pretzels look amazing!

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    1. Chris, thank you so much - I was not sure at first about writting this post but now that I finally finished it, I hope that it is fun and a bit entertaining to read.

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  5. What an interesting post. I have never heard of Burger Brezeln. They sound wonderful. I hope the Ark of Taste can save them. It sounds like they have made a solid start. Here in California we have a number of crops that are on the Ark - Gravenstein apples for one. The work Slow Food does is so important, but so is the work of people like you who bring these things to the attention of your readers. Thank you for the enlightenment.

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    1. Thank you very much for your lovely comment - I had noticed that your blog carries the Slow Food (US Chapter) button, it is actaully the first blog that I noticed that carries it. Respect. Actually, as a member, I was planning to contact the German chapter about being allowed to put their link/logo on my blog too because their work is so very interesting and important.

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  6. Homemade pretzels are one of the most delicious things. I love eating them with a big pat of butter! :)

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    1. Thank you, Ashley - pretzels are always a wonderful treat whether they are sweet or savory and I agree with you that a pat of good butter makes them even more enjoyable.

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  7. What a lovely post, Andrea.
    Your pictures are amazing. It's a pleasure to follow you on your culinary journeys. They are always so interesting.
    I love this dough (it reminds me of our Zopf Bread Dough) and I love Pretzel, Brezel and any xxrezel :-)

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    1. Carola, thank you for your lovely comment - the Bretzel taste similar to the widely popular "Zopfbrot" when you bake them with AP flour and add sugar for decoration. And they taste more rustic when you bake them using spelt flour and no added sugar. Both are wonderful.

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  8. Everything about the burger brezel is interesting Andrea. I love the four time loops and the way it dries out but is still eaten! Such wonderful traditions.

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    1. Paula, when the pretzel dry and taste like rusks, they can be used for the traditional "dunking" ("zoppen") - which peolple from the area love to do.

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  9. I have been meaning to make more pretzels for years...I think this beautiful shape was what I was waiting for! LOVE these!

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    1. Thank you, Liz, I was so taken by the four-time loop that I started an assembly line in my ttiny kitchen for a few days, trying to get the right shape for these pretzel. It was a fun project I must say.

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  10. Andrea, I have to say that I always enjoy your posts that deal with history, whether it applies to a mill you have visited or a food that we might not have heard of before....wonderful job and recipe.

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    1. Thank you, Karen, I really appreciate all your wonderful and kind comments - sometimes I am a bit unsure about these posts as I think they might be a bit on the "heavy side" but they always reflect my personality, the foods and places that I love and hold dear.

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  11. Love this post, Andrea! Such interesting history, and a lovely look into your part of the world. I just pinned this and I definitely plan on making them. Thanks for the recipe!

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    1. Thank you very much for the kind words, Kathy! Always appreciate your wonderful comments!

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  12. I enjoyed reading about the history of the burger pretzel so much. I had no idea there were so many different kinds. I really enjoy them hot with some mustard. Yours look wonderful and I love the twisted part in the middle. It must have been a treat to visit the farm and see the woman wearing the traditional dress.

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    1. Elaine, makes me happy to read that you enjoyed my post on this regional specialty! Thank you very much for the nice comment, it means a lot to me!

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  13. I've been thinking about making pretzels, and this post is great motivation. Yours look delicious - and I love your photos too!

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    1. Beth, thanks so much, if and when you get a chance to bake some Bretzel, do let me know how they turn out, please!

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  14. Pretzels are one of the baked goods of my dream. One day I would love to make them at home. Do you have any baked goods that you haven't baked or are afraid of making? :) I think you bake pretty much everything!

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    1. Nami, there are too many recipe to count of things that I have not found the time to bake yet - but I always appreciate a challenge in the kitchen, how else would I be able to try to improve my skills.

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