UW-Stout Archives: Celebrate the end of the school semester with soft, flaky, no-yeast pretzels!

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Celebrate the end of the school semester with soft, flaky, no-yeast pretzels!

Whether you are a K-12 student, college student, teacher, parent, or work in the education system, celebrate the end of the semester, and National Pretzel Day on Monday April 26^th, by preparing a fun treat for yourself, Danish inspired Pretzels, found in Around the World Making Cookies, by Josephine Perry, 1940, TX771.P4 1940.

This semester we are featuring recipes from cookbooks located in the UW-Stout Archives Special Collections. The Special Collections are older, more rare, or Stout related books that were originally located in the UW-Stout Library’s main stacks collection. This past year we added a wealth of cookbooks to the special collections, and I scoured the shelves for recipes to bring the world of baking to your home during this time.

Recipe Card

Before trying this recipe, I found many variations of pretzel recipes, and modified my original recipe to include steps from other recipes. Variations include using or not using yeast, the types of ingredients in the pretzels, dipping the pretzels into a pot of hot water and baking soda before baking them, spreading a beaten egg wash onto pretzels before baking (which I added to my recipe), sprinkling with salt or sugar, spreading butter on the pretzels after they are baked, adding cheese to the mix, and the list goes on. If I make them again, I will probably roll the dough into longer strips to make bigger pretzels. This first time, I kept my dough strips flat after cutting them. The pretzels came out soft and flaky, with a light, crispy bottom. They taste like biscuits. As I am from Wisconsin, I love dipping a soft, salty pretzel into a bowl of hot cheese sauce. Pretzels are also good sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. If you are subscribed to the Discovery Plus platform, I suggest checking out the Magnolia Table cooking show hosted by Joanna Gaines. She has an episode all about appetizers, and creates yeast-based pretzels and a cheese dipping sauce that looks amazing! Bon Appetit!