August 5, 2013 - 4:07am
Pretzel Buns
The recipes for both the Pretzel Sandwich Buns and Maple Mustard Chicken Salad appear in the August 2013 King Arthur catalog. The easy to make buns are soft and taste like soft pretzels; the chicken salad is delicious. I roasted one chicken breast and two thighs (both boneless) at 325°F for the meat.
David G
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Cute buns, David. really beautiful. have you applied lye?
-Khalid
Hi, Khalid,
I've not used lye. I use baking soda or simply malted barley when I make soft pretzels or bagels. Seems to yield a nice dark, smooth and shiny crust. I don't even know where I could readily obtain food grade lye. I guess its available on the Internet.
David G
Great color for not using lye. Well done
Those look great Dave. I was going to make some this week as well. I use the lye which I ordered on-line. Mine come out great with the lye but I have not tried to see what the difference is with the baking soda.
...have always been flavor, mouth-feel (texture on the tongue) and eye appeal: in that order. I've found I get "good enough" color in bagels using barley malt extract in the water bath, baking soda for pretzels, and egg wash for challah, croissants, cinnamon buns and other sweet breads when appropriate. I also, sometimes, use baking soda glaze on rye breads.
During the Cold War it was rumored that the Soviet Admiral that ran their navy for twenty-three years had a sign on the wall behind his desk that, when translated to English, read "Better is the enemy of good enough.".
I've adopted that same philosophy in many activities in my life, including baking our daily bread.
David G
Hi,
I got my Lye here: http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query=%22sodium+hydroxide%22
Mirko