The secret isn't the shape. It's the bath. 🥨

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Let's talk about the one thing that turns a knot of dough into a real pretzel.

When you dip your shaped pretzel into boiling water with baking soda stirred in, you turn that water alkaline. That high pH is the whole game. It's what gives you the deep brown color, the chewy skin, and that flavor you can't get any other way. The browning fires fast and hard in the oven because of that bath. Not from gluten. Not from scoring. Not from steam. The bath.

𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗻𝗮𝗶𝗹:

🥨 Baking soda, not lye. You do not need lye at home. Plain baking soda gets you ninety percent of the way there, and it's safe and already in your cupboard.

⏱️ Thirty seconds, quick in and quick out. Go too long and the surface turns gummy with a metallic taste. Remember, the water's a treatment, not a cooking step.

📆 Saturday we're baking these together. You've got three recipes waiting for you, classic yeasted, sourdough, and a kids version, all in the Recipe Pantry and ready to go.

🪑 Pull up a chair, bring your questions, and don't sweat how the first one looks. The ugly ones taste just as good.

Perfection is not required. Progress is.

🙏 Please, while you're there hit like and subscribe.✔️ It helps us more than you know. Thank you very much

~Henry ⭐🔥

28 comments

The secret isn't the shape. It's the bath. 🥨