“Locke put up his hands and tried to stand up; one of Jean’s fists grew in his field of vision until it seemed to blot out half the world. The blow folded him over like a bread-pretzel. When he recovered something resembling his senses he was hugging a table leg; the room was dancing a minuet around him.”

–The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch

Thoughts:

This recipe is slightly more of a stretch than I usually indulge in, but I really like pretzels, and they’re so easy to make at home. The addition of some darker flours, such as rye and pumpernickel, tweak the pretzels into something just slightly different than we are used to.

Serve the pretzels still warm from the oven. Not being a big mustard fan (sacrilege!), I love eating my pretzels with honey. :)

Recipe for Bread-Pretzels

Cook’s Notes: Although this recipe calls for several types of flour, you can also use plain, unbleached flour as a substitute for the quirkier varieties. This will result in a more American style plain pretzel, which is also delicious with a dusting of salt and some mustard, but lacks that slight otherworldly element of the recipe below.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups room-temperature water
• 1 Tbs. instant yeast
• 2-3 cups bread flour, plus more for kneading
• 1 cup pumpernickel flour
• 1 cup rye flour
• 2 Tbs. brown sugar
• 2 1/2  tsp. salt

Water bath:

• 6 cups water
• 2 Tbs. baking soda
• toppings: try kosher salt, herb salt, caraway seeds, sesame seeds, parmesan, or a combination thereof