Pretzels & lye bread
There are 12 products.
Pretzels, lye rolls and lye croissants owe their glossy brown crust and distinctive flavour to a brief dip in a sodium hydroxide solution. This category brings together everything for lye pastries and pretzels, from the lye itself and coarse salt to the protective equipment you need.
What you will find here
- Ready-to-use lye in a 1-litre bottle and lye pearls 500 g for mixing your own solution
- Coarse pretzel salt and bicarbonate of soda for a milder alternative
- Lye cloths in three sizes for placing the dipped dough pieces on
- Lye-resistant gloves in S, M and L and lye-resistant safety goggles
- Pretzel cookie cutter with ejector for pretzel-shaped biscuits
How to work with lye
Leave the shaped dough pieces to dry slightly so that the surface firms up a little. Then dip them briefly in the lye, let them drain and sprinkle them with pretzel salt. When using lye pearls, always add the pearls to cold water, never the other way round. If you would rather not use lye, you can poach the pieces briefly in water with bicarbonate of soda; the crust will be paler and the flavour gentler.
Safety when using lye
Lye is corrosive. Always wear gloves and goggles when handling it, and work in a well-ventilated room. Do not use aluminium baking trays, as lye reacts with aluminium; stainless steel or enamelled trays lined with baking paper are suitable. Store lye tightly closed and out of the reach of children. You will find further gloves and aprons under Gloves & aprons and yeast for your pretzel dough under Baker's yeast.
With a little preparation and the right equipment, you can bake pretzels with a deep brown, bakery-style crust at home, safely and cleanly.