A Short History of the Pretzel

So one of the first things I've been dying to try in my poor man's kitchenaide is soft pretzels.

Pretzels have a long and interesting history.Though no one is quite sure how they originally started making them, they can be traced back to a monastery in Northern France/ Southern Italy where monks used scraps of dough to represent a child's arms folded in prayer. The 3 holes represented the trinity. The monks offered the warm, doughy bribe to children who had memorized their Bible verses and prayers. The monks called it a Pretiola, Latin for little reward. From there, the pretzel transformed into the Italian word, Brachiola, which means little arms.

Pretzels later worked themselves into medieval culture as a quick snack from a vendor. They came to represent good luck, prosperity, and became somewhat of a logo for fairs and festivals.

A legend exists of a young apprentice baker who fell asleep while the pretzels were baking. Woken up to the bellowing from his teacher at ruining them, the young baker tried them. They were crispier, nuttier, and even preserved longer. Fortunately for him the baker ended up loving them, and thus the hard pretzel was born.

Paintings have even helped us identify pretzels. Check out this reference from The Kitchen Project.  Click on the photo, and then zoom in on your browser of this painting. The painting is by Pieter Bruegel in 1559, and is called "The Fight Between Carnival and Lent." If you zoom in on the lower right corner, you'll find pretzels!

Pretzels have been used at weddings for a long time in Europe as sort of a wishbone. The spouse with the larger half assured their wishes would be fulfilled, and it became a symbol of prosperity. From this the now common phrase "tying the knot" originated.

German's have quite an intricate history with the pretzel.  Pretzels traveled from Europe and quickly adopted the chewy treat. Pretzels began showing up as dinner with two hard-boiled eggs on Good Friday, the day of fasting. the pretzel represented everlasting life, the eggs representing rebirth. Eventually parents began hiding them on Easter morning for their children to find, which led to to the tradition of the Easter Egg hunt.

The German Bavarian pretzel originated by accident as well. A Munich baker named Anton Nepomuk Pfannenbrenner is said to be an employee of a small business that made sweet pretzels. On February 11, 1839 mistook a soda/lye solution for the syrup normally used to coat the pretzels. Amazingly, no one died and it was a delicious mistake! The Bavarian pretzel, with it's thicker brown chewier shiny crust was born!

Skip ahead a little, and pretzels first came to the states with the colonists. Pretzels were first made in the homes. The first commercial pretzel is said to have been made in Lititz, just outside Pennsylvania Dutch country. Their was even a museum there at one point, but sadly it is closed now. Too bad to, I'd love to add it to my list of museums I've visited. Guess the salt and pepper shaker museum will continue to remain top of my list of strange museums for now....

A few other pretzel fun facts....

*Pretzels top some Christmas trees in Austria.

*Some Germans wear pretzels around their neck at new years for good luck.

*Pretzels without salt are called baldies.

*National Soft Pretzel Month is in April.... they have a month for everything now a days ehh?

*Helen Hoff is the world champion pretzel twister, twisting 52 per minute. Wow, that's pretty quick!

*Freepoint, Illinois High School has the pretzel as their mascot. Apparently the town had two major industries, beer and pretzels. Glad they chose the pretzel as the mascot! Go Pretzels!

I had all intentions of making this part of my post about pretzel making, but I didn't realize the long and intricate history of pretzels! Pretzel recipe and pictures to follow on the next edition of the Urbanbreadmachine...

Have a pretzel fun fact? Found another painting with pretzels in it? Have a personal pretzel story? Leave a comment!

Pumpkin and Sunflower Seed- loaf 2

Well this proved to be an interesting loaf... I've made this one before several times, but when I went to make it for my weekly challenge, something didn't come out quite right.  I don't get it normally, this is a great recipe. I suspect I might need a different type of yeast, as I've changed to my bulk jar off brand kind from the farmer's market instead of the packets I had laying around.


Oh course this happens on the week where I'm not just making 1 loaf, I'm making 3. I intended to have 10 hungry women to feed on Friday, and had planned on turky sandwiches on fresh homemade bread. Unfortunatly the ice in Atlanta had different ideas, so now I need those three loafs... for next week. At least I hadn't bought the lunch meat yet.


Here's the recipe for a normally pretty tasty loaf, that was only moderately tasty this time.

Pumpkin and Sunflower Seed Loaf


1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tbsp. liquid honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup pepitas (green pumpkin seeds)
1/8 cup of sunflower seeds without hulls
2 tsp. (10 ml) quick-rise (instant) dry yeast


First all of the liquid ingredients go in the container. Pretty huh?

Honey can be messy to measure, but sugar content I'm told has great affect on bread so it is best ot measure it. If you have a recipe that uses both oil and honey, measure the oil first, and then in the same measurement spoon without rinsing, measure the honey. The honey then plops out without sticking to the spoon. I can usually get 2 tablespoons of honey out of the spoon easily per every one spoon of oil, so if you're using a recipe with a lot of honey, you could space out the oil inbetween spoonfulls.

Next come all the dry ingredients. I used more of a half and half with the wheat flour so the bread isn't as heavy. I've heard vital wheat gluten added can help make pure whole wheat bread less heavy, I may have to give that a try. The whole grains are healthier than the bleached flour.

After that it's time to start adding crunchy stuff. You can very the seeds to your liking. The you really can't start tasting the flax seed until you add it in very large amounts. Flax seed gives a nutty texture. You can purchase flax seed whole and grind it in your food processor. Unground flax seed passes through the body without the body absorbing the nutrients, so it's best to grind it.

Green pumpkin seeds or pepitas as they are called give nice bits of crunch to this bread. Pepitas are essentially hulled regular pumpkin seeds. I'm a big fan of sprinkling them on salads or adding them to trail mix for a yummy crunch. Also yummy on steamed vegtables in any recipee you'd add nuts to, and you can even make pesto aout of them subbing them for pine nuts. They have a lot of health benifits in moderation, including protecting men's bone strenth, anti-inflamatory for arthritus, and lowering cholestrol.

Lastly, make yourself a volcano for the yeast. Maybe it was the yeast, maybe it was that I tried to make the loaf on the delay setting, but something just didn't work out as well this time. The Friday loaf was much shorter and denser, take a look, same reciepe and machine. I've also got to figure out how to make loaf without lal the bumps on the top. Hrmmm...

So Wednesday night I baked a loaf, Thursday night I delayed a loaf until morning. Friday I got up, took it out, exclaimed so exclamatives that it didn't look as tasty as others I've made, and then decided that maybe it would be best of have some more Rosemary Loaf on hand. The boy courageously braved the icy driveway to pick more rosemary.... that was also covered in snow and ice, but still alive. Since when do we have snow that sticks around in Atlanta?

Shortly after the bread machine started cranking the Rosemary loaf, we canceled the meeting I needed 3 loaves for in the first place. So the boy and I ate fresh rosemary loaf when it came out for Linner (lunch/dinner) and the neighbors birds had a feast with the stubby loaf.

I give the pumpkin and sunflower seed loaf 3 loaves. It's normally good, I just don't know what happened. Anyone else have any ideas? Did yours come out good when you tried this recipe? Is it my yeast?