Updated: 2023/04/22
What is German-born bread and baked confectionery pretzels?
A department store in my neighborhood introduces a variety of bakeries on a monthly basis. Pretzels caught my eye while passing by today. A bread with a unique knot shape that originated in Germany.
The first time I ate pretzels was in Germany. A colleague brought some at coffee time at 10 o’clock. What shocked me was the salt grains sprinkled on top. Salt grains of about 1 mm cube were found on the smooth, dark brown surface, and that salty taste characterize the taste of pretzels.
However, after that, I discovered that there was the other type of pretzels that was similar in shape but completely different in size, thickness, and texture. The name was the same as pretzel, but this one was sold in the appetizers/ snacks section of the supermarket, with longer shelf life. It seems that there are two patterns worldwide, the bread type and the snack type.
How the unique color of pretzels made?
What is most impressive about pretzels are their skin. It has a deep brown color and a smooth surface, which is not found in other breads. Pretzels are soaked in sodium hydroxide solution before baking and the color is created when the sodium hydroxide solution reacts with carbon dioxide during baking. The color looks like caramel sauce, but pretzels don’t contain sugar, so they’re bread for meal. If you put vegetables or ham in between and make a sandwich, the color will be perfect.
How nutritious are pretzels?
I’m curious about the nutritional value of pretzels, but I couldn’t find the nutritional value of bread types in the Japanese food standard table. So, I checked the database of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and found as below (compared with plain bread and croissants for reference).
Pretzels are low in fat and surprisingly low in salt equivalent. The salt grains on the surface have an impact, but probably no salt is used in the dough. The reason it’s higher in calories than plain bread is because it’s densely packed with less water. That’s why pretzels seem more filling than bread.
By the way, there is a type of pretzel that has butter inside, called a butter pretzel. This type, which has plenty of butter in the thick part, has a forbidden deliciousness that matches the taste of the unique dark brown skin with salt and butter. I couldn’t find the nutrition facts for butter pretzels on the USDA FoodData Central. It depends on the amount of butter, but it might be better to enjoy it once in a while.
