Bake It!: Polish Soft-Baked Pretzels

This weekend, Boston got slammed by a blizzard. A real life blizzard. Two feet of snow, whipping wind, snow drifts, the whole nine yards.  There is something about snowy or rainy days that inspire the baker in me.  Maybe it is the cold outside that inspires to create something warm and comforting inside.

Pretzel Baking Weather

As a first-generation Polish-American, I often find myself gravitating toward recipes that reflect my heritage.  My grandfather was a baker in Poland before he came to America, so perhaps I inherited some of my inspiration from him.  I imagine that these pretzels are something he would have made and sold in his bakery in the 1950s.


These Polish homemade pretzels are called precle domowe (PRREHTS-leh doh-MOH-veh).  They are delightfully golden brown on the outside and soft, tender, chewy on the inside.  A baking soda-water bath takes the place of the lye bath common used on German pretzels.

After two hours of shoveling out my driveway, I rewarded myself with a Long Trail Ale and started my Polish pretzel making adventure.

Precle Domowe (Polish Homemade Soft Pretzels)
Yield 12 pretzels

For dough:
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
4 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled

For boiling:
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda

For topping:
1 large egg, beaten + 1 tablespoon water (aka egg wash)
coarse salt or seasoned salt like Borsari
sesame seeds (optional)

Making the Dough:

• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine water, sugar, salt, and yeast.
• Wait 5 minutes until the mixture starts to bubbly.
• Add flour and melted butter.
• Using the dough hook attachment, mix at low speed for 5 minutes, then increase to medium speed and mix another 5 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic and cleans the sides of the bowl.
• Transfer dough to greased bowl and cover with a cloth.  Let stand in warm place for 1 hour to allow it to rise.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Divide risen dough into 12 equal parts.
• Roll each piece into a rope about 24 inches long and form into pretzel shape.

• Longer the rope, the thinner and more traditionally the pretzel will look.
• Shorter the rope, the thicker the pretzel. And if its especially thick, you can use it as a sandwich roll
• Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and lightly coat the paper with cooking spray.
• In a large stockpot or dutch oven, bring water & baking soda mixture to a boil.
• Drop as many pretzels as will fit comfortably into the boiling baking soda-water mixture (my dutch oven held 4 pretzels at a time).
• Cook for 30 seconds on each side and transfer to prepared cookie sheet.
• Brush with egg wash and sprinkle on coarse salt, seasoned salt, or sesame seeds
• Bake 12 minutes or until golden.
• Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Of course, these pretzels are best warm right out of oven.  You can store the extra (if there are any left) in a air-tight container.  Reheat by warming in the toaster oven.

Tried this recipe? Leave a comment or tweet me at @lostinlaliland

Polish Pickle Soup - Just Like Babcia Makes (sort of)

I am a person who is exceptionally proud of my heritage.  

I'm 100% Polish.  Both my parents were born there and immigrated to the US when they were pre-teens. My brother and I were born in the States but thanks to Mom, Dad, and our grandparents, we grew up to be very appreciative of our culture.  

Baby Brother and I

We spoke Polish before we spoke English and spent countless Sundays, holidays, and summer nights at Babcia and Dziadzia's (grandmother and grandfather) house, eating delicious Polish food.

Babcia and me.

I love all my grandparents but my maternal grandmother, Babcia Kazia, and I have a close relationship.  She also happens to live downstairs from me.  With her so close and the fact that she just turned 84, I want to make sure that I learn as many of her Polish recipes that I can.

However, there is a slight problem.  None them are written down.  Every thing that she makes - pierogi, golabki, soups, pastries, etc. - she makes from memory.

So all of the recipes I will be attempting to make will be based on how Babcia tells me to make it, along with some slight variations of my own and some I picked up from my mom - not from any actual recipes.

1st Recipe: Polish Pickle Soup (trust me, it's delicious!)

I wanted to tackle this recipe first - one, because it is my FAVORITE soup and two, because it doesn't require a whole lot of prep work like some of the other Polish dishes.  Felt it was best to ease myself into this without getting overwhelmed and discouraged.

This is what you'll need to get started:

2 boxes of chicken stock (or 8 cups of your own)

celery, diced

carrots, diced

potatoes, diced

1 jar of Polish pickles (those in brine are the best)

oatmeal

pepper

sour cream & dill for topping (optional)

Oatmeal?  Yea, oatmeal. Most recipes for this soup call for milk, but my mom's best friend said to use oatmeal to thicken the soup.  This works out great for me since I don't drink milk.

• Add chicken stock, celery, carrots, potatoes, and oatmeal (I used about 3/4 of a cup) and bring to gently boil, until potatoes are fork tender.

• While the stock is heating up, use a box grater to grate the pickles. 
• The pickles in brine are the best because they add great flavor and salt to the soup, but they may be hard to find.  I get mine from the Polish market down the street from my house.  If you can't find them, regular polish pickles will do, but you might have to adjust the seasoning to get the right flavor.

• After the potatoes are cooked, add the grated pickles.  Mix well and let the soup come together for a little bit (like 3-4 minutes).  No need to add salt if you used pickles in brine.  I just added some pepper and little bit of this Polish seasoning I had.

And that's it.  You've just made Polish Pickle Soup!

nom nom nom

Serve with a dollop of sour cream & chopped dill if you'd like.

So as we say in Polish - Smacznego!