Pretzel

Pretzels are a basic type of wheat flour bread native to Germany. They are easily recognised by their traditional twisted knot shape, which looks somewhat like two crossed arms within an oval. The dough is briefly dipped in lye water and then salted before baking.

There are two major varieties of pretzel: soft (also known as a bread pretzel) and hard. The traditional pretzel is soft and fairly large, and is best eaten hot with spicy mustard or cheese. It may also be sliced horizontally and used to make sandwiches. The hard, crunchy variety is smaller than the soft variety (about 10 cm by 8cm), although snack pretzels may be smaller still - about quarter of this size. Unlike soft pretzels, they are soaked and baked immediately after they shaped, instead of letting them rise a final time.

Although they are more commonly formed into a twisted knot shape, both hard and soft pretzels may also be formed into other shapes such as sticks and wedges. They may also be coated in a variety of toppings, such as sesame seeds, poppy seeds and even chocolate or yoghurt.