30
20
10
0
Units of fat to 100 units of flour
0 10 20 30
Units of sugar to 100 units of flour Pretzels recipes shown
5.3 Enrichment of pretzel recipes shown.
5.2.2 Pretzel knots, by sheeting and cutting
Recipe no. 3 4 5
Type product pretzel pretzel pretzel sponge
flour, medium 13.04 13.64
fresh yeast 0.11 0.04
added water 13 8
dough
sponge dough as above as above
flour, weak 100.00 86.96 86.36
dough fat 4.00 1.09 3.45
salt 1.00 0.87 1.30
fresh yeast 0.38
added water 35 22 36
Critical ingredients Flour, the protein content should be as shown and between batch uniformity is important.
Mixing One stage for straight doughs, two stages for sponge and dough method. Recipes 4 and 5 involve a sponge and dough technique and 3 is a straight dough. Disperse the yeast in some of the water and keep away from salt in the straight dough.
Dough handling Sponge doughs are fermented for 5 hours or more and the subsequent dough for only a short time.
Dough piece forming Traditional pretzel knots were formed by hand from continuous extrusions as for pretzel sticks (see below). Now they are nor- mally formed by sheeting and cutting or by rotary moulding. Removal of the centre pieces of unwanted dough after cutting requires some engineering ingenuity and various techniques are used.
After cutting, the dough pieces pass through a lye bath. The lye is a 1 or 2 % solution of sodium hydroxide (more rarely a 2 % solution of sodium car- bonate) at a temperature higher than 65 °C. The dough pieces are in the warm lye for up to only 20 seconds but this is enough time for the alkaline solution to produce a skin of starch degraded to dextrin and it is this that gives the characteristic dark brown and shiny surface during baking. After passing through the lye bath, and before baking, it is normal to dust with a small amount of coarse crystal or flake salt.
Baking on a wire mesh band at temperatures typically, 240, 220, 200 °C for c 4–10 minutes depending on the size of the pretzels.
The enrichment of pretzel recipes in given in Fig. 5.3.
5.2.3 Pretzel knots by rotary moulding
Recipe no. 6 7 8
Type product pretzel pretzel pretzel
flour, weak 92.85 100.00 100.00
cornflour 7.15
granulated sugar 5.30
invert syrup 70 % 5.30 5.33
malt extract 80 % 0.50
dough fat 4.52
margarine 7.00 7.00
lecithin 0.12
amm. bic. 0.35 0.60 0.60
salt 0.50 2.00 2.00
SMS 0.033 0.033
fresh yeast 1.07
added water 32 21 21
Critical ingredients Flour, the protein content should be less than 9 % and between batch uniformity is important.
Mixing Ingredients all in together. Doughs to be rotary moulded must be much tighter (lower water content) than those for sheeting and cutting.
Dough handling It is not normal to allow any fermentation time and the quality of the product is generally harder and more dense than the sheeted products.
Dough piece forming Rotary moulding. The dough pieces pass through a lye bath and may have salt applied before baking in the same way as for the sheeted products in 5.2.2.
Baking on a wire mesh band at temperatures of 240, 220, 200 °C for c 4 minutes.
5.2.4 Pretzel sticks (by extrusion)
Recipe no. 9 10 11
Type product sticks sticks sticks
flour, strong 97.00
flour, weak 100.00 100.00
cornflour 3.00 4.76
malt extract 80 % 2.83
dough fat 1.94 4.80 17.60
amm. bic. 0.50 0.05 0.09
soda 0.35 0.8
ACP 0.30
salt 1.89 1.0 2.4
SMS 0.090
fresh yeast 2.47 1.90
added water 45 38 32
30
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Units of fat to 100 units of flour
0 10 20 30
Units of sugar to 100 units of flour Pretzel sticks recipes shown
5.4 Enrichment of pretzel sticks recipes shown.
Critical ingredients Flour, the protein content should be as shown and between batch uniformity is important.
Mixing One stage. Disperse the yeast in some of the water and keep away from salt in the straight dough.
Dough handling About one hour fermentation.
Dough piece forming By extrusion. The dough is softer than for sheeting and cutting and is continuously extruded through nozzles of about 4 mm diameter. The ‘ropes’ produced pass through a lye bath and are dusted with salt as described in section 5.2.2. Before baking a cutter nicks the ropes (making a partial cut as the ropes are too soft and sticky to make a com- plete cut) and the sticks easily break at these points after baking.
Baking on a wire mesh band at temperatures of 240, 220, 200 °C for c 6 minutes.
The enrichment of pretzel sticks recipes is given in Fig. 5.4.
5.2.5 Chemicals present in the recipes of this group
From the database of all recipes in this group of crispbreads and pretzels it is found that aeration is often achieved by the use of yeast with fermentation.
Only a minority use ammonium bicarbonate and where this is so the average amount is 0.35 units.
Surprisingly few recipes use sodium bicarbonate so product pH control is clearly unimportant.
All use salt in the recipe and at the high average level of 1.46 units. This means that many of these products are very salty in taste because salt is often applied as a topping before baking.
5.2.6 Secondary processes
The salty and snack nature of these products means that no secondary process is used. Full coating of crispbreads with chocolate has been known but is currently rare or non-existent.
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Units of fat to 100 units of flour
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Crackers, water and puff biscuits
Units of sugar to 100 units of flour
5.5 Enrichment of crackers, water biscuits and puff biscuits.
30
20
10
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Units of fat to 100 units of flour
0 10 20 30
Units of sugar to 100 units of flour Cream crackers
5.6 Enrichment of cream cracker recipes.