A taste of the past . . .

Growing up in South Central Pennsylvania in the 1950's and 60's provided an opportunity to experience a variety of PA Dutch food dishes and treats. It seems to me that we are most fond of the things that we first experienced that were enjoyable, and in this case, absolutely delicious tasting! I'm talking about soft prezels! Not the ones sold in malls and airports, not the ones soaked in butter, not the ones frozen and you bake at home, nope . . . we talking about authentic PA Dutch-style soft "bretzels" that were available at roadside bakeries, small town delicatessans, and Mom & Pop bake shops where I grew up.

A soft bretzel, made the PA Dutch way are of a character all their own! A bagel-like outer crust, impregnated with coarse salt, and the inner "guts" were a very fine, soft, bread-like treat in and of itself. Right out of the oven. steaming hot, covered with mustard . . . didn't get any better than that . . . as a kid you'd hear adults say: "this is better than sex" . . . but we had no idea what they were talking about till much later! Today, the sex part is pretty darn good . . . but damn it, the pretzels are almost impossible to find.

I remember 2 sources for these pretzels from my youth . . . the Distlefink Drive-In and Jones' Deli in the Gettysburg area. I'm sure there were others, but these two I remember.

Recently, I've embarked on a quest to make them from scratch . . . discovering early on that it will be a long and arduous endeavor! The recipe is out there . . . somewhere . . . but for the time being, I will have to content myself with trail and error baking experiments in an effort to "get it right" . . .

Above, I posted a photo of my first try . . . looks like them, kind of tastes like them, but the first batch lacked the "fluffy guts" that is such an important characteristic of the real deal . . . but I take solice in the notion that it all comes down to the composition and ingredients of the dough, so there is hope!

I've read dozens of articles on the subject of soft pretzels and how they are made in the German tradition. I'm a little skeptical about bathing them in food-grade lye solution before baking them, and with the price and dangers associated with lye solution, will preserve that as a "last option" in my quest to replicate the perfect soft "bretzel" of the past!