Soft Pretzels, Cooking Temps

Batch four of the soft pretzels is in the books. People are getting sick of pretzels so I'll go back to pizza or popcorn or something different for a while after this batch. This batch is a double batch of pretzels. I didn't alter the recipe from the last time. The only alteration was that I tried less kneading. Closer to the no knead method. It worked itself out after two days in the fridge.

For this I wanted to try different cooking temps and toppings. This time I've made four pretzels like normal, and four were cooked at 425. I've egg washed them and baked them as usual. One half were made with poppy seeds, and the other half with coarse sea salt.

(please read the results after the break.)

Higher Cook Temp Results:

The pretzels cooked at a higher temperature had a thicker crust and a darker crust. They looked good enough and tasted a bit more crusty. Both were well liked and passed the taste test. I prefer the lower cooking temps and lighter crust. the twisting makes the crust look very nice.

Where to Next:

I think that I would like to try sesame seed pretzels, or fancy(parmesian, asiago, romano, etc.) cheese pretzels. My mother suggested cheese injection, but that sounds complicated. I'd also like to give butter crust a try. These pretzels have been well received and the people who have had them have seemed to have really liked them, but I am going to shift gears to avoid pretzel fatigue.

A side by side comparison: