The Original Seasoned Pretzel Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret ingredient which makes a pretzel taste like a pretzel? ›

But it's the distinctive "pretzel" flavor that makes this bread extraordinary. That comes from dipping the shaped dough in an alkaline solution — traditionally a small amount of food-grade lye dissolved in water — before baking.

Dot's Homestyle Original Seasoned Pretzel Twists are braided and dusted with this original, top-secret seasoning blend. Each pretzel twist envelopes your taste buds in a delightful swirl of buttery, sweet and spicy tang.

What is this? It was big news when small town North Dakota woman Dot Henke sold her famous Dot's Pretzels business to Hershey's in 2021 — big, as in $1.2 billion big. So how did Henke, a farm gal from the tiny town of Velva, North Dakota, create such a recipe for success?

An Italian monk teaching children in Northern Italy is said to have invented soft little pretzels and called them pretiola or little rewards, to reward children for learning their prayers. He is said to have made the treats with little arms forming the 'knot', to resemble little arms crossed of children in prayer.

According to King Arthur Baking, lye and caustic sodas are used in the process of baking pretzels because lye's reaction to the pretzels, much like baking soda, gives them that chewy texture, light interior, and brown crust.

Traditional Bavarian pretzels are dipped in a lye solution before they are baked. Lye, also known as sodium hydroxide, is essentially the same stuff that's used to make soap and clean drains. It can even dissolve glass.

Dot's Homestyle Pretzels have a unique flavor that is described as a combination of salty, spicy, and tangy. The pretzels are coated with a special seasoning blend that includes garlic powder, onion powder, mustard powder, and other spices, which gives them a bold and savory flavor.

Before growing into a beloved, national brand, Dot's pretzels were first created as a special family snack in a home kitchen in Velva, North Dakota. They became part of the Hershey Company family in 2021.

Hershey plans to close its Dot's Pretzels factory in Velva, North Dakota, as the company looks to cut costs and increase production capacity at other locations in its manufacturing network.

The addition of Dot's Pretzels accelerates Hershey's snacking powerhouse vision by adding to its portfolio the fastest-growing scale U.S. pretzel brand, representing 55 percent of the pretzel category's growth during the past year.

How much did Hershey pay for Dot's pretzels? ›

Hershey Completes $1.2B Buy of Dot's Pretzels | Food Manufacturing.

The pretzel company was acquired by Hershey in 2021 alongside Pretzels Inc. in a deal worth $1.2bn. Dot's Homestyle Pretzels was set up in 2011 in North Dakota by founder Dot Henke.

Pretzels may be better than some fatty chips, but four out of five nutrition experts surveyed by Time say if you're trying to eat healthy, pretzels shouldn't be your go-to snack. Although pretzels are low-fat, they are also pretty paltry on the protein and fiber front, and they can be quite high in sodium and carbs.

The monks used the pretzel's distinctive knot shape to represent the Holy Trinity, with the three holes in the pretzel symbolizing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This theory also ties the pretzel's history to religious practices and traditions.

So goes one version of the story. Fact and lore sifted together over 1,500 years like flour and salt in a bowl eventually turn into truth the way a few simple ingredients become bread. Today, pretzels symbolize the Christian Lent, when the faithful spend 40 days fasting or focusing on some other devotional practice.

Yeast – Use instant yeast (or rapid rise yeast), not active dry yeast. Brown Sugar – Brown sugar helps give the classic flavor to our pretzel dough, and provides sugar for the yeast to feed on. Do not omit this! Salt – Salt provides flavor!

Lye. The dough is simple; take a basic yeast-risen dough that can be readied in an afternoon. But the trick to great pretzels is dipping the pretzels in a liquid wash before baking — and not just any wash, but a combination of water and lye. That's what gives pretzels their terrific color, texture and flavor.

Salt is the most common seasoning, or topping, for pretzels, complementing the washing soda or lye treatment that gives pretzels their traditional skin and flavor acquired through the Maillard reaction.

They're Boiled, Not Baked.

The dough is first shaped into a long rope and then boiled in water before being baked at a higher temperature than bread. This process creates a distinctive pretzel shape and gives them their unique taste.