Though he is often described as a traditional baker, Erbel was enthusiastic about experimenting with Christian Scharrer of Courtier, a two-star restaurant on the Baltic Sea, for whom he baked green bread using dried algae. He ships potato rolls with olives to Luce D’Oro, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Bavaria, and 10-pound sourdoughs to Steinbeisser, a company that stages pop-up dinners in Amsterdam. “His breads are as unique as his fingerprints.” Erbel’s loaves are special enough that German and other European chefs order them rather than buying bread from more-local bakeries. “Arnd Erbel is really a bread artist,” Dan Leader, the James Beard Award–winning founder of New York bakery Bread Alone, told me before I arrived. Erbel bakes some in his shop, like the Laugenstange, a long roll resembling an oversize cigar.Įrbel’s skills and commitment to an older way of doing things have earned him a reputation well beyond German borders. In Germany, there is a whole family of baked goods with a smooth dark-brown crust known as Laugengebäck (literally, “lye bakes”). (Edward Norton’s hand in that grisly scene in Fight Club was lye at work.) The chemical evaporates from the pretzel’s surface in the oven, but not before speeding the Maillard reaction that gives so many foods their crust, aroma, and distinct flavor during cooking. He then put on rubber gloves to prepare to dunk each uncooked pretzel in lye, a strong and caustic alkaline solution that has the power to burn flesh. Today, you can find them at the counter of any German bakery or beer hall, but also around the world: No other German food item has traveled as far and wide as the pretzel.Įrbel rolled 25 pretzels by hand, twisting them effortlessly into knots, like a school kid playing cat’s cradle, and left them to rise for two hours.

Pretzels were once so special that Medieval painters would dab a few on the table of the Last Supper, and for centuries, pretzel-shaped signs were the emblem of bakers and their guilds, hanging above doorways as a symbol that you could find fresh-baked breads inside. While Americans tend to see soft pretzels as a simple snack eaten at ballparks or mall food courts, Germans cherish them as a national symbol. It was fitting, then, that he was baking Breze (as they are called in Bavaria), German-style soft pretzels, a baked good that originated in European monasteries in the Middle Ages. With his bald head and round glasses Erbel appears more monkish than almighty. He sees himself more as bread’s humble servant: “My being is here to help with sourdough.”

“I’m not a bread god,” he told me in his bakery kitchen after I arrived. Tell us at few days before I visited baker Arnd Erbel in his southern German bakery, a Hamburg newspaper described him as a “bread god.” Erbel’s breads are renowned among baking connoisseurs and served in many of Germany’s best restaurants, but he was not comfortable with deification. 21410 or write to us at PO Box 6917, Hanover, PA 17331. To receive our catalog filled with great gift ideas, call 1-80, ext.

Today, with so many Snyder's of Hanover varieties and flavors to choose from, the only question is which is your favorite America's favorite pretzel brand. Our tradition of quality began with a family recipe formulated over a century ago. Perfect on their own or with cheese or hummus for a tasty snack - so many ways to enjoy! We slow bake our wholesome delicious pretzels using only the finest ingredients. They're fun! They're super crunchy! They're flavorful! Just what you expect from a Snyder's of Hanover snaps pretzel. We are not connected with 'Snyder of Berlin', Berlin, PA 15530. See nutrition information for sodium content. Snyder's® Of Hanover Snaps Pretzels Bonus Bag! New look! America's pretzel bakery since 1909.

Pretzel snap art