The pretzel is part of an ancient Lenten tradition, according to Kendra Tierney Norton, a Catholic author and mother of 14.
“My understanding is that pretzels themselves were developed specifically as a Lenten food,” Tierney Norton, founder and CEO of Catholic All Year, a blog dedicated to liturgical living in the home, said. “My recipe … is not old-timey Lent appropriate, but they can be made without eggs or dairy, which in previous eras were not eaten by Catholics during Lent.”
Tierney Norton shared her recipe, located below, which she enjoys making with her family during Lent. Both she and Father Johann Roten, S.M., scholar in residence at the University of Dayton in Ohio, spoke separately with Our Sunday Visitor about the tradition.
“It actually became a Lenten tradition, it started out in Rome, according to the Vatican Library,” Father Roten said, referencing a library manuscript that dates back to the 5th century with an illustration of what looks like a pretzel.
“I checked that out, and indeed there is an illustration which can be — can be — interpreted as a pretzel,” said Father Roten, who has written about pretzels as a Lenten tradition before.
Even the shape points to the pretzel’s purpose, Father Roten and Tierney Norton revealed.
“The traditional, unusual shape of pretzels is intended to look like hands in prayer — with kind of a twist,” Tierney Norton said. “It’s to remind us of the prayerful season of Lent.”
Father Roten said that in all of the different descriptions of the pretzel, the shape “highlights the closed arms.”
He added: “In the Latin language, you call these things bracellae — and bracellae are little arms — and that is something that confirms, if you want, the use of it made during Lent, meaning you eat less and you pray more.”
The recipe
Tierney Norton’s recipe for Lenten soft pretzels, which is also available at Catholic All Year, lists the equipment needed and the ingredients used to make pretzels. They take 45 minutes to make, with 30 minutes for preparation and 15 minutes for cooking.
“This easy recipe makes chewy yeasted homemade soft pretzels,” Tierney Norton writes at her Catholic All Year blog. “My kids love to help make the Lenten pretzels, even if the ones they make don’t necessarily end up looking exactly pretzel-like.”
To Our Sunday Visitor, she added, “They’re something that’s really fun for kids to be involved in — and I’m a big fan of letting kids mess stuff up in the kitchen because that’s how you make memories and that’s how you inspire kids to want to cook on their own later.”
Lenten Pretzels
Equipment
–Stand mixer
–Measuring glasses
–Baking sheet
–Parchment paper
–Large stock pot
–Bowl of water for salting
–Ingredient bowls
Ingredients
For the pretzels:
–1 1/2 cups warm water, around 100°F
–2 1/4 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast, 1 standard packet
–1 teaspoon salt
–1 tablespoon brown sugar
–1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and slightly cool
–3 3/4 – 4 cups all-purpose flour, spoon and level plus more for rolling
–Coarse salt for sprinkling
For the baking soda bath:
–1/2 cup baking soda
–9 cups water
Instructions
Make the dough:
- Combine the yeast, water, salt, brown sugar and melted butter in a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add one cup of flour and mix with a wooden spoon or the dough hook attachment of the mixer. Repeat with the 2nd and 3rd cups of flour. Then add more flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough is no longer sticky and will bounce back when you poke it with your finger. Knead the dough in the mixer or by hand on a floured surface for 3 minutes. Form the dough into a ball on your work surface, wrap it lightly with a tea towel and leave it to rest for 10 minutes.
Prepare the baking soda bath:
- Combine the 1/2 cup baking soda and 9 cups of water in a large pot on the stove, and bring it to a low boil. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Shape:
- Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. After the dough has rested, roll it into a log and cut it into 12 equal pieces (each about 1/3 cup, about 2.7 grams). Dust each piece lightly with flour and roll it into a rope 20-22 inches long. To make the pretzel shape: lift the 2 ends of the rope, forming a U shape; cross the ends over once, then cross them over again; then fold them down towards you and lay the ends on the bottom curve of the U. Place the shaped pretzels on the prepared baking sheets.
Dunk:
- 2 at a time, use a slotted spatula to lower the shaped pretzels into the simmering baking soda bath. Leave them in for 20-30 seconds (a quick Hail Mary + Our Father). Scoop them out, let the water drain, and place them back on the baking sheet. Sprinkle each pretzel with coarse salt. Repeat with the remaining pretzels.
Bake:
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the pretzels from the baking sheets and place them on cooling racks to avoid a soggy bottom. Serve the pretzels warm or room temperature, with mustard or cheese sauce for dipping. And be sure to say your prayers!
The history of the pretzel
At the University of Dayton, Father Roten writes that the Latin word bracellae, for “little arms,” later became the German bretzel and pretzel.
“It became very popular, not so much in Rome … for that particular period,” he told Our Sunday Visitor, after mentioning the 5th-century manuscript. “But it took off and was — and still is — quite well known in Germany.“
“As a matter of fact,” he added, “the tradition is essentially German.”
From the 12th century on, more information became available on pretzels, he said, from different local traditions about making them to festivals centered around them.
“We have historical proof that it moved on to Sweden, to Finland, and from there also to Russia,” he said of the tradition’s spread.
Alexander III of Russia, who reigned as czar in the late 19th century, was “a great lover of pretzels and even ate seven every day,” he said.
At the same time, Father Roten stressed the importance of presenting things like the pretzel as traditions, “and not to be too severe, too demanding as to the historical proof of it.”
When eating pretzels today, Catholics participate in this tradition.
“The fact that we do have a beginning already in the 5th century highlights the fact that Lent became important, and you had to mark Lent with special food, or rather with the absence of the normal food and something very simple (in its place),” Father Roten said. “Flour, a little bit of salt and a lot of water was the answer to the question, ‘how can we renounce the regular way … and do our Lenten obligation as far as food is concerned?'”
