spundekäse und brezeln

Pretzels!  Big, soft pretzels fresh from the oven!  Who can resist one?   When in Germany, do as the Germans do, right?   No better place to get started than in my kitchen!

In my very first week here, I was introduced to a wonderful little pink treat call Spundekäse (spoon-da-kay-sa), which is a cheese dip served with big, soft German pretzels.  Yummy!   There is this amazing café in Mainz that serves this treat and I can never seem to go there without ordering it.  The order comes with two pretzels, but they always give you enough Spundekäse for 6-8 pretzels!  Makes me want to bring my little plastic containers and take it home with me (that’s how the doggy bag system works here!).

Google is a wonderful thing.  I googled (I love how we’ve created a new verb from the name of a website) Spundekäse and found a recipe…in German.  No worries as I have Google Translate on my Toolbar.   Cream cheese…check.  Onion…check.   Garlic…check.  Quark…huh?!?   More googling told me that quark is like cottage cheese.  Long story short:  ingredients purchased, homemade Spundekäse created.   Absolutely yummy!

Now I just needed the pretzels.  I could go to the local bakery or grocery store; after all, they sell them everywhere!  But, if I was to truly enjoy my homemade Spundekäse, it had to be with homemade pretzels!   More research, this time with my favorite allrecipes.com site.   Recipe secured, I found I had all the ingredients needed.   Flour, yeast, water…the basic pantry stuff I keep on hand.

I didn’t realize how tricky it was to make that little twist in the pretzel.  All those times watching the yummy pretzel shop in American malls, they always made it look easy!   I learned that two twists make a better looking pretzel than a mere one twist.   Roll, twist, boil in baking soda bath, bake.  Oh – it works better with a helper! Fantastic!

This was one of those small things that made my day.  Knowing that I won’t always live in Europe, I like to be able to recreate my favorites with some resemblance of the real thing.

So, if you want that local Germany flavor for yourself, here are the recipes for my new favorite appetizer.

Zum Wohl!

Spundekäse

200 g cream cheese
250 g Quark (small curd cottage cheese pureed)
1 small onion
1 garlic clove
Paprika

Chop the onion and garlic into small pieces with a hand blender until no bits remain. Stir the mixture with the cream cheese and cottage cheese. Sprinkle paprika and stir until the “cream cheese” is beautifully dyed bright red. Cool. Serve with pretzels.

Papa Drexler’s Bavarian Pretzels

Credit to AllRecipes.com for this one –
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/papa-drexlers-bavarian-pretzels/detail.aspx

Original Recipe Yield 6 big pretzels (8-10 normal size pretzels)

3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/3 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons baking soda
3 cups water
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt, or to taste

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together 1 cup of flour, yeast, sugar, 2 tablespoons of butter, and 1 1/3 cup water. Let this mixture stand until bubbles begin to form, about 15 minutes. Stir in the salt and gradually stir in the remaining flour until dough can be picked up and kneaded on the counter. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes, adding more flour if needed.
2. Divide the dough into 6 pieces and let them rest for a few minutes. Roll out one piece at a time into a rope about 15 inches long. Loop and twist into that cool pretzel shape. Set on a baking sheet while you roll out the remaining portions.
3. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (220 degrees C). Bring the remaining 3 cups of water to a boil and add the baking soda. Remove from the heat. Dip pretzels into the water bath for about 45 seconds, flipping over about halfway through. Place the soaked pretzels on a greased baking sheet. Brush them with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.