pretzel biscuits
exactly what they sound like, but also better
the laugencroissant is amongst the small joys in my life. if you don’t know what that is, let me enlighten you with the hopes that some day, very soon, you will be able to get your hands on one. you won’t find these in every bakery, but in select bakeries around berlin (and likely across germany more generally), you will find these hybrids of a croissant and a pretzel called laugencroissants, literally lye croissants, referring to the traditional method of dunking soft pretzels in lye before baking (soft pretzels are called laugenbrezeln). they’re shaped like the croissants you know and love and on the inside are still buttery, beautifully layered beauties, but they have that harder, darker look of your average soft pretzel on the outside.
now you can probably see where i’m going with this recipe. for a while now, thanks to the inspirational laugencroissant, i was really interested to see what would happen if i tried to “pretzel-ize” some of my favorite baked goods. biscuits were both my first idea and my last idea (don’t worry, i may revisit!) because the combination just worked so well.
before pretzel-izing, i tested and tweaked a recipe for my ideal fluffy, layered buttermilk biscuit (thanks to this throwback bon app video and recipe from claire saffitz). they’re fortified with a little bit of sour cream for good measure and are cut, stacked, and rolled out twice for even more flaky, layered up goodness. i then painted them with the thing that gives soft pretzels their distinct look and flavor—an alkaline water bath in lieu of lye—and finished them with plenty of flaky salt. once of out of the oven, they get brushed with melted butter because *chef’s kiss* why not?
i like to eat them plain for breakfast with a coffee but also as a sweet treat in the middle of the day with cream cheese and strawberry jam. they’re great slathered with butter or sour cream, can also act as a fun little bun for a ham and cheese sandwich or simply sit on the table with any dinner, brunch or lunch spread.
if you don’t want to make pretzel biscuits, just biscuit biscuits, forget the alkaline bath in step 5 and instead brush the biscuits with buttermilk or melted butter before baking.
as with most biscuits, these really are best eaten the day they’re made, but i do have a way around that: bake and freeze them up to 1 month in advance (instructions for that are in step 7 of the recipe below) so you always have a little stash of biscuits to reach for on a slow weekend morning.
makes 9 biscuits, can be made up to 1 month in advance
for the biscuits
2½ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ teaspoon baking soda
435 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
225 grams cold unsalted butter
180 grams cold buttermilk
75 grams cold sour cream
1 tablespoon flaky salt (substitute: coarse pretzel salt, everything bagel seasoning, sesame seeds)
2 tablespoons melted butter
for the alkaline wash
225 milliliters boiling water
25 grams baking soda
add baking powder, salt, sugar, baking soda and flour to a large bowl and mix to combine. carefully grate butter with a large box grater set over the bowl with the flour mixture. toss together, then use your fingers to smash and massage the pieces of the butter into the flour.
once the butter pieces are about even and around the size of peas (this is approximate), use your hands to make a well in the center of the bowl. add half the buttermilk, mix with a spoon until crumbly, then add remaining buttermilk and mix again. add sour cream and gently mix until it’s a shaggy, crumbly dough; it will be quite dry at this point (see here), don’t worry.
turn the dough out onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and pat it together into a 1 inch (2.5cm) tall square, using a bench scraper if you have one to help you maintain squared off sides. use a bench scraper or knife to cut the dough in half length- and width-wise into four even squares. stack the pieces on top of each other, then use your hands and a rolling pin (using the bench scraper to help maintain straight-ish sides) to push and roll the mixture until it’s again a 1 inch (2.5cm) tall square. repeat the cutting and stacking, this time pushing and rolling until the square is about 2 inches (5 cm) tall, 6 - 6.5 inches (16cm) long. carefully transfer the block to a plate and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.
remove the dough from the fridge and slice into 9 3x3inch (7.5x7.5cm) square biscuits. transfer back to the plate and freeze for 10 minutes; this will help the biscuits maintain the square shape while baking, but if you don’t care too much about that, you can skip the freeze.
while the dough is chilling, preheat oven to 220°C/425°F and make the alkaline bath by mixing the boiling water and baking soda together; make sure to use a big enough bowl as the baking soda will bubble up quite a bit once the water is added. stir until the baking soda is dissolved then set aside.
transfer biscuits to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, spacing them out about 2 inches apart then brush the tops and sides of the biscuits liberally with the alkaline bath. sprinkle with flaky salt and bake until the biscuits are a deep, pretzel-y golden brown on the top and bottom, about 20 - 25 minutes. brush the biscuits with melted butter right when they come out of the oven, then let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
biscuits can be made up to 1 month ahead. bake and brush them as stated above, then let cool completely. transfer to a resealable plastic bag and place in the freezer. do not thaw, simply place the biscuits you want to heat up in a cold oven. set the oven to 180°C/350°F and set a timer for 15 minutes. when the timer goes off, you’re good to go: the outside will be crisp and the inside should be hot all the way through.
My oh my! Amazing.