Soft Pretzel with Bacon and Cheese (Ditsch Copycat Schinken-Käse Brezelstange)
This soft pretzel with bacon and cheese is a copycat recipe of the famous German Ditsch bakery's addictive 'Schinken-Käse Brezelstange.' And to me, it tastes exactly like it (if not better!). I top my soft homemade pretzel sticks with high-quality ingredients, such as uncured bacon and Emmentaler or Gruyère cheese to get the authentic, addictive taste. They're the perfect treat to go with a cocktail or on the side with dinner (or is dinner really the side here?). This recipe is based on my super popular soft German pretzel recipe.
- Prep time
- 35 min
- Cook time
- 1 hr 49 min
- Yield
- 8 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
- 500 g all-purpose flour
- 7 g active dry yeast (1 little pouch)
- 15 g brown sugar (use regular sugar if you don't gave brown sugar)
- 30 g butter
- 10 g salt
- 275 g lukewarm water
- 500 ml cold water (It's important to mix the lye into the cold water, not the other way.)
- 20 g lye (lye comes in dry granules)
- 100 g Swiss cheese
- 150 g bacon (I buy a thick-cut bacon & trim off the excess fat. Then small dice it.)
Instructions
- 1
To make your pretzel dough, combine brown sugar, dry yeast and barely warm water and allow to sit for 5 minutes until the yeast starts to activate and bubble.
- 2
In a large bowl, combine sifted flour, salt, room temperature butter (heat for a few seconds in microwave if too cold) with the yeast mixture. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes or until you achieve a smooth, elastic dough.
- 3
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and place in a warm spot. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 2 hours. You can also prepare the dough the night before and keep it in the fridge.
- 4
When ready to start working with the dough, preheat your oven to 420℉ or 220℃. Prep two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- 5
Divide your pretzel dough into 16 equal pieces. I divide the dough in half, shape two long logs and divide each log into 8 equal pieces using a knife or dough cutter.
- 6
The roll each piece out to 10 inch (about 25 cm) long logs, tapering both ends. Place 2 logs next to each other on the parchment paper covered baking sheets to make 8 double log pretzel sticks (view photo). Cover and allow to rest in a warm spot for 20 minutes.
- 7
Prepare your lye solution by carefully whisking the lye into the cold water, not the other way around. Carefull and ideally wearing rubber gloves and a steel skimmer, submerge one pretzel stick at a time in the lye solution for about 10 seconds, then place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- 8
Top with the shredded cheese and small diced, trimmed bacon.
- 9
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes on the middle rack. Serve warm or cooled, ideally the same day.
- 10
Store leftovers in your fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. When ready to reheat, run some water over the pretzel sticks, then bake for 5 to 8 minutes at 350℉ (180℃).