Barley syrup - how to make?

[bierandbikes]

Not sure which section to post this question so I'll try here.

I want to make some traditional German pretzels. When we lived in Europe my daughter loved these. I can't seem to find them in the US.

From what I can tell, the traditional recipe calls for barley syrup. My assumption is that you mash your chosen malt and then cook the runoff down to a syrup. Is this correct? Anyone tried this? Apparently it makes a great sweetener in many baked goods.

Danke.

 

[bierandbikes]

Okay, so a bit more looking around the forums and it appears that this "syrup" is just LME. If that is the case, anybody have any experience making these German pretzels and have any advice on color (flavor)? I figure something dark but more caramel than roasted.

 

[FatDragon]

Baker's malt extract is different from brewer's malt extract. I think you can use the brewing stuff for baking, but not the baking stuff for brewing. That said, I suspect a light malt extract would make a basic, classic pretzel, while you would get darker pretzels and more complex and roasty flavors from darker malt extracts. Approach the pretzels like a beer recipe and you should be able to control your output in a similar way.

 

[mcl]

Here is a recipe.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Brezels_and_other_Laugengeb%C3%A4ck

 

[BPS531]

I use DME when making pretzels. However, that isn't what makes them dark. Boiling at a high pH, traditionally done with lye, causes changes to the starch molecules that deepen the Maillard reactions when they bake. You can get reasonable results with baking soda, but I recently heard of a technique where if you bake your baking soda first, you intensify the results during the boil. I don't have a link, but you should be able to Google it. I think it was from an article by Mark Bittman.