Pretiola

Stormy weather in Holland. Rain, sunshine, hail, storm and snow; we've seen it all today. Just a nice day to make it cosy indoors by baking buns. These buns are very easy to make and it takes little time.

The origin of this recipe must be from the year 610 a.c. and the shape of the buns refers to the arms and hands of praying children. The message was simple: when you pray, you get a pretiola. So, no praying, no bun!
Later on they named them Pretzels.

Well, my children didn't have to deserve these buns by praying; but they helped shaping them. And those little warm hands made the bread rise wonderful.

Pretiola

• 450 gr. all purpose flour


• 1 tsp. salt


• 7 gr. dried yeast


• 300 cc. milk


• 25 gr. butter


• 1 egg


• coarse salt

Warm the milk lukewarm and add the butter to it. Make a dough from the flour, salt, yeast, milk and butter. Knead it for to minutes. It will be a soft and silky dough. Let it rise in an oiled bowl til it has doubled it's size. Slash it down and divide it in 20 pieces. Shape each piece and let is rise for another 20 minutes.

Brush the buns with the egg and sprinkle them with a bit coarse salt. Bake them in the oven (400 dgrs. F./ 200 dgrs. C.)in 20 minutes.