The Laugenbrezel

We live in an area of Germany known as Schwaben (Swabia). This is located in the state of Baden- Wuerttemberg  in the southeast corner of the country. Every region has a very pronounced dialect.
That´s why our motto is "wir koennen alles ausser Hochdeutsch" which translates into "we can do everything except speak high (written) German."


Every region is also proud of their culinary specialties. Schwabenland has many.

One of my personal favorites is the Laugenbrezel. Consisting of wheat flour, malt, yeast, salt and water, this versatile baked good can be found eaten throughout the day. For breakfast and as a midday snack it is sliced open at the thick end and smeared with butter. For a quick lunch it is served as a sandwich with cheese or lunchmeat.

The uniqueness of the Swabian pretzel is the thick, fluffy midsection and crispy ends. Except in the large bakeries, the prezel is still hand-slung to this day.

This morning, while I was writing this, my loving wife went to the baker and picked up our Saturday breakfast. As luck would have it, they were still warm as I reached in to the bag to retrieve my first one. As with many ,there are different opinions on how things should be eaten. I prefer to break my pretzels into pieces and slather butter onto every bite. :-)