In the Media
Featured in the Washington Post
Taking a tasty tour of pretzel bakeries in Lancaster and York, Pa.
(James F. Lee, Washington Post)
"The women who work at the twisting table at Martin's Pretzel Bakery in Akron, Pa., can twist about 10 pretzels a minute, producing more than 1,200 pounds of the salted snack a day."
At Martin's Pretzel Bakery in Akron, Pa., I stand behind a large picture window and watch as Fannie King, a young Amish woman in a beautiful purple dress, takes a lump of dough in her hand, rolls it into a 12-inch length and, in the bat of an eye, twists it into a perfectly formed pretzel.
I'm on my own private pretzel tour of Lancaster and York counties, the epicenter of the pretzel industry in Pennsylvania, a leading producer of the crunchy goodies. On an early Monday morning, I'm the only person visiting Martin's, and Clarence Martin gives me a tour. He's a bundle of energy covered in flour dust, constantly stopping to check machinery or have a word with a worker as we walk to the back of the bakery.
He shows me the mixing machine churning a 150-pound batch of dough made from flour, water, salt, yeast and sourdough. After it's mixed, one of the workers will run a thick roll of it through a hand-cranked cutter, which spits out bulletlike pieces. The ladies will work their twisting magic on these. Then the pretzels will be placed on racks to rise, before being dipped in boiling water and caustic soda.
After that, the pretzels are ready for baking. Over at the oven, a baker places batches on a long-handled flat paddle called a peel, salts them and slides them into the oven. The pretzels bake for 10 minutes at 550 degrees. Then they're put in a drying oven, where they bake for an hour at 170 degrees so the insides get hard and crunchy, but the outsides don't burn.
Perhaps sensing my hunger, one of the ladies reaches into the drying oven and hands me a pretzel. I take a bite, experiencing the delightful crunch of the freshest pretzel I've ever eaten.
Click here for the full article on the Washington Post website
As seen in "CBS" Morning Show"
Click on the preview picture below to view Martin Pretzels "CBS Morning Show" video
A few miles away, at Martin's Bakery, owned and staffed by Mennonites, time does have a way of standing still. Around here, hard pretzels are still hand-twisted...
"We don't require it at first, but they have to work up to ten a minute," said Kathryn Martin.
And if you think it looks easy - it's not. Dough breaks!
So, never underestimate those little miracles of dough.