My first pretzel (bretzle in German) memory is that of my daughter teething on a Bavarian pretzel in, Augsburg, Germany. She gummed more of those pretzels and grew her teeth with few tears. Teething baby wakes up crying, stick a pretzel in her mouth, she was one happy camper. She never used a pacifier, just sucked on a pretzel. Pretzels in America are too mushy. Can King Arthur recipes come close? Sort of. I have tried both recipes and they are only a start. The taste is right, but the texture isn't. The pretzel needs to be more crunchy and less squishy (but will admit that after eating European bread any bread in USA is squishy). The pretzel needs to be firm enough to stand up to a sharp knife so it can be split in half to spread butter and hold a layer of cheese in between both halves (like a sandwich). Any suggestions? Bretzle mit kasse Bitte!!! Bevy, these pretzels can do that - they're dense, like a bagel. Are you looking for something hard/dry, rather than just dense/close-grained? BTW, I just made pretzel rolls out of this same recipe - roll the dough in logs like you're going to make a pretzel, but tie it in a square knot instead, tucking the ends into the center - pretzel roll! Yummy... PJH

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