7 steps


of making long-life bakery products

The dough

Recipes are important and are very often well-kept "secrets". But every baker knows that the quality of his produce is not something that "automatically" comes from a patent recipe. All the ingredients have come from living things. And there are a number of factors that can influence the making of dough, even a particular mood on a particular day. A lot depends on the feeling a baker has developed for his work and the product itself. And that is why there are bakers in the HUOBER BREZEL dough making workshops, not electronic mixing machines.

The shaping

Naturally we have to move with the times and HUOBER pretzels haven't been twisted by hand for more than 50 years now. But our quality demands require that the dough is not simply squashed or pressed out, which is why we have special shaping and cutting machines in our production facility.

Yeasting

Thin, crispy salt sticks do not need yeasting. Neither do the exquisite HUOBER long sticks. But good pretzels need a solid yeasting process in which the raw dough pretzels are given enough time and calm to "rise". It does not annoy us that competitors frequently try to copy and imitate the yeasting process and yeasting facility – the key to the natural flavour enhancing of all HUOBER pretzels. It makes our pleasure all the greater.

Lye and top seasoning

During the yeasting process, the raw dough pretzels form a fine skin. This is good as they are now transferred to an open mesh belt to be dipped in lye. Contrary to all other standard industrial production processes, HUOBER BREZEL deliberately does not heat the lye. Heated lye increases the shine of the baking colour but wastes energy and, what's more, results in a few negative side effects in the pretzel as well as for the employees. The shine of HUOBER's salted products results from responsible dealing with the dough even without the lye being heated. As soon as the lye process is finished, salt or sesame is sprinkled over the damp dough depending on what is required for the finished product.

Baking

The characteristic golden brown colour is a result of the produce being dipped in lye and only truly develops with the heat from baking. This is also when the pretzel gets its typical salty taste. Slow, even baking ensures the pretzels have a crispy bite. A crispy long-life product totally without artificial preservatives!

Cooling...

…is also part of the standard production process: the pretzels are transferred to a stacking device and onto a belt as they come out of the oven. The heat evaporates on the way to packing due to the ambient air from above and small fans from below.

Packing...

Whereas HUOBER pretzels often used to be sold and eaten individually (loose), like fresh pretzels, packaging plays an ever greater role today. It is hygienic and ecological. Today, we are no longer dependent on material which cannot be recycled. Our packing team treats the large pretzels down to the size of the "princess pretzel" as individually packed goods; smaller products, such as the mini pretzels, children's pretzels and the original Swabian crispy pretzels, as bulk goods. All our employees are regularly trained in the areas of hygiene and product & quality assurance.