Like many Moroccan Jews who came to France after Morocco became independent in 1956, Deborah Lilliane Denino, a psychologist, and her family were welcomed by the Jewish community in Strasbourg. Down the street from her apartment is a kosher bakery, grocery, and butcher shop called Délices Cacher, where she buys merguez lamb and beef sausage and other Moroccan items on which she grew up in Marrakesh. When she is busy, she asks one of her three children or the American students with the Syracuse University Junior Year Abroad program who live with her to fetch the groceries. She teaches those not familiar with a kosher kitchen about the color- coded forks, towels, and other utensils, to identify and keep separate the meat and milk dishes she cooks in her apartment. For Shabbat, this great cook with a fun- loving family always makes Moroccan challah. But because her children, who were born in Strasbourg, like soft pretzels (as do most Alsatian children—they call them bretzeln), she sets aside some of the dough, forms long fingers out of it, twists them into pretzels, and bakes them as a snack.
Recipe information
Yield
6 small pretzels
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.
Step 2
Take the challah dough and separate it into six small pieces. Roll each piece out into a cylinder 9 inches long and about 3/4 inch in diameter. Fold both ends into the center, crossing them in the middle and pressing them down into their opposite corners, to form a pretzel. The result should look like two hands praying. You can also make long fingers of straight dough.
Step 3
Whisk the egg yolk with 1 teaspoon water. Brush the pretzels with this egg wash, and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
