Question on homemade goodies

Shadowskil

So I made these guys the other day
http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/homemade-soft-pretzel-bites/print/

I plugged it in the recipe myfitnesspal but noticed that it seem a little off.
I did made a few changes. One changed was I didn't add course sea salt to the outside of the pretzel. I also didn't make the cheese dip. I removed both changes from the recipes but the sodium was still at 5000, which seem really off. I realised that the baking soda water bath was at fault for the high sodium. The instructions say that to boil the bites for 30 secs in the baking soda water and to remove them. I assume that would had to add the initial sodium but I don't think it would be that much, right? How could I alter this recipe and/or other recipes to reflect things like this?

Asher_Ethan

Is there a reason you are following sodium intake so closely? Try cutting the baking soda in half for your recipe since its not directly going into your recipe.

Shadowskil

I have hypothyroidism so losing weight is kind of difficult as is. My doctor suggested to cut back on sodium. I try to be within reason with nutritional goals. 5000mg for a handful of pretzel is a lot more than I want.

Francl27

Enter the ingredients you used and weigh everything to see how many servings are in each pretzel (or if you made sure they are even, divide by the number of pretzels). Then eyeball what's left of the baking soda water (or weigh it) to see how much was actually absorbed.

Anything made with baking soda will always have a lot of sodium.

OyGeeBiv

Can you find nutritional info for commercially made pretzels without salt on them? That might give you an idea of how to adjust yours. You're right that 100% of the baking soda in the water isn't in the finished product. Maybe research and see if it's absolutely necessary to even use the baking soda in the water. (Salt in water makes it boil at a higher temp.)

grinning_chick

Why not just make the recipe again, omitting the baking soda in that step, and see if it makes any notable difference in the final product. My bet is it will not. (:

emdunn0715

If it is not in the finished product and used purely to raise the temperature at which the water boils then I would take the sodium bicarbonate out of what you are logging completely then and you should get something more sensible.

Shadowskil

I think the baking soda bath makes it soft and chew more so than temperature of the water. Admittedly, not a lot of water was adsorbed but thanks for tips

grinning_chick

So I went and Googled it. The first several sources all cite that all the baking soda bath does is insure the brown coloration (Maillard reaction) to the pretzel.

So I guess you'll have to weigh the authenticity of the pretzel produced versus your sodium intake limitations and determine which arm of that balance scale wins. There's other ways to brown a bread product, but you are correct, you won't get the same chewiness as using what is for all intents and purposes a lye bath equivalent.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/08/09/338591194/for-a-proper-pretzel-crust-count-on-chemistry-and-memories

ModernRock

It's unlikely a significant amount of sodium is being absorbed into the pretzel. It certainly isn't anywhere near the total amount in the undissolved baking soda, as that would require all of the water to be absorbed. As you said, only a small amount of water appears to be absorbed and that observation is mostly due to the water lost through evaporation while boiling.

If you really want to geek out, you could compare the conductivity of the water before and after making the pretzels. You just need to get a multi-meter, battery, spare wire, and distilled water.