Divide the dough that has risen once into twelve dough balls, about 2 ounces apiece.
The German pretzel we are talking about today is the "Laugenbrezel" or lye pretzel, and the burning question is: Who came up with the idea to dunk them in lye?
Again, no one knows. We do know, however, that lye was a common household item, used for kitchen cleaning and food preparation. Olives are cured in a lye bath, hominy and lutefisk are soaked in it, soups and fish were spiced with it, soap is made with it, and even today, lye is used to open clogged drains whenever "Draino" is poured down the sink.
