Aldi Bavarian Soft Pretzels (Deutsche Küche) Review
Five minutes to snack time.
It’s hard to beat the convenience of these frozen, pre-baked Bavarian pretzel twists from Deutsche Küche. As a single person, I appreciate the practicality of baking just ONE soft pretzel at a time, in only 5 minutes. I bought these at Aldi during their twice-a-year German Week event. They also sell a slightly different Bavarian pretzel in a stick shape, which I’ll review later.
As an aside, if you’ve ever wanted to know the Twisted History of the Pretzel, this is a fascinating article from the History channel. Spoiler alert: it involves romantic love, religion, war, and entrepreneurialism. I enjoyed my toasty little bargain treasures much more after reading about their origins.
Anyway. The box contains two cellophane bags with 3 frozen pretzels in each bag. I would love these more if each pretzel was individually wrapped — since I’m only eating one at a time. More freshness, and less “freezer-taste.”
Once the cello bags are open, they’re tough to re-seal. I ended up putting my un-eaten frozen pretzels in a zip-lock bag to keep them fresher.
Each pretzel is approximately 3 ounces. While not enormous, these are fairly filling. Although the frozen pretzels are already baked, they are not pre-salted. If you are on a salt-restricted diet, it is nice to be able to adjust the amount of salt on each pretzel. Unfortunately, it’s also an extra step to add the salt before baking, and it slows down the preparation a smidge. More about that later.
There’s a small paper pouch in the box with coarse salt inside. I didn’t like this, because the thin, porous paper pouch takes on an unpleasant freezer-smell between uses and this taints the flavor of the salt. I would recommend storing the paper pouch in an air-tight plastic bag between pretzel sessions. If Aldi packaged the coarse salt in a coated paper pouch, or a plastic pouch, it would make this more expeditious.
To get the coarse salt to “stick” to the pretzel surface, you’re supposed to use your own spray bottle to spritz the frozen pretzel with water, and then sprinkle the salt on top. I don’t keep a food-grade spray bottle of water in my kitchen (do you?), so this was tricky. I ended up moistening my fingertips from the faucet, and then gently wiping water on the pretzel surface. This worked ok, but I had to work very quickly, because the pretzels seem to absorb the water almost instantly, and become dry to the touch again. Salt wouldn’t stick to the dry surface.
The pretzels turn slightly browner after baking, but otherwise they don’t change much. They don’t rise or expand at all. The salt sticks about 50% of the time, so a good amount falls off before you eat these. Despite this, there was more than enough to go around.
The twisted pretzel exterior is smooth and has a chewy-cronchy semi-gloss coating, whereas the inside is softer and adequately fluffy. These aren’t the best pretzels I’ve ever had, but they’re still pretty dang delicious. I enjoyed them more dipped in melted butter — they need a little extra flavor and moisture to reach their full pretzel-potential. I also think they taste best piping-hot from the oven, and lose appeal after fully cooling. I would bake these RIGHT before you want to eat them.
I liked Aldi’s Bavarian Stick Pretzels better — the thicker shape results in a fluffier, yeastier, more satisfying bread texture inside.
Ingredients in Deutsche Küche Bavarian Soft Pretzels
Here are the ingredients from the label:
- Wheat flour
- Water
- Salt
- Yeast
- Malted wheat flour
- Dextrose (from wheat)
- Emulsifiers (471, 322 from soy)
- Stabilizer (412)
- Acidity regulator (260)
I didn’t know what these numbers meant, so I ended up googling all of them. Acidity regulator 260 is acetic acid, and Stabilitizer 412 is guar gum. Emulsifier 471 is a molecule derived from glyceryl monostearate and glyceryl distearate. Emulsifier 322 is soy lecithin. I added links to the numbers above, in case you want to read more about these confusing little buggars.
Nutrition Facts in Aldi Bavarian Soft Pretzel Twists
Aldi’s pretzels have a surprising amount of protein, with 8 grams per pretzel. There’s also 2 grams of fiber, and only 1.5 grams of fat. At 210 calories, these make a hearty afternoon snack or even breakfast food — in lieu of a bagel.
Cooking Instructions
I followed the recommendation to bake these on parchment paper. I used my countertop air fryer toaster oven. It only took 5 minutes at 350 to bake mine to a crispy-crunchy perfection.
Price and Shelf-life
These Bavarian pretzels are made in Germany. My package expires roughly 1.5 years from the date of purchase, so it has a long freezer-life. I paid $4.79 for the box of 6 pretzels. For more than a pound (17.57 ounces) of pretzels, this is a good value. That works out to approximately 80 cents per pretzel. I’d probably buy this again — although I’d be more likely to buy Aldi’s Bavarian Pretzel Stick variety, instead of these twists.
More Reviews of Aldi Products You Might Like (or Hate)
Check out these other reviews of Aldi frozen stuff I’ve recently written:
- Aldi Mushroom Schupfnudeln (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Cheese Spätzle (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Fruits of the Forest Strudel (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Bienenstich Indulgent Cakes (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Donauwelle Indulgent Cakes (Deutsche Küche)
Author’s note: I have no affiliation with Aldi, and I wasn’t compensated in any way for this review.
