help me solve this sticking problem

[grasswire]

For years, my mother made soft pretzels from a recipe published in the 70s in a Sunset cookbook. I've made them a dozen times myself. They are delicious.

HOWEVER...

I can't find a way to keep them from sticking to the pan to the degree that they are ruined when I try to take them off. I've tried everything I can think of to avoid the sticking.

Various kinds of oils/grease
Aluminum foil
Parchment
Sprinkling cornmeal on the pan

I even waxed a pan with parafin and tried that.

Nothing has worked. Today I wrote to Sunset food department to see if they have any clues. The weird part is that for years we had no trouble. Now we do.

Any ideas?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

1. the only thing left to try that i can think of is to change the pan.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Nothing sticks to my Silpat

:shrug:

I can't imagine why the recipe suddenly started to stick.

[grasswire]

3. I haven't tried stainless steel, I realized.

Are there stainless steel baking pans for home use?

Because these pretzels are dipped in a weak lye water mixture before baking, I wonder if that would react with the silpat.

I'd like to solve this problem because I am now baking for my family member who has an espresso cafe and we think home made soft pretzels would do well. The pans at the shop are brushed aluminum, standard commercial pans. That won't work.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. I don't think that would affect the silpat

For sure the stainless can handle it.

But stainless is a 'sticky' metal.

[grasswire]

6. oh :-( (eom)

[Warpy]

5. I can.

Washing the pans eventually roughens even the smoothest surface.

My only other suggestion would be to alter baking time or to slide the pretzels onto a preheated pan. That layer of steam released when the dough contacts the hot pan could very well prevent the sticking problem.

It works for bread, anyway.

I can't believe they stuck to parchment. Maybe you need to cool them a bit more before you peel the paper away.