… when it’s a doughnut.
A Berliner Pretzel
More specifically, it’s a doughnut called a Berliner Bretzel, which is a pretzel-shaped doughnut covered in granulated sugar. Unlike the regular Berliner doughnuts, though, this kind is not filled with anything. Which makes it more like a pretzel, I guess. Although it really wasn’t anything like a pretzel – it was definitely more like a doughnut.
In any case, these appeared in the bakeries toward the end of the Carnival season, before Lent began. Since then, I haven’t seen them – I guess they were a kind of special type of Berliner that are only for the pre-Lenten festivities. At the moment, the only pretzels in the bakeries are the big, soft pretzels that are ubiquitous year-round here. If you can time it right to get one hot from the oven at a local bakery, a pretzel here is always soft, chewy, salty and flavorful.
In other words, when a pretzel is a pretzel, it’s nothing at all like a doughnut. But there’s nothing wrong with that, either. 😉
Interesting, Did you ever have a pretzel from the under ground of Phillie? I did and I am sure that the filth and other germs, inoculated me from sudden death somehow. Germany Looks cleaner than our cities in the 70’s. I haven’t been underground in Phillie in over 37 years. I degrees- all the time.