Waxed Salt Crystals?

[Lisa Shock]

I am looking to see if anyone sells fancy waxed salt crystals. I have never seen such a product, but, I am imagining it to be like the big fancy waxed sugar crystals used to decorate baked goods. The wax keeps the sugar from melting into the product, so, if you sprinkle them on top of muffin batter which has already been portioned in a tin and is ready to go into the oven, you get glittery, crunchy tops instead of the lightly sweet glaze that plain sugar would give. So, does anyone know of a manufacturer of waxed salt crystals? If not, would one of you with panning equipment be willing to make me some waxed large size kosher salt?

[Kerry Beal]

Any idea what kind of wax is on it? Carnuba?

[Lisa Shock]

I have never seen any, I was just wanting some. I like using the sugar crystals, and thought someone must have made salt like the sugar at some point. I want to put them in ice cream, so I can make a really contrast-y salted caramel flavor. Maybe some other baked goods as well.

 

You up for an experiment? I think the large crystal kosher salt would do it.

[Kerry Beal]

I could give it a try. I assume you are thinking of the kosher salt that is more like pickling salt - I think Morton's is like that?

 

[Tri2Cook]

Never seen or heard of something like this but it'd be awesome to find it in pretzel salt form. I like using pretzel salt on pretzel buns but then you have to choose between storing the extra buns in a paper bag so the salt doesn't dissolve by the next day (but the buns get hard) or in an airtight container so the buns stay soft (but the salt dissolves by the next day).

[Lisa Shock]

6 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

I could give it a try. I assume you are thinking of the kosher salt that is more like pickling salt - I think Morton's is like that?

 

 

Yes, there are several brands. Be careful, each brand has a 'fine' version, which we don't want.

 

Morton's Coarse 

 

A sea salt or some pink salt would ok as well, as long as it isn't too large. I am thinking crystals like you get on a soft pretzel. I have some sea salt that is so big I can only put it into liquids, I think people would break a tooth on it. The size of the sugar crystals would be a good guide. (the sugar crystals are really common, Micheal's has them)

 

-And, thank you! Who knows, you might be able to start a small business selling this, if it works. I am sure there are other applications that I haven't thought of. (Tri2Cook is 100% correct about pretzel rolls/buns.)

Edited May 22, 2016 by Lisa Shock
forgot to say 'thank you' (log)

[Kerry Beal]

22 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

Never seen or heard of something like this but it'd be awesome to find it in pretzel salt form. I like using pretzel salt on pretzel buns but then you have to choose between storing the extra buns in a paper bag so the salt doesn't dissolve by the next day (but the buns get hard) or in an airtight container so the buns stay soft (but the salt dissolves by the next day).

Where have you gotten pretzel salt in Canada Larry?

[Tri2Cook]

27 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Where have you gotten pretzel salt in Canada Larry?

I wasn't able to find it in Canada but I ordered a few bags when I ordered it from the states so if you can use some, let me know. I'll happily send a bag or two your way. I still have three left unopened and I haven't even made a good dent in the open bag.

They sent me a sample bag of chia seeds along with the salt I ordered that is unopened as well. Not a clue what to do with that.

 

Edited May 22, 2016 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Great - checking with local bakery suppliers on Tuesday - if not successful will get you to send one my way. Then I'll send the waxed back to you to see how well it works!

[Kerry Beal]

So experiments happened yesterday - I panned some rock salt and some large grain sea salt.

 

The salt looses it's shine and gets a little yellowish with the carnauba wax.

 

On the right is unpanned salt, panned on left.

 

10 grams of salt with 15 grams of water added and let sit for a while to see if less dissolved. Hard to tell with the wax scum on the surface.

 

 

Now I need someone to bake some pretzels with it. Not going to be me. Anyone?

[Lisa Shock]

If you're willing to ship to the US, I will make pretzels.

 

Tri2Cook is spot-on about pretzel rolls, I always see them in bags at Costco, the salt having melted away, looking sad....

 

Also, my plan with ice cream was to stir the crystals in while removing the soft ice cream from the machine, prior to hardening. -Like I do with other swirls and add-ins.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Lisa Shock (log)

[Kerry Beal]

PM an address. I'll be crossing the border later in the month and I'll mail it from the other side. Shipping various powder type things across the border is never a big success.  

[Lisa Shock]

Just tried, and got an error saying that you cannot receive messages. Could you check your settings?

 

Also, how much heat can the wax stand? It's already over 100 here, you might want to put an ice pack in the package.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Lisa Shock (log)

[Tri2Cook]

I'd be willing to give it a shot but it occurs to me that I wasn't really thinking things through when I mentioned it before. The salt goes on the pretzels pre-bake... would that just melt the wax?

[Kerry Beal]

8 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:

Just tried, and got an error saying that you cannot receive messages. Could you check your settings?

 

Also, how much heat can the wax stand? It's already over 100 here, you might want to put an ice pack in the package.

 

My settings are fine as far as I can tell - I'm getting PM's from other people with no issue. Never seen jelly beans lose their surface in heat so I think that an ice pack would be wasted additional shipping cost. I did blast some hot air into the pan in the process to try and spread the wax more over the surface so this salt has already been exposed to significant heat.

[Kerry Beal]

46 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

I'd be willing to give it a shot but it occurs to me that I wasn't really thinking things through when I mentioned it before. The salt goes on the pretzels pre-bake... would that just melt the wax?

Might - but the question would be would that be a bad thing? Salt's not going to melt so perhaps the heat will just spread the wax more on the surface.

[jmacnaughtan]

On 22/05/2016 at 3:12 AM, Tri2Cook said:

Never seen or heard of something like this but it'd be awesome to find it in pretzel salt form. I like using pretzel salt on pretzel buns but then you have to choose between storing the extra buns in a paper bag so the salt doesn't dissolve by the next day (but the buns get hard) or in an airtight container so the buns stay soft (but the salt dissolves by the next day).

 

I don't have a lot of experience with pretzels, but I know with baguettes that go hard, you can just throw them in a hot oven for five minutes to "refresh" them.  It might work with pretzels - soft bun, crunchy crystals and, as a bonus, they'd be warm.

[Tri2Cook]

8 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Might - but the question would be would that be a bad thing? Salt's not going to melt so perhaps the heat will just spread the wax more on the surface.

Good point. One way to find out. I'm up for giving it a go.

[Kerry Beal]

I shall get it on it's way to you tomorrow am.

[Lisa Shock]

Woo-Hoo! A box of salts has arrived, and, I just happen to have some lean dough in the fridge. I will make some rolls with the waxed salt and regular salt, and a couple of pretzels, too. (I only have 438g of dough, and 3 types of salt to test against their unwaxed counterparts.) Then, I will place them in plastic bags and see if the salt vanishes. More tomorrow, hopefully with photos.

[Tri2Cook]

I have pretty much the same plan for this weekend. Salt testing. Been working a lot lately but I don't work Sunday and it's supposed to be raining all weekend so it seems like a good opportunity to toss something in the oven.

[Lisa Shock]

Here is what they looked like from the oven, I just dipped the rolls and pretzels in hot water with baking soda, then egg washed, salted and baked. They didn't want to be very dark, I pulled the tray after 25 minutes, for fear of getting hard tack rolls and crunchy pretzels. Each pic is waxed and unwaxed salt of similar size. So far, the experiment is going very well. The waxed salt remained much closer to its original size and shape than plain salt. I am going to bag them and see what they look like tomorrow. (pretzels were salted with the middle sized salt, a large kosher style)

 

I also layered some of the finer salt in ice cream, I will check on that in a week or so.

Edited June 25, 2016 by Lisa Shock (log)

[Lisa Shock]

Ok, they spent the night in sealed bags. I am going to keep them there until all the salt melts away. The salt did draw moisture out of the rolls, I should have let them bake a few minutes longer. I ate one last night, it was good -pretty much what I expected from a sourdough based, three day old dough which had originally been destined to be pate fermente. (btw, everything would have been much darker if I had put sugar in the water)

 

Right now, there is almost no visible salt in the unwaxed bag. The roll with the really large sea-salt has a couple of visible crystals which are now the size of pretzel salt. The no wax pretzel, and the medium and small sized salt rolls have no visible salt at all.

 

The waxed examples all have clearly defined salt crystals on them. It's maybe 20% less salt than they started with, but, it's clearly visible. I will keep them bagged to see how long the hold up.

 

In yesterdays images, it may be hard to tell but, the unwaxed kosher salt kind of melted into the crust, giving it a flaky appearance but with very few actual crystals left intact.

 

In each bag: top left - fine/table salt, top right - med/kosher salt, lower left - big sea salt, lower right - pretzel with kosher salt.

 

[Tri2Cook]

I have dough on the go right now but I'm probably going to be less extensive with my testing than you were since you already answered the question. If there is still a significant percentage of the salt crystals remaining the next day on the waxed versions, it did what I hoped it would. Overnight was enough to wipe them out for me with regular pretzel salt and I bake mine much darker than your examples so they're probably encountering lower moisture from the start. If the waxed versions hold up for another day, they've went way above and beyond what I was hoping for... so anything from this point on is bonus time.

[KennethT]

Is it common to add the salt prior to baking pretzels?  All the soft pretzels I see here in NYC (tons are sold on the street every day) look like they've had the salt added after baking.  I imagine this is done in some kind of factory where the baking is conveyorized, and after a bit of cooling, they spray a fine mist of water or something, then shake on the salt and blast with some heat for a short time to evaporate the excess water.