A pretzel's a bread pastry of Medieval European origin (some accounts say Italian or French) that's the shape of a three looped knot or twisted braid. Pretzels are either soft or hard. Hard pretzels have evolved into a variety of shapes from knotted loops to straight "pretzel sticks" (called Salzstangen in German, Ropi in Hungarian). The pretzel dough's made from wheat flour, water, sugar, and yeast, sprinkled with coarse salt. Pretzels are typically glazed with lye and salted. Pretzels can be… (More on Pretzel)