The hard pretzel was invented in Pennsylvania. Sara Griffin explained that “hard pretzels were ‘invented’ when an apprentice in a Pennsylvania bakery accidentally fell asleep, over-baking a batch of pretzels.” Since the pretzels usually have a lot of moisture, over baking them sucked all the moisture out of them. Dianna Marder points out that “meanwhile, hard pretzels, which came into being when an unidentified Pennsylvania baker left a batch in the oven too long, come in greater varieties of shapes, from rods and sticks to rings and thins, with whole wheat or sourdough recipes topped with chocolate, caramel and more.” The person who overbaked the pretzels created a new crunchy treat that would soon become well known everywhere. Elaine Dann
