Latvians bake world's largest pretzel

RIGA (BNS) – The pretzel baked in the Latvijas Keramika plant in the central Latvian town of Jelgava has been recognized as the world's largest pretzel and will be included in the Guinness Book of Records for 2001.

The pretzel was baked at the end of last year and measured 9.999 meters in length, the company's spokesman Modris Mucenieks said March 29.

The gigantic pastry was baked for six hours. Because of its size, the pretzel did not fit as a whole even in a ceramic oven. Therefore it had to be pushed through the oven gradually and baked in stages.

The dough, comprises only natural and Latvian-made ingredients, weighed 125 kilograms.

The pretzel outmeasures the previous champion of pastry by 70 centimeters.

In order to qualify for entry in the Guinness Book of Records, the bakers had to work by the prescribed rules to film the entire process and send newspaper articles by the deadline. They have now received a reply confirming that the Latvian maxi-pretzel has made it into the Guinness Book.

The company will celebrate the success next week by baking a small model of the pretzel, Mucenieks said.