A pretzel is a bread pastry of Medieval European origin (some accounts say Italian or French[1][2][3]) or German that has 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 is made from wheat flour, water, sugar, and yeast, sprinkled with coarse salt. Pretzels are typically glazed with lye and salted.[4] Pretzels can be found in a variety of shapes and sizes. Traditional soft pretzels are about the size of a hand. Most hard pretzels are only 2 millimetres (0.079 in) thick. Hard pretzels which are approximately 1 centimetre (0.39 in) thick are called Bavarian pretzels.