I haven’t eaten many pretzels in my time, so won’t be much good. But I wonder how you could replicate the bread flavour. Perhaps some sort of yeast extract in small quantities? How is your current concoction coming along?
They don’t really taste like bread tho…they are a bit malty, a bit salty and have another flavour that I can’t really put my finger (or tongue) on. Apparently you need to add caustic soda (food grade not the stuff you clean your drains or dissolve a body in) to get that flavour.