Description
Beautiful soft and chewy German style pretzels, but sourdough! Enjoy with whole grain mustard, good quality salted butter, or some hot beer cheese!
Ingredients
Units
Equipment:
- Stand Mixer
- Digital Thermometer
- Digital Scale
- Sheet Pan
- Sharp Blade or Kitchen Knife
- Parchment Paper
- Kitchen Gloves
- Eye Protection
- Stainless Steel Pot (2)
- Spider or Slotted Spoon
Dough Ingredients (Amount - Baker's %):
Poolish:
- 400 g Bread Flour (12-13% protein) - 100%
- 400 g Room Temperature Water (75℉ or 24℃) - 100%
- 1.2 g Leaven Food All Purpose or Leaven Food Wild Yeast - 0.3%
Final Dough:
- 400 g Bread Flour (12-13% protein) - 50%
- 40 g Room Temperature Water (75℉ or 24℃) - 5%
- 29 g Milk Powder - 3.6%
- 24 g Room Temperature Butter - 3%
- 16 g Salt - 2%
- 800 g Poolish - 0.30%*
Additionally:
- Food Grade Lye
- Pretzel Salt
Instructions
- Mix Poolish – In a bowl, combine all ingredients listed under Poolish and mix until fully incorporated. Cover with a towel and let rest at room temperature (70–75℉/21–24℃) for about 16 hours, or until doubled in size and bubbly on the surface.
- Mix – Combine all final dough ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on speed 1 for 2 minutes, then increase to speed 3 and mix for 8 minutes. The dough should be smooth and pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Bulk Ferment – After mixing, transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container, cover, and let rest for 3 hours. During the first hour, perform one set of stretch and folds.
- Divide & Shape – Place the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and portion into 125 g balls, shape into loose rounds, cover with a towel and let rest for 20 minutes. To shape the pretzels, roll into a 16” rope with tapered edges and a thicker center, shape the rope into an upside down “U”, cross the ends over each other twice, pull them up toward the thick end and secure them by pressing down. Place the shaped pretzels onto a lightly oiled baking sheet lined with parchment, cover with a towel and proof for 3 hours.
- Dip & Bake – When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425℉ /218℃. Fill two stainless steel pots with 2000mL of room temperature water. Bring one pot to a boil. While wearing gloves and eye protection, carefully add 80 g of food safe lye to the second pot of water, stirring until fully dissolved. It is very important to add the lye to the water and not the other way around. Once the water is boiling, add as many pretzels will fit without overcrowding. Boil for 1 minute, carefully flipping half way through. Using a slotted spoon or spider, transfer the pretzels into the room temperature lye solution and dunk for 10 seconds. Remove and place them on a sheet pan lined with lightly oiled parchment paper. Sprinkle with pretzel salt, if desired. Score the thickest part of each pretzel with a sharp blade and place into oven for 12 minutes, or until dark golden brown.
Notes
- Pretzels are best enjoyed the same day they were made, but can be enjoyed a second day if stored in an airtight container.
- * percentage of preferment calculated by % of prefermented flour
- Mixing speed and times may vary depending on the mixer. The following protocol has been adapted for a 4.5 qt. KitchenAid® or similar mixer using a dough hook attachment.