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baking therapy: sourdough soft pretzels

These pretzels are wonderful! Super easy (just one rise!) and added bonus: they make use of the cup of sourdough starter that you usually discard after feeding.

Sourdough Soft Pretzels, from King Arthur Flour 

For the Pretzels
1 cup sourdough starter, straight from the fridge
3/4 cup lukewarm water
3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup non-fat dried milk
1 T sugar
1 1/2 t salt
1 T oil or butter
2 t yeast

In a kitchen aid, mix all of the ingredients together. Knead on low speed for 3 – 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth. Cover and let the dough rise for about an hour. Heat an oven to 350 degrees. Cut the dough into twelve pieces and shape into pretzels.  Place on a lined baking sheet. 

For the Topping
1 T sugar
2 T hot water
coarse salt or sea salt
1 T butter, melted

Mix the sugar with the water until dissolved. Brush the sugar water onto the shaped dough and then sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, until golden brown.

After they come out of the oven, brush the hot pretzels with melted butter. Not like this will surprise you coming from me, but the butter makes these pretzels.

-Emily

By The Answer is Always Pork

Cooking and Eating in San Francisco

7 replies on “baking therapy: sourdough soft pretzels”

I made pretzels and they looked like fat little knots compared to these cute pretzels. Next time I will use your twisting technique.

Thank You for the recipe. I’m actually looking for one that I can maybe freeze half of what I prepare before baking… so far I have been told that using a baking soda bath onto them will give a darker surface color when baked. They also said that after bathing the un cooked pretzels in baking soda, I could freeze them before baking to keep from having a lot of wasted hard gooey cooked extras.
Only trouble is…I didn’t get any details as to how much baking soda/water ratios etc…Guess it’s time to experiment again…Unless you happen to know.
Thanks
paul

Hi Paul,
Thanks for your comment. I have not yet tried the baking soda bath, but I’d probably start with a similar ratio as the water to sugar ratio in the recipe. As for freezing, I would freeze them and then let them thaw in the fridge overnight and then take them out of the fridge a few hours before baking. I’ve had success with this method before. Good luck! And let me know how the baking soda bath turns out.
-Emily

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