My first attempt at making Sourdough Pretzels

I had never ever made pretzels at home before, so thought I should give it a try. In fact I have never made them ever, not even when I was working as a baker. And if you have guessed it already, I am going to use a natural levain or a starter.

I needed a recipe to start with, and also I needed to know the procedure, about the shaping and the infamous lye bath! So I found out on IG that @maurizio has shared a recipe that everyone loved. I am so glad I stumbled upon his IG page and his blog "The perfect loaf", which is very informative. So I spent a good few minutes reading his blog post on making sourdough pretzels. For the original recipe follow this link!

sourdough pretzels

I did a few changes to the recipe, simply because, I didn't have few of the ingredients in my pantry. Following are the changes;

I used normal bread flour instead of malted bread flour

I used Rye flour in place of all-purpose flour

I didn't use Diastatic malt powder

I added 2 tablespoons of organic molasses

I used a solution made out of baking soda in place of lye bath

I used sea salt flakes instead of pretzel salt

Dough was retarded in fridge over night

sourdough pretzels

Except for the above alterations, rest of the process is pretty much similar to the original post. Oh and I halved the recipe, and made 8 pretzels each weighing 100 g(prior to baking)

I had to split the process in to two days, due to time constraints. So I made the dough and shaped the pretzels on day 1 and retarded them in fridge over night, so I can bake them fresh in the morning!

at 6 hour mark

fed starter

I fed my starter in the morning around 6.00 am and by 12.00 noon it has doubled and was fully active and ready to go! I mixed the dough and gave it one fold at one hour mark and let it bulk ferment at room temperature for 4 hours.

dough after the bulk proof

Then I divided the dough in to 100 g pieces and molded then in to tiny tubes. I realized, this isn't as easy as it sounds. So my molding wan't perfect. So next-time, I really have to nail this step. And I think I didn't degas them enough, so I got an air bubble here and there. But other than that, it went pretty well.

pre-shaped dough peices

Then I let them rest and shaped them in to pretzels. Placed them on a tray lined with a silicon mat, wrapped in glad-wrap and in to the fridge they went!

shaped pretzels

Next day morning! they were pretty firm to the touch. I took them out, unwrapped and let them sit in the fridge until my water bath boils. Also this is the time to preheat your oven to 475 F (mine is a traditional)

So about the lye bath! I didn't really want to deal with the lye solution for several reasons. One, I don't want any accidents in my tiny kitchen. Two didn't want to store it (we have limited space). Three didn't have a place to buy that(I could have tried online though). Four, I have heard of the baking soda substitute and was rather curious to try it!

So this is how I made my baking soda solution.