baked from frozen – 400° for about 8 minutes

I decided not to try to replace the yeast in this recipe with sourdough starter. I just replaced some of the flour and water with starter to give the pretzels a little sourdough flavor. It’s been way too long since I made pretzels. These are getting the par-bake treatment and going in the freezer.

These turned out delicious, very soft and fluffy inside and a nice brown crust (on the fully baked ones at least). I’m not sure how much the starter contributed to the rise, if at all, but these could use less yeast. If I were making pretzel rolls this yeast amount would be good, but I like my pretzels chewier than this. Next time I might use half, and more starter. They didn’t taste like sourdough at all.

1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp softened unsalted butter
2 tbsp active dry yeast
200 g sourdough starter
355 g warm water
665 g flour (I used about half bread flour this time)
1 tbsp + 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Notes:

1. Use less yeast next time – half? Maybe try a half batch using only starter, no yeast.
2. Use more starter
3. Use all bread flour
4. 6 to a pan is too many – they touched and stuck together. Try 4 next time. Maybe make half a recipe and make 8 smaller pretzels.
5. Dip longer in the lye solution. I basically just dipped them in for a few second.
6. After lye dip, place on rack to dry slightly before placing on fresh sheet with oil sprayed parchment.

Lye dip notes:

1. definitely don’t need 10 cups of solution
2. use a plastic or glass container that is wide enough to put both hands/pretzel in, and deep enough that any splashes will be contained.
3. make just enough solution for pretzels to be fully submerged. (1 part lye to 20 parts water, by volumn)
4. turn on vent fan

I started a spreadsheet of baker percentage calculations and formulas for more testing. I also bought a 100g x 0.01g scale for small measurements and I’ll use grams for all measurements from now on. I think I will do a side by side test of 100% sourdough and sourdough/yeast blend, 4 pretzels each.

Original Recipe

Resource for adapting yeast recipes for sourdough starter