Today is National Pretzel Day (this should really fall on the same day as Beer day!) and these are a massive labor of love. Despite being German — and Southern German at that! — I am not a very good pretzel maker. My Opa, the Bäckermeister. wouldn’t be too terribly impressed with my shaping abilities. The dough is great — high protein flour from Kin Arthur is great — and these are sourdough, though if you search my site, you will also find the yeast version. The first batch, the “arms” kept on coming off the sides, so I started tucking them under and that worked better. The pretzel salt (also from KA) kept on falling off the bottom bit when I made the slits, so I put it on the side. Not traditional, but they’ll do.
Ingredients
4 cups bread flour (I use KA’s High-Gluten Blend, which has 14% protein. Bread flour is ok too, at 12%).
1/2 cup ripe sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups water, room temperature
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 teaspoons table salt
2 quarts water
1/3 cup baking soda
Coarse salt for sprinkling
Directions
For the dough: Whisk together flour and salt in a medium bowl. Add starter, room-temperature water, olive oil and honey, and stir with wooden spoon until shaggy mass forms and no dry flour remains. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 minutes. Sprinkle salt over dough and mix until fully incorporated. Cover bowl with plastic and let dough rest for 20 minutes. Using your wet hands, fold dough over itself by gently lifting and folding edge of dough toward middle. Turn bowl 90 degrees; fold again. Turn bowl and fold dough 4 more times (total of 6 turns). Cover bowl with plastic and let dough rest for 20 minutes. Repeat folding technique, turning bowl each time, until dough tightens slightly, 3 to 6 turns total. Cover bowl tightly with plastic and refrigerate for at least 16 hours or up to 24 hours.
The next day, bring the dough to room temperature. Divide dough into 8-10 balls (for medium pretzels). Roll into snakes and form into pretzels. Let rest for an additional 15 minutes covered with the clean dish towel(s).
Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare two baking sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
In a shallow pot (or wide-rimmed pan with sides 3 inches deep), bring the water to a rolling bowl. Add the baking soda (careful, it will bubble up tremendously!) and continue to boil until the baking soda is completely dissolved. Then turn the water to a simmer. Using a spider or slotted spoon, submerge each pretzel, one at a time, into the simmering water for 30-45 seconds (but no more!), holding the spider underneath the pretzel, in case it starts to fall apart. Immediately transfer to the baking sheet, cut a small slit in the bottom section and sprinkle with coarse salt.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
