Sourdough Pretzel Recipe

Soft sourdough pretzels are delicious and fun. They are soft and chewy with a shiny golden surface and coarse salt topping.

📝 Ingredients

• 20 g sourdough starter
• 40 g all-purpose flour
• 40 g water
• 405 g bread flour
• 240 g water
• All the sourdough starter (around 90g active starter)
• 25 g soft brown sugar
• 8 g salt
• 1 1/2 litres water
• 60 g baking soda
• Coarse salt for topping

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1About 6 hours before beginning, feed your sourdough starter. Let it rise until doubled in size.
2. 2Once risen, in a large bowl combine the starter, flour, water, brown sugar and salt and mix it together into a shaggy dough.
3. 3Tip it onto a clean work surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is strong and smooth. Alternatively, use the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment.
4. 4Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let the dough rise in a warm place for around 4-5 hours until it has almost doubled. If the dough is drying out, spritz it lightly with water.
5. 5After this rise, cover the dough tightly and refrigerate it overnight (or up to 24 hours.)
6. 6--- Shaping ---
7. 7Take the cold dough from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Pull it from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface.
8. 8Shape the dough into a ball and weigh it on kitchen scales. Divide this number by 8. Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces of this weight and shape each piece into a ball.
9. 9Take a piece of dough and roll it out into a 24inch/60cm long rope. Take the two ends of the rope and bring them together at the top and twist the ends together.
10. 10Fold the twisted ends down. Place the shaped pretzels on flour-dusted parchment paper while you shape the rest of the dough.
11. 11Let the shaped pretzel dough rest at room temperature for around an hour until puffy.
12. 12When they have nearly finished puffing, preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C.
13. 13--- Poaching and baking ---
14. 14Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
15. 15Once boiling, add baking soda. Be careful because it will foam up.
16. 16Poach the pretzels, two at a time, in the boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove them with a slotted spoon and allow the water to drain for 10 seconds.
17. 17Place the poached pretzel onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Repeat with the remaining pretzels.
18. 18Bake the pretzels in a hot oven for around 15-20 minutes until deep golden brown. Turn the baking sheet halfway through if they are browning unevenly.