Sourdough Everything Pretzels

📝 Ingredients

• 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• 1 cup unfed sourdough starter, straight from the refrigerator
• 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup Baker’s Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• pretzel salt
• everything bagel topping
• 4 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine water, sourdough starter, flour, dry milk, sugar, melted butter, salt, and yeast. Mix on low speed until dough comes together and forms a cohesive dough ball around the dough hook, about 8 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky. Add a tablespoon more water if the dough seems dry.
2. 2Dust the dough with flour, cover with plastic wrap and let rest in a warm place for 45 minutes.
3. 3The dough may not double in size, but it will rise.
4. 4Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.
5. 5Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured work surface, fold it over a few times to gently deflate it, and knead about 5 times.
6. 6Divide the dough into 12 pieces, eye-balling it or weighing each piece to a 2.5 ounce piece.
7. 7Roll each piece of dough into an 18″ rope. Shape each rope into a pretzel using the photographic instructions above.
8. 8Dissolve the sugar in the water. Brush the pretzels and sprinkle generously with everything bagel topping and pretzel salt.
9. 9Bake the pretzels for 25 to 30 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown.
10. 10Remove the pretzels from the oven, and generously brush with melted butter, if desired.