Today's batch

Just a single bake today, I couldn't wait to make the unfed sourdough pretzels again. This time I did it without yogurt (which last time I substituted for the milk powder the recipe called for) or any other milky thing and this produced a much stiffer, denser dough which had a harder crust even though it was baked for the same length of time. I used the smoked salt this time instead of the normal Cornish sea salt.

The dough was much easier to handle and shape, and I was much happier with the look of the pretzels, but the taste and texture weren't as good as last time. It was pointed out to me that sourdough purists wouldn't agree with using another sour type flavouring as well in the recipe, so I gave it a go without the yogurt. I'm now clear that there is a need for something milky in the dough, and I liked the flavour and texture outcome last time so I am going to carry on with that recipe because milk powder just makes me feel sad.

I think if I make these for Halloween I'll be tempted to call them undead sourdough pretzels rather than unfed sourdough pretzels...

Sourdough pretzels

A chum pointed me towards a recipe which uses up unfed sourdough mother - if you discard before you feed, then it does seem a terrible waste. And if you don't discard, it's nice to be able to use a bit up spontaneously, without having to decide the day before what you're going to make.

The recipe I looked at first is Sourdough Beer Pretzels, which looked brilliant. Reading through it, I saw the attribution for the original recipe, and followed the link through to King Arthur Flour. Delicious though the beer version sounds, I decided to go with the original for my first attempt at pretzels (why do I keep wanting to call them bagels?). I adapted the recipe a little to my own taste (find the original here):

3 cups strong white flour (Shipton Mill Baker's No. 1)
3/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup natural yogurt
1 cup sourdough mother (unfed)
1 tbsp olive oil
good pinch of salt
6g fresh yeast

wash made from 1 tbsp caster sugar dissolved in 2tbsp of warm water (I didn't use it all when it came to it)
Cornish sea salt to sprinkle over

I combined all the dough ingredients by hand in a bowl and worked the dough until silky. It was pretty sticky (perhaps I should have added a tiny bit less yogurt?). I left it, covered, in the bowl for 50 minutes or so, then turned it out and divided into a dozen pieces.

I rolled each piece into a long sausage (the target was about 18"), which wasn't as easy as you might think. I had many breakages and adhesions on the way. Finally I looped them around and tried to arrange in a pretzel shape, in some cases going for a poncy double twist. Once safely on the tray (I reckoned if I peeled them in the shape would be even more distressing that it already was) I brushed with the wash and sprinkled with salt. Way, way too much salt.

They then went straight into an oven at 180°C for 20 - 25 mins (top tray out at 20 mins, bottom one to the top for another few mins).

They smelled amazing when they came out, and I was willing them to cool so that I could try one. I wasn't disappointed - a beautiful chewy texture, wonderful flavour, delicious crust. Really, really good. Definitely going to try these again, not only because I clearly need the shaping practice, and I think there's room for a bunch of little modifications here and there. Next time I'll try my smoked sea salt on top.