I really like making soft pretzels for the textures and salty bready tastes. The Samantha video pretzel recipe gets a dark pretzel by adding brown sugar to the dough and water when boiling. Also interested to see if baking the baking soda before adding to water bath makes it more like a lye bath. Hoping to also make a cheese sauce for dipping. Making pretzel bites is good for a crowd otherwise I like making a few large pretzels.
video on youtube
Ingredients
water bath
- 3/4c (136g) baking soda
- 1/4c (55g) dark brown sugar
dough
- 1t instant yeast
- 100g sourdough
- 3T dark brown sugar
- 450g bread flour
- 4T unsalted butter
- 2t kosher salt
finish
- 1 large egg, beaten
- pretzel salt for sprinkling
Steps
prepare baking soda
- cover baking sheet with foil
- spread baking soda
- bake 300F for 1h
dough
- 3/4c room temp water to mixing bowl
- spread yeast
- add 1t brown sugar
- set aside until foamy
- add flour, butter, salt, 3T brown sugar
- knead on medium for 5-6m until dough is smooth
- let dough rise in fridge 8-24h or 2h on counter
pretzel shape
- roll dough to 10x18 rectangle
- using pizza wheel cut into 10 18x1 strips
- roll each strip into rounded rope
- shape dough to U then twist ends around forming pretzel
- leave uncovered for 30-45 until get puffy
bath and bake
- preheat oven to 425F
- boil 4c water
- add 1/2c baking powder
- add 1/4c brown sugar
- add pretzel 10-15s per side
- transfer pretzels to wire rack
- bake 15-20m until turning golden brown
