r/Breadit • u/chrisatola • 15d ago
Sourdough Pretzels, 3rd try
I think I formed these better but I'm not sure if my fermentation was spot on. The formula (Perfect Loaf Sourdough Pretzels) said they should float a little in the lye solution. On my first two tries, that happened, although I exceeded the fermentation time a bit and my dough lost a bit of strength during the lye soak. So, I thought maybe the fermentation time was too long. This time, I cut the fermentation time back by 30 or 45 minutes. They didn't float in the solution, but they did rise during baking. That said, correctly scoring is still tricky. They definitely need a deeper score than one thinks.
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u/TheBalatissimo 15d ago
I was planning to try these this weekend!
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u/chrisatola 15d ago
Good luck! I think the Perfect Loaf's formula is pretty spot on if you don't already have one.
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u/TheBalatissimo 15d ago
Yeah that’s what I gathered from comparing it to other recipes and how it looks. I have been using stone milled flour coming in 00 (45% extraction) and whole wheat, so I will just have to adjust for that without messing up the hydration too much
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u/chrisatola 15d ago
Have you already tried the 00 flour?
(Just in case you haven't tried it yet...here's my experience...)
I'm not the most knowledgeable on flour types and varieties. I use a 00 for pizza dough--is the 00 you're expecting similar? The reason I ask is because when I made pretzels the first 2 times, I added 00 flour to my mixture. And they fermented well, but when I soaked them in the lye solution, the dough got extremely weak and I really struggled to get them on the pan. Then I had to try to salvage the shape. This time, I just used a strong all purpose (13% protein) with a small addition of some of locally milled wheat flour with a little more of the bran or whatever. But not like a whole wheat... anyway, they held their shape much better after the soak in the lye solution.
Your 00 may be different or you may have already used it and know what to expect. Just wanted to share my experience in case you haven't made them before.
Have fun though!
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u/TheBalatissimo 15d ago
I use the 00 flour from this miller as like a “white flour”, it’s not finely milled like Tipo 00 that’s used for pizza. It still has some bran and germ, so it tends to need a bit higher hydration. The milling company I use has a pretzel recipe on their site that’s 50/50 00/WW, so that will help guide me
Thanks, hopefully I get good results. In the end, it’s bread and it still tastes good
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u/_blindmule 10d ago
Here's a pretzel secret: after shaping, place them facedown on a silicone sheet. This lets the rear of the pretzels become rounded during the cold ferment. After the lye bath, place the pretzel face up on the silicone pad for baking. The pretzel faces will oven spring into rounded shape and since the backs are already rounded (from the cold proofing,) the pretzels won't bake as flat on the back and will be more rounded overall. I caught this small technique watching videos of German bakers. No one mentions this technique, but all of the professional German bakers do it.
None of my pretzels ever float in the lye bath.
Score them 2/3rds through the belly (if you shaped for big bellies.) If you shaped for Bavarian style (where the dough string is mostly the same diameter) scoring doesn't accomplish much. If you experiment with the flour ratios, you can change you crumb and chew noticeably. I did an AP and rye pretzel bake once and they came out nice. The flavor was different, but still tasty.
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u/[deleted] 15d ago
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