Good morning & happy Friday! The sourdough starter took a few days of light (50g flour/50g water) daily refreshments to build up the sour taste. Starving it helps that along when reviving it. In the meantime, I collected a pint of discard and kept it in the fridge for making crackers. It took about a week, but now the starter is ready to go. Time to crank it up with a 150% refreshment. I need about a cup of starter for making soft pretzel dough later today.
Now that the starter has doubled... Pretzel dough: 1 cup starter, stirred down 1 cup warm water 2 tsp table salt 3 Tbsp soft butter, unsalted 3 Tbsp honey 3-1/3 cups AP flour You'll need a stand mixer with a dough hook. Pretzel dough is very soft and sticky, almost impossible to mix by hand without having to add extra flour, which would change the dough's consistency. Dump everything except the flour into the mixer bowl. Run the mixer at low (#1) to combine, then add the flour slowly, 1 cup at a time. Scrape down the sides a few times. Reserve the final 1/3 cup of flour until the dough is well combined, then add more flour a spoonful at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides but is still stuck around the bump at the bottom. Run the mixer at #2 for another five minutes. Scrape the dough out into a large lightly oiled bowl. Roll the dough over halfway, cover tightly with plastic wrap and let it double. Once doubled, put the bowl in the fridge overnight. 18-48 hours works best. It's pretty stable once it's in the fridge and the flavor only gets better, up to 48 hours. I'm going to let it ferment until Sunday afternoon.
@Greg thanks for sharing. I am looking forward to seeing your pictures in a few days. I love soft pretzels!
@SassyGirl It doubled and it's now in the fridge. They're pretty easy, I hope you try them.
Nice!
Back at it. Took the cold dough out of the fridge, divided it in half and pressed each flat to get out the large air bubbles. Cut into manageable strips, rolled into cigars and cut into 1" long pieces. The dough will get sticky again so work quickly while it's cold. Spritz with some oil and cover lightly with wax paper. Let them puff up a bit, about an hour. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Middle rack. Dissolve 1/2 cup baking soda in two quarts of simmering hot water in a saucepan. Drop handfuls of the bites into the solution, stir gently to get them completely wet for 30 seconds and dip out onto a non-stick foil lined baking sheet. Parchment paper doesn't work, they'll stick. Sprinkle lightly with kosher salt or whatever you like. These are topped with everything bagel seasoning. Bake for about 12-14 minutes until deep golden brown. The rolls baked for 20 minutes but otherwise treated the same, minus the seasoning.
@Greg looks delicious!
@SassyGirl Pretzel bites and rolls are probably the best best uses of sourdough, at least for us. Leftovers are pretty rare.
Looks so yummy, Greg. A lot of hard work doing that. Wow
Not really a lot of work, Bent. Mostly just letting it do its thing.
How old is your mother?
@Baileygirl Close to 30 years. I started it at my previous house and we've lived here 26 years.
Wow, now the oldest I know of.