This recipe can be made into large soft traditional pretzels, pretzel bites, or even pretzel buns to have as a delicious hamburger. In order to make this recipe you will need to have sourdough starter. In particular, you will need the discard of the starter when you are making room to feed your starter.
Ingredients:
Dough:
1 cup and 1 TBS water
1 TBS brown sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 cup (200 grams) sourdough starter discard
2 1/2 cups (20 ounces) flour
4 TBS butter (softened)
Oil to coat bowl
Parchment paper
Boiling:
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
Topping:
Egg wash ( 1 egg yolk in 1 TBS water) beaten
Flaky sea salt
Directions:
Start the dough by combining tepid water, salt, brown sugar, and yeast and let sit for 5 minutes until foamy.
If you have an electrical stand mixer, use that for the next steps.
Add starter, flour, and butter to water/yeast mix on low until combined. Then increase to medium for 4-5 minutes. Add additional 1 TBS flour until the dough forms into a ball. Knead just to ball formation and set aside in large bowl that has been lightly oiled.
Let the dough rise until double the size, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 425 Fahrenheit, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Turn the dough onto floured surface and divide into pieces of desired size and shape.
Place on parchment paper and let rise again for about 20 minutes.
In the meantime, get the 10 cups of water boiling with the baking soda.
Boil each dough piece for 45 seconds and return to baking sheet.
Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with salt.
If making buns, score top with an X.
Bake for 14-16 minutes until golden brown
