Sourdough Bretzel @crunchypan
Traditional German preparation. Bread, doughnut, scone, cookie, call it what you want, its flavor will not change. It is recognized by its intertwined shape, caramelized brown color and its slightly salty flavor. It's a cousin of the Bagel, but this one is much more crunchy and rich by far 👌
It is simple but it requires some tricks that I am going to teach you in this post.
RECIPE FOR 15 BRETZELS:
✔️ Strength flour and all-purpose flour (80/20). Total 1 kilo.
✔️Water 550 gr
✔️ Sourdough 250 gr
✔️Salt 20 gr
✔️Butter 100 gr
✔️ Trick No. 1, diastatic malt 0.5 gr @homebaking will improve flavor, aroma and color.
✔️ Coarse sea salt
In a mixer, add the sourdough plus all the ingredients (all together with confidence) and knead on speed 1 for 8 minutes. Rest the dough for 5 minutes. Knead at speed 2 for 10 more minutes until you get a homogeneous and consistent dough.
Transfer to a bowl, cover and rest for 1 hour.
Make crease as with loaves. Rest 2 hours.
Divide the dough into pieces of 120 grams, hopefully in the shape of a rectangle. Rest 20 minutes covered.
Preform generating surface tension (similar to a baguette). Rest 20 minutes covered.
Use the palm of your hands to form a long and thin dough of about 60 cm, thicker in the middle.
Form a horseshoe, intertwine and close. (visit crunchypan and see their stories)
Rest at temp. Amb. 1 hour and refrigerate overnight at 3 degrees.
Trick No. 2, The next day, each pretzel is submerged in a 4% boiled bicarbonate solution, until it floats (the ph of the surface will increase and in contact the oven temperature will give us that caramelized color and traditional aroma of a pretzel, product of the famous Maillard reaction). Remove it and make a small cut. Sprinkle abundant coarse salt and bake for 20 minutes at 240 degrees approx.
Stuffed:
Butter with herbs or whatever you want.