I make - Pretzels

I just realized that bagels and pretzels pretty much are made by the same recipe of low(er) hydration dough. Recently I feel that my bread making has stuck at a stage. I can produce good tasting bread but the shape and the look is really left to be desired. Perhaps I need to go back to the beginning, working with lower hydration dough and practice my kneading/shaping skills.

This is my first go with pretzels with 60% hydration dough. It's 9% higher than what the Guardian article shows but my past experience working with ~50% hydration dough was not good (too dry and hard). I sprinkled my pretzels with homemade Everything toppings. In fact, I really like the way the final products look. You get a sense of oven spring in height and in volume. I ought to practice more with low(er) hydration dough.

My pretzels

- 250 g white bread flour

- 50 g wholemeal bread flour

- 180 g water

- 1/2 tsp fast action yeast

- 1 Tbsp sugar

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 15 g oil

- salt flakes for topping

Everything topping:

- 1 Tbsp white sesame seeds

- 1 Tbsp poppy seeds (or chia/black sesame/nigella seeds)

- 1 Tbsp dried onion flakes

- 1/2 Tbsp dried garlic granules

Baking soda water bath:

- 500ml hot water in a pot (I used a small pot)

- 1 Tbsp baking soda

Mix flours, water, yeast, sugar, salt and oil together in a bowl to form a shaggy mass. Leave the dough to rest for one hour. After that, knead the dough to form a smooth surface. There is no need to aim for gluten development here. 

Rest the dough until the size doubles (bulk fermentation). I usually leave it overnight and resume in the morning.

After bulk fermentation, divide the dough into six pieces. Rest the individual pieces for 30 minutes. Roll each piece into a long rope about 60cm. The dough will resist while you roll out but try to get to 60cm as much as could. First create a U shape with your dough rope, cross over twice with two ends, fold it back to the horseshoe bend and pinch to seal. That's the traditional way. There are plenty of pictorial and video demonstration on the web. Please google search with "how to form pretzels".

If you like very chewy texture, you can poach the pretzels immediately. If you prefer slightly soft/airy interior, let the shaped pretzels rest for 30-60 minutes. During the last 15 minutes, preheat the oven at 220C and heat a pot of water. When the water comes to a boil, stir in baking soda. With gently bubbling water, poach each pretzel 30 seconds each side, drain and sprinkle with everything topping and salt flakes. I poach one pretzel at a time and repeat the whole process for the remaining individual pieces.

Bake the pretzels at 220C/200Cfan for 15 minutes. Rotate the tray half way through. Cool completely before eating. I made a simple mustard sauce to dip into by mixing both grainy and smooth mustard, honey, light cream cheese and dash of cider vinegar.