New year pretzel with Sourdough

And now we have 2012. I hope your new years eve was nice as the one we had!

We tried already our new year pretzel for a late breakfast, so there are no pictures of the pretzel as a whole.

This year I decided to bake it with a mild sourdough, water roux and less sugar. I kept the sourdough overnight at 25°C which gave it a delicious smell like yoghurt and slightly sour taste, which makes it perfect for a sweet dough.

The dough itself is very soft. Experience with handling soft dough is required, so for beginners I would suggest to prepare the dough with 50-60g less water. That would make handling much easier.

I kneaded the dough very long, so the gluten network was well developed and the bread could rise highly. Using Egg white keeps the crumb bright and white. I think its fit to the fresh new years morning and I used some frozen egg white from christmas baking.

The pretzel has a nice complex taste, a little bit of youghurt and has this slightly sweetness, that fits so well to both sweet jam and salty cheese.

New year pretzel with Sourdough

Sourdough

• 140g water
• 200g flour Type 550
• 70g Starter

Water roux

• 60 g flour Type 550
• 300g water

Dough

• 800g flour type 550
• 150g water
• 100g egg white (of 3 middle size eggs)
• 50g sugar
• 100g Butter
• 10g Salt
• 10g fresh yeast

Glazing

• 1 Egg
• almond slices

Mix all ingredients for the sourdough and ferment overnight (12 to 16 hours) on a warm place (about 25°C).

For the water roux whisk water and flour until lump free, then heat it up to 65°C (needs about 3 min) while whisking. Fill the water roux in a bowl, cover its surface with cling foil and let it cool down to room temperature.

Dissolve the yeast in water, add flour, egg white, water roux, sourdough and knead 5 min at slowest speed, then around 11 min on fast speed until complete gluten development. Now add sugar and butter and knead for about 2 min until butter and sugar are complete incooperated.

Ferment for 2 hours.

Divide the dough into nine pieces and roll into strands of 80 cm length and braid three braids using three strands. Form each braid to a pretzel.

Alternativ you can use can make only one pretzel and use the remaing dough for a bread. Divide it into 4 parts of about 250g each. Form them to balls and let them Rest for 20 min. Roll each Ball into a long thin oval. Fold the long sides into the middle to form an rectangle. From the short roll tightly  to a log. Now roll it again along the seam to an long, thin oval, fold the long sides into the middle and roll again tightly to a log. The log should be as long as the baking pan is wide. Place four logs in a buttered pan (30 cm long) .

Proof for  2.5hours.

Glaze with whisked egg and sprinkle with almond slices.

Bake at 200°C for 35 min.

I sent this to yeastspotting, Susans weekly showcase of yeastbaked goods!