Looking for more starter uses I thought I would make some more pretzels, this time using a starter as a leavening agent.

This recipe comes from Baking Sense. It worked perfectly on the first attempt and I highly recommend.

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

225 g active starter (fed 1:1:1 starter, flour, water by weight)
1 1/4 cups warm water
490 g bread flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt

For Boiling:

2 litres water
1/3 cup baking soda

For Toppings:

1/4 cup sugar + 1 tsp cinnamon
Cheese
Melted butter and 1 clove garlic
Everything but the bagel seasoning
1 egg white
flaked sea salt

Directions:

Combine starter and water.

With mixer on low add half the flour (approx 1 cup at a time). Let sit for 30-60 mins.

Switch to dough hook, add sugar salt and rest of the flour. Allow to combine then knead for 5 minutes.

Transfer dough to lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat.

Perform 3 stretch and folds, every 30-60 minutes. Allowing dough to rise a total of 3 hours. Refrigerate overnight.

Divide dough into 12 equal parts. Shape into pretzels (roll out and fold left side over centre of a “U” then right side over centre), twists or cut into bite size pieces.

You can also flatten some dough, sprinkle shredded cheese inside and then roll back up to make some cheese stuffed pretzels.

Cover and let rise for 1 hour.

Bring Baking soda and water to a boil. Boil on each side for 30 seconds. Transfer to paper towel or drying rack.

Brush with melted butter or egg white (I used butter for the cinnamon ones and cheese ones). Top with whichever toppings you please.

For cinnamon sugar I rolled them in topping as soon as they came out of the oven.

Bake at 475˚F for 12-15 minutes .

I’ve now continued to make sourdough and have slowly been altering my recipe with a little more water and different flours. Feel free to look at the last recipe to see my notes on starter and more detailed photos of the process.

Instructions:

150 g bubbly, active starter
375 g warm water
25 g olive oil
350 g All-Purpose Flour
150 g best for bread multi-grain flour
10 g sea salt or kosher salt
Flour for dusting

Directions:

Here is the active starter, which doubled after being fed.

Whisk the starter, water, olive oil in large bowl.

Add flour and salt and squish together. Allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Once rested work dough into a ball, leave in bowl and cover.

Perform stretch and folds at 1 hour intervals 2-3 times. Pinch a side of the dough, pull up and fold over itself. Turn bowl and perform on another side until you have moved the bowl 360˚.

Allow to rise for 6-12 hours.

To shape the dough use a bench scraper to fold the dough over to the centre moving around the dough in a full circle. Flip the dough and cup the sides of the dough rotating in a circular motion.

Either place in a bannton basket or in the dutch oven for the second rise (1-2 hours). I placed half this one in the banneton and the other half in a loaf pan. I baked the loaf pan inside the dutch oven as well.

Cut a slice in the top with a very sharp knife

Preheat oven to 450˚. Drop temperature to 400˚ and bake covered for 40 minutes. Remove dutch oven lid and bake for an additional 20 minutes.