Wholesome food doesn’t have to taste bland, and our Sourdough Einkorn Pretzel Rolls are a proof! These little guys are complements of my beer brewing, bread baking husband who has enough patience to experiment with ratios, cultures and temperatures until he gets a perfect result. This recipe is made with two equal parts of flour – whole grain (preferably home milled from einkorn wheat berries) and all purpose flour like Einkorn or Spelt (like VitaSpelt from Whole Foods). If you are more of a normal person and don’t own this lovely grain mill – using all purpose Einkorn should do the trick. I actually prefer the taste of einkorn to spelt. Fermenting the dough overnight makes the nutrients in flour readily available for digestion, reducing phytic acid and increasing B vitamin content of the final product.
Do you know what makes pretzels soft and yummy brown?
Something called Maillard Reaction, which happens between proteins and sugars. This reaction pulls hydrogen atoms from amino acid (protein) molecules making them ready to accept sugar molecules. Once that union happens, a substance called glycosylamine is formed, which in turn creates polymers, or long chain molecules, giving baked goodies brown color and that distinctive flavor.
Do you remember this basic pH scale from your chemistry class? Water is neutral and has a pH of about 5-7. Baking soda is alkaline, and alkalinity along with heat is what accelerates Maillard reaction.
The point here is that if you use alkaline solution like baking soda – you will get great pretzels that will make whole grain taste like your German grandma made them, if you had a German grandma.
- [b]Dough:[/b]
- 1/4 cup sourdough starter (we really like [url href=”http://www.culturesforhealth.com/san-francisco-sourdough-starter.html” target=”_blank”]San Fransisco[/url] from Cultures for Health)
- 2 cups all purpose spelt flour (from Whole Foods) or all purpose einkorn flour ([url href=”https://jovialfoods.com/shop/einkorn/flour.html?___SID=U” target=”_blank”]find it here[/url], it has free shipping)
- 2 cups of whole grain spelt (Whole Foods) or whole grain einkorn flour (home milled is best, or from Jovial)
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt, or Himalayan salt
- 2 tablespoons of dry malt extract (like [url href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038O8LY2/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687682&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B003BCUN9M&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1MXXQTA40WB2N4WV593V” target=”_blank”]Briess[/url], found at homebrew stores or on Amazon) OR 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1.5 cups warm filtered water
- [b]Alkaline solution:[/b]
- 10 cups filtered water
- 2/3 cups baking soda
- Place starter in a KitchenAid mixing bowl. Add flours, salt and malt extract/sugar, and mix well.
- Connect the bowl to KitchenAid with a dough hook attachment.
- Put water in a glass mixing cup, and pour one cup into the mixing bowl.
- Turn the unit on to slowest speed, knead for about 5 minutes, or until a ball forms. If the dough is too dry, add more water a little at a time, you shouldn’t need to use the whole 1.5 cups unless you live in a very dry climate (a different amount of water may be needed depending on time of year, weather, etc).
- You can ferment the dough in the same mixing bowl; cover it with a silicon lid like [url href=”http://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Suction-Lids-Food-Covers/dp/B00J8SJSG2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420585424&sr=8-1&keywords=silicone+airtight+lids” target=”_blank”]this [/url](or cling wrap) and place in a cool spot overnight, or 8-12 hours. San Francisco culture performs best at 50-60 degrees. If you don’t have that temp anywhere, just go for the coolest spot in the house.
- After the cool fermentation when the dough is bubbly and has a tangy smell, bring it to a warm spot, and allow to come to room temperature, an hour or so.
- Divide dough into about 12 pieces, more or less is fine too. The size we use makes it perfect for little sandwiches.
- You can either just make balls, or roll little ‘sausages’ and shape them into rolls to make them prettier.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Put water in a large pot and add soda. Bring to boil. While simmering, add rolls with a spatula, one or two at a time and keep in the water for about 60 seconds.
- Remove from water, and place on parchment paper lined cookie tray. When all the rolls are boiled and lined on cookie tray, sprinkle some sea salt or sesame seeds on top.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
2 comments
When would you feed this starter before you began the recipe?
Hi Sarah, it depends on the activity of your starter. If it becomes active within 4-5 hours after feeding, then that’s your time frame. You just need to have a starter that’s bubbling well.