In the world of homemade pretzels there are so many options: yeasted, sourdough, bites, sweet, savory, cheesy; the list goes on and on. Which pretzel, as made by me, will reign supreme?
Though there were many options, there are only two of us in the house and I didn't want to go overboard with temptation. Two dough options, two types of pretzels, hopefully a lot of delicious flavor. I picked a classic yeasted pretzel and a sourdough discard pretzel, both in their original salted form to truly compare the individual strengths and weaknesses.
Neither could be blamed on the creator because both were made by me, so the margin of error would be the same. I had many thoughts throughout the process but my early prediction going in was heavily toward sourdough. I haven't made a bad sourdough dish yet so I figured this was bound to also be a champ.
Making the dough
Knowing that the sourdough would need a longer rise, I started with this dough. Initially, I made some fatal errors but I just rolled with them, hoping for the best. I opted to keep out the called for four grams of yeast ( recipe from Stretch and Folds blog) solely to maintain the integrity of yeasted vs sourdough. This was probably a mistake but the dough seemed to come together wonderfully. Additionally, I over salted the dough by a good amount. The recipe called for eight grams of salt, but in my head I though it said 80, I started adding more, but at 18 I stopped to check the recipe again; obviously I was wrong but I kept on mixing.
I opted to mix both doughs by hand to maintain consistency, get in a bit of an upper body workout, and to feel more immersed in the process. The sourdough discard dough was sticky as expected with a sourdough recipe but came together into a smooth ball in under six minutes. The yeasted dough however took over ten minutes of hand kneading to get to a decent cohesive ball. All measurements in the yeasted dough were accurate but only in terms of cups and measuring spoons. I used to completely be on the side of measuring cups and spoons are accurate enough, there's no need to weigh out ingredients; I have changed my mind entirely. I feel as if I added far too much flour because despite the impressive rise during the proof, the yeasted dough was incredibly dry when I went to roll them out.
After both doughs were made, resting, and proofing; I was staying true to the sourdough based on how the dough felt during the kneading process.
Proof is in the Pretzel
The proofing process was relatively quick. The sourdough started resting at 5:00 and the yeasted dough at 5:30. I began breaking down and rolling out the yeasted dough around 7:00 once we finished eating dinner. This stage became a bit tricky as Matt was having a treat creating evening of his own, making caramel corn. (Maybe I can convince him to post a special guest writer feature on his experience.) So, my plan was to section the yeasted dough into 12 even-ish balls and then begin rolling them out and forming pretzels. The dough had risen beautifully and sectioning went very well. The sourdough however did double in size but seemed to grow out as opposed to up.
After the proofing process, the yeasted dough had taken the lead.
Rolling with my Dough
This was very much a "user error" area for me. I am not sure if I am just really bad at rolling the dough out or if the yeasted dough was too dry. Maybe picking 12 portions instead of eight or ten just made the pretzels too short. Though you can easily see how thick my pretzels were compared to Matt's pretzels, so I suppose it was just user error in my rolling abilities. The rolled out sourdough are not featured simply because I forgot to photograph them. They were however a sticky, flat mess. Once placed on the wax paper, they lost all definition and began to glob back together, even sticking to the wax paper entirely.
The clear winner in the battle after rolling was the yeasted pretzel.
Cooking through it all
The actual cooking/baking process may have also been a fatal error on my part. Without rechecking the recipes, I asked Matt to fill the big pot with water and add in 1/4 cup of baking soda. This was not enough baking soda. However, at this time we were unaware of that revelation. The yeasted pretzels sat in the boiling baking soda water for about a minute and then went into a 450 degree oven for roughly 12 minutes. The sourdough pretzels immediately sank to the bottom of the pan and only floated when the water was stirred; when they stayed floating I knew they were ready. They then went into the 450 degree oven for 17 minutes.
Yeast wins again.
Tasting Time
With both pretzel types out of the oven, we were finally able to compare the two: yeasted vs sourdough. Pictured to the right, the sourdough are closest to this paragraph and the yeasted look less like croissants. Based solely on the look and thinking of a pretzel, I would give the win to yeasted (even my thick pretzels.) However, that one mistake of adding too much salt may have really helped the sourdough pretzels. The flavor profile of the yeasted was a bit bland and we were desperately trying to figure out what was missing, ultimately we determined it was the lower amount of baking soda. The sourdough pretzels really seemed to pop flavor-wise due to the distinct sourdough taste, the added salt, and what seemed to be an elevated egg flavor, even though both doughs received the same egg wash and salt topping prior to the in oven bake. This was a real toss up for me, and while I know both can be executed at a higher level. I have to give the win to the traditional yeasted pretzel. Overall, the experience of texture while eating the yeasted pretzel was more enjoyable for me, though I will try making both recipes again or even improvising my own.
National Pretzel Day Battle Winner: Yeasted Pretzel
I suppose classics stay classic for a reason.
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