German Soft Sourdough Pretzels

Directions

• Levain (9:00 p.m.)
• Mix the Levain ingredients in a small bowl or jar. Cover the jar and keep it warm for 12 hours.
• Mix (9:00 a.m. the next day; or even as late as 4 p.m. with the overnight option)
• Add the flour, cold water, salt, softened butter, diastatic malt powder, and levain to the bowl of a strong stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix on speed 1 for 2 to 3 minutes until all ingredients are incorporated. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. Hand-mix or mix in a stand mixer on speed 2 for 4-6 additional minutes until the dough becomes smooth and cohesive.
• Bulk fermentation (9:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., about 3.5 hours at ~78° F)
• After an hour of bulk fermentation, give the dough one set of stretches and folds. Return the dough to the bulk container and let it rest until it is time to divide.
• Divide and preshape (12:45 p.m.)
• Because the dough is low hydration, keep it covered at all times. Divide the dough into twelve 115-gram rectangular pieces. Preshape rectangles, not just by rolling but by folding and pressing each into itself, into tapered cigar shapes of about 6 inches. It is important to let the pieces rest for 15 minutes or longer until they are extensible enough to be rolled out finger-thick to over 24 inches. Cover with plastic.
• Shape (1:00 p.m.)
• Line two half-sheet pans with parchment paper. Starting with the piece preshaped first, place the dough cigar before you so the tips are at your sides. Begin with your hands slightly overlapping in the middle, press down, and roll the dough back and forth away from and then toward your body. As you roll, move your hands outward to encourage the tube to spread out and become increasingly thin as you move from the center out to the tips. Roll the dough out to a finger-thin, long rope of 24 or more inches.
  
  The rolled-out rope will eventually contract if the dough is not rested enough. This leads to clumped-up, bagel-lookalike pretzels, which also will bake unevenly.
  
  You want to keep an exaggerated bulge in the very center of this rope, this will be the part you later score to open in the oven. Grab the two tips and arrange the dough so it loops away from you. Take one tip and fold it over the other side. Switch your hands so your right hand is holding the new right tip and your left is holding the new left tip. Fold the same side over the other as previously. Grab the two tips, fold them up over the knot in the middle, and place each tip on its corresponding side inside the loop. It looks nice to have a little overlap with each tip — gently press it down into the side to seal.
• Proof (1:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.)
• Let the dough proof on the counter at room temperature for 30 minutes, covered with a plastic sheet.
  
  OVERNIGHT OPTION: at this point, you could also retard the shaped pretzels in the fridge overnight to make them the next day. Instead of leaving them out for 30 minutes covered to proof, leave them for only 15 minutes covered with plastic, and then place them in the fridge. The next day, remove sheet pans from the fridge to uncover them and return them to the fridge to chill uncovered for 20 minutes (to develop skin, as mentioned previously). Then, continue with the rest of the process.
  
  Otherwise, uncover and transfer the baking sheets holding your pretzels to the fridge for 45 minutes to 1 hour to develop dry skin and help them keep their shape.
• Lye bath (2:45 p.m.)
• Make sure you have two racks in your oven, one at the bottom third and one in the top third. Preheat your oven to 450°F (230°C) convection (475°F (245°C) without convection).
  
  While wearing long latex or rubber gloves, add 940g of cool water to a stainless steel bowl. To the water, add 38g of food-grade lye while quickly mixing with a stainless steel whisk. The mixture will initially be cloudy, keep stirring until all the powder/pellets are dissolved.
  
  With gloves, pick up one shaped pretzel, transfer it to the lye bath, and let it bathe for 15-20 seconds. Take out of lye bath, let bath fluids drop off for a second or two, and transfer the pretzel back to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Any remaining wetness from the lye bath on the pretzel will harmlessly evaporate, at least in the hot oven.
  
  Repeat with remaining dough pieces. Once all the pretzels have been processed, carefully flush the remaining lye solution or save it for future use.
• Bake (3:00 p.m.)
• Score each pretzel with the razor blade and sprinkle on pretzel salt. Bake at 450°F (230°C) for 10 minutes. Rotate the pans back to front and top to bottom, turn the oven down to 425°C (220°C), and bake for 6 minutes longer or until a deep brown color. Take out baking sheets from the oven, and transfer pretzels to a cool rack. Enjoy them while they are still warm.
• Store
• Store pretzels in an airtight freezer bag, or even in a vacuum-sealed bag for later consumption.