Landi Raemi's Pretzel Buns

Just look at the salt on this pretzel bun! What are pretzel buns you ask? Well, they are pretzels that didn't keep their form; therefore, I decided to give them a proper name: Pretzel Buns.

These pretzel buns were made using my potato sourdough.

At about 7:30 p.m., I mixed a batch of sourdough potato bread dough using:

• 1-3/4 c. starter
• 3/4 c. warm water
• 4 T. butter, softened
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 6 c. flour + 2-1/4 c. more flour for kneading
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1-1/2 t. sea salt

I placed the ingredients in my breadmaker pan according to the manufacturer's directions, with liquids on the bottom, the six cups of flour next, and the dry ingredients on top. I set the breadmaker to the dough cycle and as it mixed the ingredients together, I used a knife and helped it by stirring the top into the bottom quickly. As I did this, I added the remaining flour until the dough was the right consistency; nice and pliable. When the cycle was finished, I put the dough into a well-greased bowl and covered with a towel to raise overnight.

About 8:15 in the morning I got up to put my pretzels together. My first disappointment was a hard crust on the top of the dough and that it hadn't risen as much as I expected. I had debated on covering the dough with a piece of plastic wrap the night before and now regretted not doing so. I believe this is why the dough had a hard crust and didn't raise as much.

Because of this hard layer, it was a little more difficult to form the pretzels. No, really, it was just plain awkward for me, but it's nice to have an excuse, right? I've been wanting to make soft pretzels for years, but this was my first time making homemade soft pretzels. The dough didn't seem to want to hold the stretch and so the pretzels reverted back into what I'd call more of a pretzel bun.

I continued to try to form pretzels and placed them on a parchment covered baking sheet.

The next step was to put them in a baking soda bath using:

• 9 c. water
• 1/3 c. baking soda

I brought the water to a rolling boil and placed the pretzels in for 30 seconds, one at a time. After removing from the soda bath, I replaced them back onto the parchment paper.

I baked them at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.

I removed and brushed the pretzels with melted butter, then sprinkled them with sea salt. After that I returned them to the oven for an additional 7 minutes of baking.

After the second baking time, my pretzel buns were still doughy; therefore, I lowered the oven to 200 degrees and baked for an additional 10 minutes.

Here is what they looked like when all done. Not bad, but definitely room for improvement.

They were pretty tasty, but not what I had anticipated. Better luck next time?

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