Swabian Pretzels - 24h

Dark, crisp Swabian lye pretzels with a soft inside, made with sourdough instead of commercial yeast, over about 24 hours.

Real Swabian pretzels take patience, and this recipe rewards it. You start with a cooked flour paste (Kochstück) from spelt flour that cools for 2 hours. Then you mix a dough of wheat flour, spelt flour, whole milk, butter and sourdough starter, knead it for about 12 minutes and let it rest for 8–12 hours at room temperature. You divide it into 10 pieces and roll each one into a rope that is thicker in the middle, with short rests in between so the dough relaxes. After shaping, the pretzels rest for another 8–12 hours. Then you dip them in a lye solution, sprinkle them with pretzel salt, score them and bake them in a 250 °C oven with a little steam. Makes 10 pretzels.

What you get (PDF, instant download):

• The complete ingredient tables with exact weights: the cooked flour paste and the main dough
• The full step-by-step method: kneading, the first rest with two rounds of stretch and fold, dividing, rolling the ropes in 2–3 steps and shaping
• A clear info box for the lye solution: how to mix it (40 g per liter or 20 g per half liter), safety rules and how long it keeps in the fridge
• The baking guide: 250 °C, a little steam, when to release it, and the baking time
• Safety notes for working with lye and with hot steam

Print-friendly A4 PDF in the Yo(ur)-Crust design — English + German edition included. Requires an active sourdough starter, food-grade lye pellets (sodium hydroxide), gloves and safety goggles.