Single serving soft sprouted spelt pretzel-28

30 Jun Single Serving Soft Sprouted Spelt Pretzel

Posted at 20:00h in Breads & Yeasted Doughs, Einkorn & Spelt by Thea Tillberg 17 Comments

My dad: Thea, are you making flour at 10 o’clock in the evening?

Me: Yesss… I’m just feeding my sourdough starter…

Me and my grain mill(ehmm.. my mum’s grain mill) probably have a little too close relationship. I spend more time with it then a normal person should, especially considering I’m only 18. Seriously, how many 18 year olds make their own flours? Even when I feed my sourdough starters (yep, I got two. Did  I say I was 18?) I grind a small amount of flour solely for that purpose because I don’t want to store old flour in my cupboards. Such a waste of nutrients when I have the possibility to have fresh flour 24/7.

No one would know how much time I spend with the grain mill if it didn’t make so much noise. It’s a machine and it makes noises, for some it sounds terrible while for me it sounds like heaven – grain mill heaven. So if I’m grinding flour at 10 o’clock on a Tuesday evening my parents will definitely notice. This weekend my parents went away so me and my sister were home alone. That meant I could make flour and feeding my sourdough starters at midnight without waking anyone up or make them think I’m crazy.

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When I discovered that I could tolerate einkorn flour a couple of months ago I thought that maybe it wasn’t the einkorn itself, but how it was prepared that made all the difference. I grind my own whole grain flours and have been doing so with my gluten free grains for about a year but I’d never made it with gluten grains before. So I started experimenting with freshly milled spelt flour as well and it turns out I can eat it now and then without any problem in combination with either sprouting or souring.. For this soft pretzel I used freshly milled sprouted spelt flour. If you’re not able to make your own sprouted spelt flour at home you can order it online or use sprouted wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour or whole wheat spelt flour instead.

Single serving soft sprouted spelt pretzel-37

Single serving soft sprouted spelt pretzel-38  Notes

  • This is not your average pretzel. Since it’s made from 100% sprouted whole wheat spelt flour it’s denser then normal. However, I found that it suits for a pretzel because it works well with that chewy crust. If you want a pretzel with a lighter interior, feel free to replace half of the sprouted spelt flour with AP flour. It’s best eaten while still hot from the oven.
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Soft Sprouted Spelt Pretzel

Ingredients

  • 4 g of fresh yeast
  • 55 ml of warm water (37 C/99 F)
  • 90 g of sprouted spelt flour + more for kneading
  • a very generous pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp natural cane sugar
  • 1/4 cup bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • 1 tbsp of sesame seeds
  • flaky sea salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F.
  2. In a medium sized bowl, dissolve the fresh yeast in the warm water. Add the flour, salt and sugar in to the bowl and mix together with a wooden spoon.
  3. If using a stand alone mixer fit the dough hook and mix it for 6 minutes.
  4. If kneading by hand, tip the dough out on to a floured surface and knead it for 10 minutes. If the dough is very sticky, feel free to flour the worktop with some plain flour.
  5. The dough is ready when it spring back all the way, when you prod a finger into it.
  6. Roll the dough out to about a 16inch / 40 cm long sausage with the same thickness, pretty much all the way.
  7. Then form the sausage in to a u shape. Cross the dough ends over near the end and then take the two ends and fold them back to the bottom of the U and place this pretzel on a baking sheet lined with non stick baking parchment.
  8. Spray the pretzel shaped dough with oil and then lightly cover them with cling film making sure that they are completely air tight but make sure that the cover is not too tight.
  9. Place this in a warm but not too hot place for about 30 minutes or until doubled in size.
  10. 15 minutes before the dough is ready, bring a large pan of water to the boil, making sure that the pan is only 2/3 full.
  11. Once the prezels are ready and the water is boiling, turn the water down a bit and add the baking powder to it.
  12. Turn the heat up a little bit so it bubbles gently away and then carefully place the pretzel in the water. Let cook for 30-45 seconds and then remove the pretzels with a fish slice/spatula and place back on to the baking sheet.
  13. Turn off the bubbling water and brush the pretzel with the beaten egg, sprinkle over the sesame seeds and flaky sea salt and then place in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the pretzels are going a mid brown colour. Serve warm and enjoy!

Notes

Recipe adapted from Lorraine Pascale

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17 Comments
  • Abby
    Posted at 23:04h, 30 June

    This pretzel is GORGEOUS, Thea! Looove it. <3

  • renee (will frolic for food)
    Posted at 20:28h, 02 July

    i love your love of the grain mill. it’s the cutest. i feel that way about a lot of food things, like i used to be that way about making ice cream, then i went through a donut phase. but the kind of back-to-basics vibe that you have is really inspiring. i have yet to try a sourdough starter, but i’m pretty sure i’ll fall in love once i start. do you have any recommendations for a gf sourdough starter? i’m going to try einkorn too.

    • Thea Tillberg
      Posted at 09:05h, 08 July

      I have a recipe for a gluten free sourdough starter in my archive! 🙂

  • renee (will frolic for food)
    Posted at 20:29h, 02 July

    also PRETZELS! this is brilliant and i can’t wait to try it!

  • Adelaide | thevoguefoodie
    Posted at 08:15h, 05 July

    Definitely going to try making one of these as they look too good! What would an alternative be to the egg for brushing, as I am intolerant to them x

    • Thea Tillberg
      Posted at 09:06h, 08 July

      Thanks! Try brushing them with some milk instead!

  • Anne
    Posted at 14:57h, 05 July

    This pretzel!!!! It looks absolutely wonderful and I love love love that it uses sprouted spelt flour and the fact that you grind your own flour!!!! True that not many 18 year olds grind their own flour, but how many of them are like you, creating your own GLUTEN FREE recipes and blogging them on a very successful food blog, Thea??? Conclusion: you’re amazeballs!!!! :DDDDD

    • Thea Tillberg
      Posted at 09:06h, 08 July

      Thanks Anne! You’re so sweet <3

  • Millie | Add A Little
    Posted at 07:42h, 12 July

    Thea this looks absolutely incredible! I’m actually super jealous that you mill your own flour and have 2 sourdough starters haha!

  • Link Love Sunday | Add A Little
    Posted at 11:02h, 12 July

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  • myriam / rhubarb! rhubarb! rhubarb!
    Posted at 02:34h, 28 December

    this pretzel is a beauty!

    i love keeping a sourdough culture, it makes me so happy — a little bit like feeding a baby. 🙂

    what kind of grain mill do you use? because after reading this, now i think i need a grain mill. 🙂

    • Thea Tillberg
      Posted at 19:28h, 06 January

      Thanks Myriam, I use a Fidibus classic grain mill. 🙂

  • April Yik
    Posted at 01:07h, 07 November

    Hi Thea, I’m going to try this but I can’t find sprouted spelt flour in my country. Can I replaced it with white rice flour or any other GF flour?

    Thanks.

    • Thea Tillberg
      Posted at 19:10h, 17 November

      Spelt flour is not gluten free so you can’t replace it with a gluten free flour in this recipe. However any kind of whole grain gluten flour or sprouted gluten flour should work!

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