Hello! If you’ve been with me on my journey for a little while, you know that I have been on a journey in 2024 to make my very own sourdough starter. It has took a while for the starter to get ‘ripe’ but I am still trying to work with it regularly so it can get stronger. I haven’t made a sourdough loaf yet because I want to wait until the starter really is unquestionably ready (probably will try this weekend!), so in the meantime, I have been trying some sourdough starter discard recipes. I found a pretzel bite recipe that I had to try so I decided to give it a go (side note that I have NEVER made pretzels before so this was totally new). The recipe I came across for these was on the same blog as another starter discard recipe from “This Jess Cooks.” I have really liked the variety she has and I feel like, generally, the recipes are pretty easy to follow and well-rounded. I’ve linked the recipe here for the Sourdough Discard Pretzel Bites and included my thoughts below. Let me know if you’ve tried sourdough discard pretzels before (or even pretzels at all!) and any tips you have!
- Time and Effort: Easy – Medium
- This wasn’t as difficult as I expected but does require some hands on time. There is about an hour for waiting for the dough to rise but be prepared for this to take a good 1 hour of hands on time.
- Generally this is easy – I used my kitchen aid mixer to knead the dough which is such a lifesaver. It didn’t require a ton of equipment and clean up was pretty easy.
- Skill Level: Medium
- This borders on the line of easy and medium. It definitely wasn’t something that was quick but it didn’t take a ton of skill – more just willingness to learn and be patient.
- Suggestions:
- Plan ahead – it requires hands on and hands off time so make sure to read the recipe through before you start. It does require the dough to rise.
- I wanted to make my pretzel bites with salt – I am not a huge fan of ‘everything’ seasoning so just used some flaky kosher salt and it worked great!
- These are great fresh out of the oven. Super easy to eat way more than you expect. I did try some cinnamon sugar ones and they really didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. I misread the recipe though and don’t feel like I did the seasoning right for that.
- You could probably half the recipe if you wanted – I had like 40 pretzel bites by the end of this!
- Helpful Tools Used (linked to Amazon page):
- KitchenAid Mixer (I have the classic version but there are a number of versions to check out)
- Parchment Paper (I like the non dyed one) or silicone mats
- Baking sheets (these are my favorite because they aren’t all huge – way easier to clean and handle)
LL’S OVERALL REVIEW: 4/5
I thought these pretzel bites were great – lots of flavor and truly tasted like great pretzels that I would have as an app at a restaurant! I don’t eat a huge quantity of pretzels so I think I would stray away from making these unless I was hosting people or had a reason for so many pretzels because my husband and I could not eat all of these which feels wasteful. Overall a great recipe and a fun thing to try!
– LL
Little Libbie 
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