I never had a problem with dissolving the baking soda: You do it in hot water, and it just disappears.. There is a reason for the baking soda - it creates the typical pretzel flavor, it's not just for the color. "Real" pretzels (that is the ones that come from Bavaria) are actually made by dipping them into a cold lye solution. That changes the outside of the dough. Because handling lye is a bit dangerous, the way to do that at home is by using a boiling solution of baking soda in water. The effect is not as strong as with lye, but it's still close enough to the original that I don't bother with lye. I will definitely try these sourdough pretzels, but I will boil them for 10 seconds in a baking soda solution. Otherwise they don't deserve to be called pretzels :) BTW: Here is my pretzel recipe (without sourdough): http://www.khk.net/wordpress/2007/07/05/pretzel-baking/

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