Homemade Soft Pretzels

Homemade Soft Pretzels Recipe Video – scroll down for recipe card

If you’ve never made soft pretzels, especially if you like soft pretzels, you should give it a try. Soft pretzels are surprisingly easy. At least, I was surprised. I learned how to make these when we shot a video at Easy Tiger bakery in Austin. Of course, at Easy Tiger they use the traditional lye bath but since lye is kind of hard to get your hands on (and can be hazardous) I use baking soda.

Actually, baked baking soda. By cooking the baking soda at a low temperature in the oven, it becomes slightly more alkaline that it began. It’s not as alkaline as lye, but it does add a golden crust and most importantly, the identifiable “pretzel taste” – sort of salty, sort of soapy. That doesn’t sound great but once you taste these I think you’ll know what I mean.

If you want to make these ahead of time, the dough can be covered and refrigerated overnight after kneading. Baked pretzels are best served the same day. And also best served with mustard or pimento cheese for dipping.

Check out the video we made with Easy Tiger to learn more about pretzels!

Homemade Soft Pretzels Recipe

homemade soft pretzels

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Homemade Soft Pretzels

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  • Author: Hilah Johnson
  • Prep Time: 90 mins
  • Cook Time: 12 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 42 minutes
  • Yield: 8 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • For the “bath”:
  • 4 cups warm water
  • 1/2 cup baking soda
  • For the pretzels:
  • 1/2 cup warm water (100-115ºF)
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 package active dry yeast (1/4 ounce)
  • 3 1/4 cups bread flour
  • 1/2 cup beer (lager preferred)
  • 2 tablespoons soft butter (plus a little more)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 tablespoons Kosher or flaked sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. For the baking soda bath: Line a small baking sheet with foil and spread the baking soda on it. Bake in a 250ºF oven for one hour while you make the pretzel dough.
  2. For the dough: In a large mixing bowl (hopefully a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment) combine the warm water and sugar; stir to dissolve. Sprinkle in the yeast. Allow to sit for 5 minutes to proof the yeast. It should look foamy after 5 minutes. If not, your yeast may be old or your water was too hot.
  3. Add the beer, butter, and flour and mix to bring together. Add the salt.
  4. Knead on low speed for 5-7 minutes until a firm, elastic dough is formed. If, after 1-2 minutes of kneading, a ball is not forming you can add a tablespoon of water. You should end up with a ball of dough that is moist but not sticky.
  5. Rub a little more butter all over the dough ball, place back into the bowl, and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Set aside to rise for 30 minutes (or refrigerate covered in plastic wrap overnight).
  6. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  7. Cut the dough ball into 8 portions.
  8. On a clean, dry surface, roll each into a tapered snake, 24-28″ long. The center “belly” of the snake should be about 50% fatter than the ends. Don’t flour the surface. You need some friction to properly stretch the dough. In fact, if it refuses to “grip” the surface, dampen your hands with water and then continue rolling out.
  9. Bring the ends of the snake up, twist them once, then lay them down onto the “belly” to make a pretzel shape.
  10. Place on a parchment paper sheet.
  11. Now in a wide, deep nonreactive dish, whisk the baked baking soda and water to dissolve. Add the baking soda a little at a time to prevent it from clumping up.
  12. One by one, carefully transfer the pretzels into the water bath, turning once. Each side of the pretzel should be in the water for 10 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and lay on the baking sheet lined with parchment. (You will need two trays or bake in two batches.)
  13. Sprinkle with Kosher or sea salt while still wet.
  14. Allow to rise 30 minutes while your oven heats to 475ºF. Arrange your oven racks to the middle and upper third.
  15. Bake 8-12 minutes until dark brown, rotating pans halfway through.

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Try my pimento cheese recipe to go with these!
Pimento Cheese

7 Comments

  1. Vedika @ Hot Chocolate Hits on October 14, 2016 at 1:48 pm

    Hilah, these look amazing! I’ve always wanted to try homemade pretzels and you definitely make them look easy and delicious! PS – Baby Chef is awesome 🙂

    • Hilah on October 15, 2016 at 3:12 pm

      Hi Vedika!
      Hope you try making them. I was surprised how easy they are 🙂

  2. Ursula on October 19, 2016 at 4:59 am

    Hi Hilah,
    thank you for another gr8 recipe.
    is the water in which you desolve the baking soda warm,hot or cold?
    Please,reply,because i want to make these yummy pretzels.

    • Hilah on October 19, 2016 at 2:02 pm

      Hi Ursula,
      The water needs to be warm or the baking soda will not dissolve. Hope you give these pretzels a try! They’re great!

  3. Platt College on October 29, 2016 at 7:26 pm

    Nothing better than a homemade soft pretzel.

  4. Bill on December 17, 2016 at 9:48 am

    I can’t cook for s**t and my wife warned me recipes cooked from scratch with yeast never come out right. These pretzels were very tasty, however, though I could never say out loud my wife was less than 100% correct.

    After the dough was kneaded (by hand) and buttered it didn’t seem to rise as much as described but they still tasted great when done. Does the kneaded dough require a warm location for it to rise or the damp cloth have warm water? Maybe my yeast was less potent since the froth after 5 minutes was not nearly as pronounced as yours.

    Thanks for recipe and fun video! I no longer “knead” to go to my favorite bar for pretzels.






    • Hilah on December 17, 2016 at 12:47 pm

      Hi Bill! That’s great to hear! 🙂
      Ideally the room temp should be around 80ºF which is a lot hotter than most people keep their homes. To make yeasted dough rise faster, you can turn your oven on to low (like 150ºF) for a few minutes to get it heated up then put the bowl of dough in there with the door open so it doesn’t get too hot. Or you can just let it rise longer on the counter.

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