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You are here: Home / Breads / Homemade Soft Pretzels

Homemade Soft Pretzels

March 1, 2019 By Sam 86 Comments

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Soft Pretzels

Have you ever wanted to make soft, chewy, hot & fresh Soft Pretzels at home!? Today I’m walking you through all the steps so you can make your own golden homemade pretzels at home. If I can do it, you can do it! 

Homemade soft pretzel on cloth napkin

Today we are tackling Soft Pretzels! You and I, together, we’ve got this.

For when you really want one of those salty, chewy, mall-style pretzels but you don’t want to change out of your comfy pants and actually go to the mall. Side note, does anyone actually go to the mall anymore? Or are we all just shopping online now? Or am I the only who doesn’t leave my house for fear of being asked by an associate if they can help me with anything?

Anyway, Soft Pretzels! Yes, they are made with a yeast-based dough. Yes, they require bread flour rather than our standard all-purpose flour (more on that below). Yes, they require a bath before we can bake them (more on that below, too). But while these things may sound a little foreign and scary, especially if you usually stick to cookies 🙋🏼, there’s actually nothing very complex about making pretzels, once you get down to it. The hardest part for me was just figuring out how to twist my dough into an actual pretzel shape.

Let’s get to it, and remember, for extra help you can always check out my step-by-step video at the bottom of the recipe (and leave me a comment with any questions!)!

freshly baked soft pretzel

The Best Flour for Making Soft Pretzels

I really recommend that you use bread flour rather than all purpose when making soft pretzels. Bread flour has a higher gluten content, which in this case yields softer and chewier soft pretzels than you could expect with all purpose flour.

With some recipes, you can get away with using all purpose flour in place of bread flour (I often do in my popular pizza dough recipe), but I really recommend using bread flour for this soft pretzel recipe.

How to Twist a Pretzel

It’s easier to show you than it is to explain in writing, but I’ll give it my best shot. Start by taking your rope of pretzel dough and form it into a “U” shape. Cross the ends over one another, then cross again (see first and second picture, below). Next take your crossed/twisted ends and fold them down over the bottom of the pretzel (third picture, below).

How to twist a soft pretzel -- 3 steps

The Importance of a Baking Soda Bath

Before we can bake our soft pretzels, we have to give them a bath. A baking soda bath, to be specific. You’ll bring 8 cups of water and 1/4 cup (yes, cup) of baking soda to a boil in a large pot and boil each pretzel in this solution for 60 seconds. Yes, it’s extra work, but it’s going to help give our soft pretzels their shiny brown appearance and their chewy texture. It’s what’s going to make our soft pretzels actual soft pretzels!

It’s this brief alkaline bath that encourages your soft pretzels to brown more quickly and develop that crisp exterior and chewy interior. It’s what gives them their signature brown exterior. Traditional/professional soft pretzel makers often actually boil their pretzels in lye (which is much more alkaline) and some people like to bake their baking soda before boiling it to make it more alkaline. That’s a bit more time consuming and I’m perfectly happy with the brief baking soda bath I use here, but more power to you if you want to give that a shot!

Anyway, the moral of my rambling is: skip the baking soda bath and you’ll end up with pretzels that look and taste much more like pale, dull, twisted breadsticks (like a garlic-less Garlic Knot), and much less like glorious mall-style soft pretzels. If you’re a baking nerd like I am, you might find this article interesting, I thought it was an enjoyable read that also covered some of the science behind this process!

golden brown soft pretzels cooling after baking

While I enjoy a good savory soft pretzel dipped in mustard, you probably won’ be surprised that at the mall I always go for cinnamon sugar pretzels instead. I included instructions in the notes below so you can make your own cinnamon sugar pretzels at home if you prefer sweet to savory, too (my people… 💜)!

Enjoy!

I hope you will check out my Soft Pretzel video at the bottom of the recipe! If you enjoy watching, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel where I’ve already uploaded over 100 recipe videos that you can watch for free!

Soft Pretzel

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Have you ever wanted to make soft, chewy, hot & fresh Soft Pretzels at home!? Today I'm walking you through all the steps so you can make your own golden homemade pretzels at home. If I can do it, you can do it! 
4.82 from 16 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Bread, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: pretzels, soft pretzels, yeast-raised
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Resting Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 10 soft pretzels
Calories: 203kcal
Author: Sam Merritt

Ingredients

  • 3 cups bread flour plus additional as needed (375g+)
  • 3 Tablespoons brown sugar tightly packed
  • 2 ½ teaspoons instant/rapid rise yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
  • 1 cup hot water between 110-115F/43-46C

For rising/boiling/baking

  • Olive or canola oil for bowl
  • 8 cups water
  • ¼ cup baking soda (yes that is correct, 1/4 cup)
  • 1 large egg lightly beaten
  • 1 Tablespoon water
  • Pretzel salt or coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  • Combine bread flour (3 cups/375g), brown sugar, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer that’s been fitted with a dough hook. Stir until combined.
  • Add melted butter and water and stir on low speed until completely combined. Continue to stir until a smooth elastic dough forms that clings to itself and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Dough should be slightly tacky but not unmanageably sticky. If needed, stir in additional bread flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time (I often need to add 1-2 additional Tablespoons).
  • Lightly brush a large bowl with olive oil and place your dough ball into oiled bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and then place in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes/until doubled in size (the top of my oven is usually quite warm while preheating, so I’ll usually turn on my oven to 450F/230C at this point and place my dough on top).
  • Preheat oven to 450F/230C and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside. 
  • Once pretzel dough has finished rising, transfer dough to a clean, lightly floured surface and divide dough into 10 even pieces.
  • Roll each piece of dough into a long thin rope (mine were about 20-24” long!) and twist into a pretzel shape (see photos in post [above] or demonstration in video [below] for example). It's easy to roll the dough between your palms while stretching. You may also roll it with your palms against a clean surface, don't flour the surface very much or it will be difficult to work the dough.
  • Combine water and baking soda in a large deep dish (I like to use a Dutch oven) and bring to a boil. Once boiling, gently lower each pretzel into the boiling water/baking soda mixture. Boil for 30 seconds on each side then drain and place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pretzels, spacing at least 1 1/2” apart.
  • Whisk together lightly beaten egg and 1 Tablespoon water and brush over each pretzel. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt or pretzel salt, as desired (see notes for instructions on making cinnamon sugar soft pretzels).
  • Transfer to 450F (230C) oven and bake for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown.
  • Remove from oven, allow to cool several minutes, then enjoy. Pretzels are best enjoyed warm the day they are made.

Notes

To make Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels:

Do not top your pretzels with salt and bake as indicated. Meanwhile melt ¼ cup salted butter and stir together ½ cup sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Once pretzels have finished baking, allow to cool for several minutes then brush generously with butter and sprinkle generously with cinnamon/sugar.

Nutrition

Serving: 1soft pretzel | Calories: 203kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @SugarSpun_Sam or tag #sugarspunrun!

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Filed Under: Breads Tagged With: yeast-raised

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Comments

  1. Cavet says

    December 28, 2020 at 7:24 pm

    5 stars
    Outstanding!! When your 23 year old daughter says: Dad those are better than the pretzel place that charges $6.00! We have a winner ! Thank you again I always use you recipes for something I haven’t made before!

    Reply
    • Sam says

      December 28, 2020 at 9:12 pm

      I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much! I am honored to be your go to for new adventures. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Ji-Ha says

    November 10, 2020 at 9:54 am

    Sam! These are so incredibly good!!!!!! I was also always hesitant about using recipes that included the use of yeast, but thanks to you, I am no longer afraid! Thanks again for another wonderful recipe!!! Love your blog and recipes!!:D

    Reply
    • Sam says

      November 10, 2020 at 3:58 pm

      I am so glad you enjoy them so much! 🙂

      Reply
      • Ji-Ha says

        November 12, 2020 at 8:52 am

        Hello again!:) I just had some questions about freezing these before baking.
        1. Is it ok to freeze the dough?
        2. If so, should I freeze them before the baking soda bath?
        3. Then when it comes to baking the frozen ones, should I be thawing them in the fridge before baking them?
        I’m excited to make these again, but wondered if I could just bake the ones I would eat right away and keep the rest for some other day? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!:)

      • Sam says

        November 21, 2020 at 9:04 pm

        Hi! So honestly I have never frozen them but I think it should be totally fine to freeze and I would freeze after the baking soda bath personally. You could probably bake right from frozen, they’ll just likely need more time in the oven. I hope that helps! 🙂

  3. Julie says

    October 31, 2020 at 1:16 pm

    Hi! Can I put this dough recipie into a bread machine vs. a kitchen aid? Thank you!

    Reply
    • Sam says

      October 31, 2020 at 4:08 pm

      Hi Julie! I’m honestly not sure how it would work in a bread machine. It could be worth a shot. Let me know how it goes if you try it. 🙂

      Reply
      • Leah says

        November 26, 2020 at 7:07 am

        Hi there! I just made this recipe in my bread machine and it came out perfect!
        Just place the ingredients in your bread machine pan in this order-
        Water at 110-115°F
        1/2 of the Flour
        Salt
        Other 1/2 of Flour
        Brown Sugar (I sprinkled it on top of Flour)
        Yeast

        Then set your machine to dough setting. Mine goes for 1.5 hours so I turned it off with 30 minutes remaining on my machine.

        Hope this works for you.

  4. Brittany says

    October 23, 2020 at 3:04 pm

    5 stars
    Straightforward recipe!
    I have tried your cookie recipes and they DO NOT disappoint!
    Can I refrigerate the dough and bake the following day?
    Thank you for all the tips and well-tested recipes!

    Reply
    • Sam says

      October 23, 2020 at 9:53 pm

      Hi Brittany! I haven’t tried it but I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t work.

      Reply
      • Brittany says

        October 26, 2020 at 4:33 pm

        5 stars
        Thanks for your reply!
        I didn’t end up refrigerating them but they still came out great! I received many compliments and they were gobbled up by my friends at my boyfriend’s social distance birthday celebration.

      • Sam says

        October 26, 2020 at 9:01 pm

        That’s so awesome! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them. 🙂

  5. Maria says

    August 29, 2020 at 8:14 pm

    5 stars
    Hi there! I’ve been following you for a couple of months and I’ve done a couple of your recipes and this one is so good my kids loved the pretzels. The only thing I was having trouble was rolling the dough out lol, but other then that the pretzels were so good.

    Reply
    • Sam says

      August 29, 2020 at 9:43 pm

      I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Maria! 🙂

      Reply
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The author (Sam) in blue shirt holding donut Hi, I'm Sam! I'm dedicated to bringing you sweet, simple, and from-scratch dessert recipes. My life may or may not be controlled by my sweet tooth. Send help (or chocolate). Read more about me.

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