These soft pretzels are the perfect salty, buttery pretzels with a soft and fluffy pretzel middle, and chewy pretzel crust. They’re ready in under an hour and are a delicious salty snack.
Soft pretzels remind me of Disneyland and Austria (or Germany). They’re the perfect buttery, salty snack, with that amazing soft interior, and the iconic chewy exterior. These soft pretzels are the best of the best.
These soft pretzels can be made in only about an hour, from start to finish. They’re super easy to make, and once you do, you’ll never need to get pretzels from the mall again.
How to make soft pretzels?
It’s so easy to make soft pretzels at home. It’s a simple yeast dough made with instant yeast so you only have to let the dough rise once. Hopefully you can get your hands on some yeast and flour right now. You’ll need a packet of instant yeast (or 2 and 1/4 teaspoons), warm water, salt, brown sugar, butter, flour and coarse sea salt for putting on the pretzels.
You’ll dissolve the yeast in the warm water till it’s nice and bubbly. Add in the salt, sugar and butter and stir it all together.
Add in the flour one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. If it’s still sticky after four cups of flour you can add in more flour, one tablespoon at a time, until it’s no longer sticky. The dough should bounce back when you poke it.
Knead the dough for 3 minutes and form it into a ball. Stick the dough into a bowl sprayed with nonstick spray. Cover the bowl with a towel and place it in a warm area. Let the dough rest for about half an hour.
Bring a huge pot of water to boil, with 1/2 cup baking soda in it. After rolling the dough into pretzels you’ll boil them for about 20-30 seconds, and this is the secret to making soft pretzels. It’ll give you that traditional pretzel crust and flavor.
But back to the dough, you’ll separate it into 12 sections (I cut the ball into fourths, then cut them each into thirds) and roll them each out to be about 20 inches long. Bring the ends of the dough together making a circle almost, and then twist them up around each other. Then fold the ends down onto the round part of the dough and voila, you have a pretzel shape.
Now you’ll drop them into the hot boiling water. Then place them on a baking sheet or two. Sprinkle all over the tops of the pretzels with coarse salt and bake them for about 12-15 minutes or until the pretzels are nice and golden brown and start to crack.
How to make Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels?
If you want to make your pretzels sweet, instead of salting them before baking, bake them up plain. Then after baking you can dip them in hot melted butter and then into cinnamon sugar.
How to freeze soft pretzels for later?
This recipe makes about 12 soft pretzels, and although I wouldn’t blame you if you want to eat them all in one sitting. You can also freeze some of the pretzels after baking them and allowing them to cool completely. I wrap mine up in plastic wrap individually then throw a few of them into a freezer safe ziplock bag.
When you’re ready to enjoy the pretzels again, throw them on a baking pan and bake them up straight from the freezer at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until they’re nice and hot again.
How to make pretzel bites?
You can also make pretzel bites with this recipe, just cut the dough up into 1 to 1.5 inch sized pieces and go from there. Or follow the instructions here for our soft pretzel bites.
These homemade soft pretzels are best enjoyed the first day, but they’re even better straight out of the oven nice and warm. If you have any leftover let them cool completely then wrap them in plastic wrap and store in a dry place for up to 1 day. Microwave them for a few seconds when you want to enjoy them again.
You can brush the tops with melted butter if you want too.
These pretzels are delicious on their own, or dipped in mustard, cheese sauce, artichoke dip, you name it.
Looking for more pretzel recipes:
- Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Bites
- Soft Pretzel Bites
- Pretzel wrapped Bratwurst
- Jalapeno Cheese Stuffed Pretzels from Favorite Family Recipes
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Soft Pretzels
Servings 12
These soft pretzels are the perfect salty, buttery pretzels with a soft and fluffy pretzel middle, and chewy pretzel crust. They're ready in under an hour and are a delicious salty snack.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast (or 1 packet)
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 TBS brown sugar
- 2 TBS melted butter
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- coarse sea salt
For the baking soda bath:
- 9 cups water
- 1/2 cup baking soda
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
Instructions
- Dissolve your yeast in your warm water in a large bowl. Stir together for about 1 minute until mostly combined.
- Add in your salt, brown sugar and butter and stir everything together.
- Add in your flour, 1 cup at a time until dough is thick and no longer sticky. Add more flour 1 TBS at a time if needed to make sure dough isn't sticky. (Poke dough with your finger, and dough should bounce back - then it is ready)
- Lightly flour a flat surface.
- Knead your dough for 3 minutes and form into a ball.
- Oil a large bowl with nonstick spray and place dough in. Cover bowl with a towel and place in a warm area.
- Allow dough ball to rest for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add 1/2 cup baking soda to the pot.
- Cut your dough into twelve pieces. (I did fourths, then thirds).
- Roll each section into long ropes about 20-22 inches long.
- Bring the two ends of the rope up toward each other then twist them around each other.
- Fold the top back down onto the round part at the bottom to make a pretzel shape. Press the ends into the bottom.
- Drop the pretzels carefully into the boiling water and boil for 30 seconds each.
- Remove from water with a slotted spatula and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone liner.
- Sprinkle the tops with coarse sea salt.
- Place 6 on each baking sheet.
- Bake for 12-18 minutes until the pretzels are golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and enjoy warm.
Nutrition
Calories: 180kcalCarbohydrates: 34gProtein: 5gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 5mgSodium: 1591mgPotassium: 66mgFiber: 2gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 58IUCalcium: 12mgIron: 2mg
Analise says
What if you don’t have yeast?
Aimee says
I’m sorry, I haven’t tried it without yeast as it’s a risen dough. You can google and find other recipes with out yeast, I’m not sure ours will work without
Ellen says
Yay, so glad to see soft pretzels on here. I can’t wait to make these!