How To Make Soft Pretzels

Discover how to make delicious soft pretzels at home. A simple recipe and full step by step tutorial.

Course Appetizer, dinner, lunch

Cuisine American, canadian, French

Keyword bread, pretzel

Prep Time 1 30

Cook Time 20

Total Time 1 50

Servings pretzels

Calories 106kcal

Author Jen

Ingredients

2 teaspoon dry active yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 cup warm water
2 ½ cup all purpose flour may need up to 3 cups
* to make whole wheat pretzels use 1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour and 1 ¼ cup white all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
¼ cup baking soda
8 cups water
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
¼ cup bagel salt or, kosher salt/sea salt

Instructions

Combine yeast, sugar and warm water in the bowl of an electric mixer or in a large bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes. Watch for little bubbles to pop onto the surface of the water. After 5 minutes, stir the water to dissolve the yeast.
Stir in the flour and salt. Knead the dough on low for 5 minutes in a stand mixer, or knead by hand for 5-7 minutes. After kneading for 2 minutes, if the dough is very sticky add a bit more flour (1 tablespoon at a time).
In the end, the dough will be smooth and will form a ball that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Remove the dough from the bowl. Clean the bowl and grease the bowl with 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Place the ball of dough inside the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise - at least 1 hour. We set our bowl on top of our dishwasher, that had just finished running. The surface was nice and warm. Place your bowl in a warm location; top of the fridge, top of the stove, top shelf in the kitchen.
Once the dough has doubled in size (after an hour) remove the dough from the bowl and cut it into 8 portions.
Roll each portion into a snake of dough, about 20 inches long. If the dough springs back when you roll it out, let it sit for a moment and then try again.
Once you have your dough snake, it's time to make the pretzel shape. Make a "U" shape, then cross the two ends over each other.
Fold the two ends back over the bottom of the "U". Done. Place the completed pretzels on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for another 20 minutes.
In the meantime, bring a high sided pot filled with 8 cups of water to a boil. Once the water boils, turn it down to a soft boil and add the baking soda. ** Watch out! As soon as you add the baking soda to the boiling water, the water will bubble and potentially boil over - I know, this is exactly what happened to us - use a stock pot for the boiling of the pretzels **
Drop the pretzels into the boiling water, don't over fill the pot with pretzels. Let them boil for 30 seconds then turn them over and boil for another 30 seconds. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and place back on the parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Make the egg wash by whisking together the egg and water. Brush boiled pretzels with egg wash and sprinkle with bagel salt.
Bake in 450°F oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
Transfer to a cooling rack. Serve while warm.

Video

Notes

Nutrition Info is to be used as a rough guide. Nutrition Info is based on the products I am using and you may not be using the same products/brands. Thus, the Nutrition Info may vary.

Nutrition