Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites

These soft pretzel bites remind me why I love baking from scratch. The dough is simple and easy to work with, rolls and cuts beautifully after its overnight rest, and bakes up into little nuggets with that classic chewy crust and tender center. You just don’t get this warm, salty, soft-pretzel experience from a bag ~ and once you add the hot honey mustard dip, they’re impossible to leave alone.

The recipe for these soft pretzel bites is adapted from Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Bread Every Day. Peter is one of the true authorities on bread baking, so these little bites come with some serious culinary cred.

The perfect soft pretzel bite recipe

1. First, the easy dough gets an overnight rest in the refrigerator. This way you can break up the work and get some of it done ahead of time. Peter uses this method of ‘slow fermentation’ to develop more flavor in the dough.
2. Secondly, it bypasses the fussy boiling water and/or lye bath that many pretzel recipes call for. These pretzels get a quick dunk in a baking soda and water solution before heading into the oven to give them their characteristic chewy golden crust.

You’ll definitely want a dip!

Let’s face it, the dip is half the fun when it comes to a plate full of chewy pretzel bites. I made an easy hot honey mustard dipping sauce:

• 1/4 cup mayo
• 2 tbsp honey mustard
• 1 tbsp hot honey
• 3/4 tsp Worcestershire
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Common questions about baking soft pretzel bites

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Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites

4.50 from 2 votes

Once you make your own easy homemade soft pretzel bites there's no turning back ~ you'll look for any excuse to bake up these warm, salty, crusty-on-the-outside, soft-and-chewy-inside treats.

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Prep Time:20 minutes minutes

Cook Time:12 minutes minutes

Resting:12 hours hours

Total Time:12 hours hours 32 minutes minutes

Servings: 45 nuggets

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Equipment

• Sheet pan
• parchment paper

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

• 2 1/4 cups unbleached bread flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 1 cup lukewarm water, (about 95F or 35C)
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil, or melted unsalted butter
• 8 tsp baking soda, for dipping
• 2 cups warm water, (about 100F or 38C)
• 1 egg yolk + 1 Tbsp water, whisked
• pretzel salt, or coarse sea salt, for garnish

Instructions

Do ahead

• Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a mixing bowl, if doing this by hand. Whisk the yeast into the warm water in a small bowl and set aside for about a minute.

  Pour the yeast mixture and the oil into the dry ingredients. Mix the dough for about 2 minutes in the stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Switch to the dough hook and continue mixing for about 2 minutes. The dough will become slightly smoother.
• Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. Then continue to mix on medium low speed for 3-4 minutes. If the dough is very tacky, add a little more flour. If doing by hand, knead the dough for about 5-7 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to a clean oiled bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night or for up to 4 days.

To bake

• To make the dipping solution, combine the baking soda with warm water in a bowl. Set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 400F (or 204C)
• Take the dough out of the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface divide the dough into 6 equal parts. Roll each piece into a log about 8-10 inches long, and cut into 7-8 “nuggets” with a bench scraper. I discarded the ends. If the rolls shrink back, let them rest while you start the next one, and come back to it later.
• Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Working in batches, dunk the pretzels in the baking soda mixture for 30 seconds or so, swishing them around in the liquid. Let the water drip off the nuggets and place them on the sheet pan, an inch apart. Brush with the beaten egg yolk, if using. Sprinkle lightly with coarse salt.
• Bake for 12-13 minutes. Let the pretzels cool on a wire rack.

Notes

Weighing the flour helps to get the right consistency in the dough. My first batch was too dry, and very difficult to work with. The next time I weighed the flour and it came out much better.

Also, it’s important to use bread flour. I made one batch using 1/2 bread flour and 1/2 regular flour, and the pretzels didn’t have a nice chewy texture. The gluten in the bread flour makes it a little difficult to roll out the dough, but it’s critical to the final result.

*Recipe adapted  from Peter Reinhardt

 

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Course: bread

Cuisine: American

Author: Sue Moran

Keyword: baking, bread, pretzels

Nutrition

Serving: 1 pretzel · Calories: 27 kcal · Carbohydrates: 5 g · Protein: 1 g · Fat: 0.4 g · Saturated Fat: 0.1 g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2 g · Monounsaturated Fat: 0.1 g · Trans Fat: 0.002 g · Sodium: 234 mg · Potassium: 8 mg · Fiber: 0.2 g · Sugar: 0.3 g · Vitamin A: 0.1 IU · Calcium: 2 mg · Iron: 0.1 mg

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although The View from Great Island attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.

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