Once you make your own easy homemade soft pretzels, 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.

A Midwest visit inspired these homemade pretzels

I finally got around to making the soft pretzels that we had in Wisconsin. These were soft warm and chewy, with that crunch of salt on the outside, just like I had hoped for. The toughest thing about making them was getting that classic ‘pretzel’ shape. That proved a little harder to master; some of my pretzels cooperated, while others went rogue. In the end I made all kinds of shapes, from classic knotted pretzels to little bites, to a baguette.

I used Peter Reinhart’s pretzel recipe from Artisan Bread Every Day

Since Peter is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on baking in the country, I figured it was a good place to start.

This overnight pretzel recipes uses the ‘slow fermentation’ method to develop flavor

This recipe is nice in a few ways. First, the easy dough gets an overnight rest in the refrigerator. This way you can spread out 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.

No need for a boiling water bath with this recipe

Secondly, it bypasses the 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.

They bake up in minutes, and as far as breads go, this is a really easy and satisfying recipe, as long as you’re cool with the possibility of funky shapes 😉 I feel like my little bite sized pretzels were the most successful.

Serve your pretzels with homemade mustard or maple mustard dipping sauce.

More homemade bread to try

Homemade Soft Pretzels

5 from 1 vote

Once you make your own easy homemade soft pretzels, 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

Cook Time:10

Resting:1

Total Time:1 30

Servings: 12 -17 large pretzels

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour, (1 lb 4 oz. /567 g)
1 3/4 tsp salt, or 2 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, (about 95 degrees F or 35 degrees C)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil, or melted unsalted butter
8 tsp baking soda, for dipping
2 cups warm water, (about 100 degrees F or 38 degrees C)
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, either by hand or 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 minutes. If the dough is very tacky, add a little more flour.
Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and knead by hand for a minute. 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. Whisk in the optional egg white; this will make the surface of the pretzels a little browner.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F or 204 degrees C.
Right after taking the dough out of the refrigerator, roll 2-ounce (56.5 g) pieces into 17 inches long ropes for smaller pretzels and 3-ounce (85 g) for larger pretzels. If the roll shrinks back, let it rest while you start the next one, and come back to it later. (I had trouble with this step, and had to let them rest repeatedly.)
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Form the dough into pretzels (see above) and dip them into the baking soda/water solution. Place them on the pan and sprinkle lightly with coarse salt.
Bake for about 8 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake another 8 to 10 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.

And finally, brushing the dough with a beaten egg yolk before sprinkling on the salt helps to get a nice brown sheen, you can see that in the pretzel bites, and in the loaf, below. Peter doesn’t call for it, which is why I didn’t get hip to it until late in my second batch of pretzels, but I found it makes all the difference.

*Recipe from Peter Reinhart

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Course: bread

Cuisine: American

Author: Sue Moran

Keyword: baking, bread, pretzels

Nutrition

Serving: 1 pretzel · Calories: 198 kcal · Carbohydrates: 36 g · Protein: 6 g · Fat: 3 g · Saturated Fat: 0.5 g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 2 g · Monounsaturated Fat: 1 g · Trans Fat: 0.01 g · Sodium: 1074 mg · Potassium: 58 mg · Fiber: 1 g · Sugar: 2 g · Vitamin A: 1 IU · Vitamin C: 0.003 mg · Calcium: 11 mg · Iron: 0.5 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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5 from 1 vote (1 rating without comment)

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