Easy Soft Pretzel Recipe

Discover how to make delicious soft pretzels at home. An easy recipe and full step by step instructions.

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 Farr

Ingredients

2 teaspoon dry active yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 cup warm water
2 ½ cups 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 the yeast, the sugar, and the warm water in the bowl of an electric mixer or in a large bowl. Let it sit in the bowl 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.
Next, stir in the flour and salt. Knead the dough on low for 5 minutes in the stand mixer, or knead by hand for 5-7 minutes. After kneading for 2 minutes, if the dough is very sticky add more flour - 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 greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for at least 1 hour.
Once the dough has doubled in size (after at least one 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, make the pretzel shape. Start by making "U" shape, then cross the two ends of the "U" over each other.
Fold the two ends back over the bottom of the "U". Place the completed pretzels on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
When you have made the 8 pretzels, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for another 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 450F.
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 high-sided pot or stock pot for the boiling of the pretzels **
Drop the pretzels into the softly boiling water. Don't overfill the pot with pretzels. Let them boil for 30 seconds and 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.
Now, it's time to make the egg wash. Whisk together the egg and water. Brush the lightly 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