Who can resist a soft pretzel? When our boys were growing up, and playing baseball, and basketball we had our share of soft pretzels. In fact as parents, we would volunteer for the concession stand at our son’s basketball games, and load up the soft pretzel warmer. Those soft pretzels were okay, but nothing like a made from scratch hot soft pretzel.

We think once you make a batch of these soft pretzels you may never go back to the frozen, and heat ones. Oh, and don’t forget to make the BEER MUSTARD CHEESE DIP to go with these babies!

Soft Pretzels

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Rate Recipe

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

1 hour hour

Total Time: 15 minutes minutes

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American

Keyword: pretzels

Servings: 12

Calories: 192kcal

Author: theperksofbeingus

Equipment

• bowl
• pot
• sheet pan
• Pastry Brush

Ingredients

Ingredients for soft pretzel dough:

• 1 ½ cups warm water
• 3 teaspoon yeast
• 4 ½ cups flour
• 1 1/2 tbls sugar
• 2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for boiling soft pretzels:

• 8 cups water
• ½ cup baking soda
• 2 tbls dark brown sugar

Ingredients for topping soft pretzels:

• 1 large egg whisked with 2 tbls water
• Coarse sea salt or pretzel salt

Instructions

• Combine the warm water and yeast in a mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve the yeast and let stand a few minutes.
  1 ½ cups warm water, 3 teaspoon yeast
• Whisk flour, sugar and salt in a separate bowl. Pour flour mixture over water and stir with a stiff spatula until no dry parts remain. Cover with a moist towel for 10 minutes. Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it holds a ball shape. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a warm moist towel until doubled in size. About 1 hour. 
  4 ½ cups flour, 1 1/2 tbls sugar, 2 teaspoon salt
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Use a bench scraper to divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Work with one piece of dough a time. Using the palms of your hands, roll the dough into a long, skinny rope against the counter. Roll the dough until the rope is about 20 inches long.  
• Set the pretzel rope on a parchment-lined baking sheet and lift the ends toward the top and cross them, forming the pretzel shape. Shape the rest of the pretzels. When all the pretzels have been shaped, cover them loosely and set them aside to rise until puffy, about 30 minutes.  
•  Preheat the oven to 450°F. 
•  Prepare the water bath: When the pretzels are starting to look puffy, measure 8 cups of water into a large, wide pot and bring the water to a boil. Add the baking soda and the brown sugar and whisk to dissolve. Then reduce the heat and maintain a simmer.  
  8 cups water, ½ cup baking soda, 2 tbls dark brown sugar
• Place 2 to 3 pretzels into the water bath top side down. Simmer for 30 seconds, then flip the pretzels over and simmer for another 30 seconds. Scoop the pretzels out of the water and return them to the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pretzels.   
• Once all the pretzels have been dipped in the water bath, brush them with the egg and water mixture and sprinkle them with salt.  
  1 large egg, Coarse sea salt or pretzel salt
• Bake the pretzels: Bake the pretzels until they are deep brown and glossy, 12 to 15 minutes. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1pretzel | Calories: 192kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Trans Fat: 0.002g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 1772mg | Potassium: 65mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 20IU | Vitamin C: 0.003mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 2mg

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Other snacks to try!