These homemade soft pretzels are incredibly delicious and so easy to make. Paired with a dill honey mustard sauce, they make for the perfect snack!
My family and I are huge soft pretzels fans. I used to make them quite frequently and honestly do not know why I stopped! Thanks to a pre-bake bath consisting of a mixture of water, baking soda, and molasses/honey (optional), these homemade soft pretzels are soft and chewy with a nice golden-brown color. For classic bakery style pretzels made at home, I do not recommend skipping this step. I know the thought of making pretzels from scratch may seem intimidating, but I promise this recipe is not only insanely delicious but also easy to follow with step by step photos and instructions!
(NOTE: The full recipe with exact measurements is down at the bottom of this post in the recipe card!)
How to Make Homemade Soft Pretzels
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Key Ingredients
- Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- Unbleached Bread Flour
- Active-Dry Yeast – may substitute with instant/rapid acting yeast
- Granulated Sugar
- Salt
- Melted Unsalted Butter
- Warm Water – water should be warmed to 110-115F (43-46C)
- Egg
- Flaky/Coarse Sea Salt
How To Make Homemade Soft Pretzels
- Whisk – in a separate medium mixing bowl, add the flour and salt. Whisk to combine.
- Mix – in the bowl of stand mixer, add the warmed water, sugar and yeast. Whisk to combine and allow the yeast to activate, about 8-10 minutes. You will know when yeast is properly activated when mixture appears foamy and takes on a strong fermented-like aroma.
- Knead – add melted butter and dry ingredients into bowl with yeast mixture. With the dough hook attached on stand mixer, set the speed to low and mix ingredients together until a dough starts to form around dough hook attachment. At this point, increase mixer speed to medium high and knead dough for 6 minutes. You will know when dough is ready when you press into it and it bounces back.
- Transfer – add a small amount of oil to a large mixing bowl and grease the base and sides of bowl. Transfer homemade soft pretzels dough to greased bowl. Turn and flip dough in bowl to ensure all sides of the dough is coated in oil before covering bowl with plastic wrap.
- Rise – allow homemade soft pretzel dough to rest and rise in a warm area of kitchen for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.
- Line – a large baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 400F (200C). In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the egg and 1/2 tablespoon water. Place egg wash mixture in fridge until ready to use.
- Deflate – dough by gently knocking it down before transferring to a clean work surface and dividing into 4 equal pieces about 3.5-3.7 oz (103-105 g). For smaller pretzels, dough may be divided into 6 equal pieces.
- Shape – roll each piece of dough into 20-22 inches rope. Form the rope into a U shape and twist the two ends together about 2-3 times. Lift and bring the twisted ends to the opposite end (base) of U shape forming the classic pretzel loop. Press the twisted ends into the base of the resulting pretzel shape. This is important to ensure that pretzel dough holds its shape during the pre-bake bath.
- Boil – bring 6 cups of water and molasses/honey (optional) to boil in a large deep bottom pot and whisk in the baking soda. Add the shaped pretzel dough into boiling mixture 1-2 at a time for 30 seconds. Do not go beyond the 30 second mark. Using a slotted spatula, remove boiled pretzel dough from water taking care to allow as much of the excess water to drain off before placing on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake – retrieve egg wash from refrigerator. Using a pastry brush, brush the pretzel dough with the egg wash, sprinkle with flaky or coarse sea salt and bake for 14-15 minutes.
- Cool – allow homemade soft pretzels to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before serving. May be served warm or at room temperature.
Dill Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
Key Ingredients
- Spicy Brown Mustard – may substitute with your preferred kind of mustard
- Honey
- Fresh Dill – finely chopped
How To Make Dill Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
- Mix – Add all of the ingredients into a small mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- Transfer – dill honey mustard dipping sauce into small serving dish. Keep refrigerated until ready to eat/serve with homemade soft pretzels.
How to Make Homemade Soft Pretzels Dough Without a Stand Mixer
- Once yeast is activated, add melted butter and dry ingredients into yeast mixture. Use a large spoon to mix everything together until a shaggy dough forms.
- Transfer homemade soft pretzels dough to a floured surface and knead by hand for 6-8 minutes.
- When ready, homemade soft pretzels dough should be soft but not tacky to touch and when pressed into it, it should bounce back.
- Transfer homemade soft pretzel dough to a greased bowl, flip and turn in bowl to ensure all sides are coated in oil, cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm part of kitchen to rise or until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Proceed with the rest of the instructions on how to shape and bake homemade soft pretzels.
How to Store Homemade Soft Pretzels
- Homemade soft pretzels are best eaten the day it is prepared but will last 2-3 days when stored in an airtight container at room temperature and/or refrigerator. The texture of pretzels may not be as soft as the day it is baked.
- Baked homemade soft pretzels stored in airtight container will last up to 1-2 months in the freezer. Simply thaw at room temperature until soft or heat up in a conventional/toaster oven to eat/serve warm.
- Unbaked homemade soft pretzels (before pre-bake bath) will last 1-3 months in the freezer when individually frozen before transferred to an airtight container. When ready to bake, thaw in the refrigerator until no longer frozen before boiling (pre-bake bath) and baking.
How to Make Homemade Soft Pretzels Vegan
- Homemade soft pretzels may be made vegan by replacing the butter with 1/2 tablespoon of a plant-based oil.
- For dill honey mustard dipping sauce, the honey may be replaced with equal amounts of maple syrup, agave or brown rice syrup.
Tips for Successfully Making Homemade Soft Pretzels
- Properly Measure Out Ingredients – this is particularly important regarding the measurement of the flour. To ensure that the correct amount of flour is measured out for recipe you may either use a scale to weigh out the flour (my preferred method) or use the spoon and level method to spoon flour into measuring cup and use a knife or offset spatula to remove excess flour from the top of measuring cup.
- Check the Date of Ingredients – since recipe relies on yeast as the raising agent, make sure to check the date and freshness of yeast. You will know that yeast is good to use once it is activated. To activate yeast, mix it in warm water with a little sweetener added i.e. sugar, honey or molasses and allow to sit for 8-10 minutes. If mixture takes on a foamy appearance with a strong fermented-like aroma, you are good to go. If it does not, then yeast is not good to use.
- Shaping of Pretzel Dough – the first step to ensure that you achieve the perfect twist shape is to properly roll the divided pieces of dough to a length of 20-22 inches. This length allows for twisting the dough into that quintessential pretzel shape.
- Pre-Bake Bath – for that classic pretzel texture that is chewy on the outside but soft on the inside, briefly boiling the pretzel dough in a mixture consisting of water and baking soda is an essential step that should not be skipped. This boiling process is very brief – a total of 30 seconds per pretzel dough. I like to add a little molasses to the pre-bake bath mixture for added flavor in the pretzels but this is not required.
- Egg Wash – for a nice golden-brown finish on pretzels, I like to brush an egg wash on them before sprinkle with flaky/coarse sea salt. The egg wash also acts as a nice adhesive for salt to stay on pretzels as it bakes.
If you make this recipe, please make sure to let me know by tagging me @nourishedendeavors on Instagram or by leaving a comment in the comment section down below so I can find out how this recipe turned out for you! If you have any questions, ask away! I would love to answer your questions! Happy baking!
PrintHomemade Soft Pretzels
These homemade soft pretzels are incredibly delicious and so easy to make. Paired with a dill honey mustard sauce, they make for the perfect snack!
- Prep Time: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
- Cook Time: 15 Minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 55 minutes
- Yield: 4 Large/6 Small Pretzels 1x
Ingredients
Homemade Soft Pretzels
- 1 Cup (125 g) Unbleached Bread Flour, Spooned and Leveled
- 1 Cup (125 g) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, Spooned and Leveled
- 1 Teaspoon Active-Dry Yeast (may use Instant/Rapid Acting Yeast)
- 1 Teaspoon Granulated Sugar
- 3/4 Teaspoon Salt
- 2/3 Cup (159 ml) Warm Water, 110-115F (43-46C)
- 1 Tablespoon (0.5 oz/14 g) Unsalted Butter, Melted, Cooled
- 1 Large Egg
- 1/2 Tablespoon (8 ml) Water
- Flaky/Coarse Sea Salt
Pre-Bake Bath
- 6 Cups (1 1/2 Quarts) Water
- 1/4 Cup (68 g) Baking Soda
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) Molasses
Dill Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
- 1/2 Cup (115 g) Spicy Brown Mustard
- 2 Tablespoons (30 g) Honey
- 1 Tablespoon (3 g) Finely Chopped Fresh Dill
Instructions
Homemade Soft Pretzels
- In a separate medium mixing bowl, add the flours and salt. Whisk to combine.
- In the bowl of stand mixer, add the warmed water, sugar and yeast. Whisk to combine and allow the yeast to activate, about 8-10 minutes. You will know when yeast is properly activated when mixture appears foamy and takes on a strong fermented-like aroma.
- Into bowl with yeast mixture, add melted butter and dry ingredients.
- With the dough hook attached on stand mixer, set the speed to medium low and mix ingredients together until a dough starts to form around dough hook attachment.
- Increase mixer speed to medium high and knead dough for 6 minutes. You will know when dough is ready when you press into it and it bounces back. Homemade soft pretzel dough will be soft touch but not tacky/sticky.
- Add a small amount of oil (about 1/2 Teaspoon) to a large mixing bowl and grease the base and sides of bowl.
- Transfer homemade soft pretzels dough to greased bowl. Turn and flip dough in bowl to ensure all sides of the dough are coated in oil before covering bowl with plastic wrap.
- Allow homemade soft pretzel dough to rest and rise in a warm area of kitchen for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 400F (200C).
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the egg and 1/2 tablespoon water. Place egg wash mixture in fridge until ready to use.
- Deflate dough by gently knocking it down before transferring to a clean work surface and divide into 4 equal pieces about 3.5-3.7 oz (103-105 g). For smaller pretzels, dough may be divided into 6 equal pieces.
- Roll each piece of dough into a 20-22 inch rope. Form the rope into a U shape and twist the two ends together about 2-3 times.
- Lift and bring the twisted ends to the opposite end (base) of U shape forming the classic pretzel loop. Press the twisted ends into the base of the resulting pretzel shape. This is important to ensure that pretzel dough holds its shape during the pre-bake bath.
- Bring 6 cups of water and molasses/honey (optional) to boil in a large deep bottom pot, whisk in baking soda and add the shaped pretzel dough into boiling mixture 1-2 at a time for 30 seconds. Do not go beyond the 30 second mark.
- Using a slotted spatula, remove boiled pretzel dough from water taking care to allow as much of the excess water to drain off before placing on prepared baking sheet.
- Retrieve egg wash from refrigerator. Using a pastry brush, brush the pretzel dough with the egg wash, sprinkle with flaky or coarse sea salt and bake for 14-15 minutes.
- Cool homemade soft pretzels on baking sheet for 5 minutes before serving. May be served warm or at room temperature.
Dill Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
- In a small mixing bowl, add the mustard, honey and chopped dill and whisk to combine.
- Transfer dill honey mustard dipping sauce into small serving dish. Keep refrigerated until ready to eat/serve with homemade soft pretzels.
Notes
- Homemade soft pretzels are best eaten the day it is prepared but will last 2-3 days at room temperature or in the refrigerator when stored in an airtight container. The texture of pretzels may not be as soft as the day it is baked.
- Baked homemade soft pretzels stored in airtight container will last up to 1-2 months in the freezer. Simply thaw at room temperature until soft or heat up in a conventional/toaster oven to eat/serve warm.
- Unbaked homemade soft pretzels (before pre-bake bath) will last 1-3 months in the freezer when individually frozen before transferred to an airtight container. When ready to bake, thaw in the refrigerator until no longer frozen before boiling (pre-bake bath) and baking.
- For that classic pretzel texture that is chewy on the outside but soft on the inside, briefly boiling the pretzel dough in a mixture consisting of water and baking soda is an essential step that should not be skipped. This boiling process is very brief – a total of 30 seconds per pretzel dough.
- Homemade soft pretzels can be made without a stand mixer. In fact, that is how I made it for years before I purchased a stand mixer. See notes in body of blog post for instructions on how to my pretzels by hand.
- I used a mixture of bread and all-purpose flour in recipe; however, you may just use all-purpose flour.
- I used spicy brown mustard for dipping sauce but you may substitute with your preferred kind of mustard
- Homemade soft pretzels may easily be made vegan by substituting the butter in dough with a plant-based oil and using plant-based sweetener in mustard sauce i.e. maple syrup, agave or brown rice syrup.
- Recipe yields 4 large pretzels or 6 smaller pretzels. For a large yield, recipe may be easily doubled. Recipe will also make great pretzel bites as well.
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