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Breads & Muffins Recipes

Homemade Soft Pretzels

2 hours 10 minutes
16 pretzels

Make your own soft pretzels at home with this simple recipe, then customize with your favorite seasoning and flavors.

Homemade Soft Pretzels
Make your own soft pretzels at home with this simple recipe, then top with your favorite flavorings.
Homemade Soft Pretzels

Where’s the salt? I swear to you that I put salt on these bad boys.

Oh, there it’s not.

Ya know the problem, is when I made these I didn’t have any plain coarse salt to use. So I just used regular table salt and, as you can see, it didn’t turn out very well.

The flavor is there but you cannot see any of the salt.

I did have some coarse pink Himalayan salt that I could have probably used but I wasn’t sure how the pink would look on a golden-brown pretzel.

Weird? I dunno.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

I also made some of these with a cinnamon sugar mixture instead of salt, you know, for a little sweeter pretzel, a la Auntie Annie’s in the mall.

Unfortunately, my cinnamon to sugar ratio was off and the pretzel looked like it has been burned to a crisp when I took the photo.

Delete those.

But I do like a little cinnamon sugar action on my pretzel every now-and-again, and those ones turned out fantastic.

I highly recommend you divide this batch up and make a few with salt and a few with some cinnamon sugar. Heaven!

Homemade Soft Pretzels

In all seriousness, I love pretzels. Most of the time I grab one while at the mall doing some shopping… hey, it’s for the kids.

Riiiiight.

I do have to reign myself in once in awhile because as much as I love carbs, and bread, and pretzels, I know that eating them all day, everyday is not good for my waistline.

And I am one of the lucky ones that has all my excess weight stored in my stomach, hips, and thighs. Yay.

Do yourself a favor when you make these so you don’t devour them all yourself. Have a party or give some to the neighbor, or the neighbor kids. I kept about 3-4 and gave the rest to the neighbor kids.

They are always running and playing and needing energy… carbs are energy. Perfect.

Or you could keep them all for yourself.. whatever suits your fancy.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Homemade Soft Pretzels

5 from 4 votes
Make your own soft pretzels at home with this simple recipe, then top with your favorite flavorings.
Yield 16 pretzels
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast
  • 6 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
  • 4 Tbsp unsalted butter room temperature
  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup baking soda
  • 3 cups water
Topping:
  • 6 Tbsp unsalted butter melted
  • coarse salt

Instructions
 

  • Place milk in microwave safe bowl and heat on high in microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes, or until warm – not hot or boiling.
  • Pour milk and yeast in large bowl and whisk together until yeast has dissolved. Let rest for 5 minutes until you see small bubbles form on top.
  • Add brown sugar, softened butter, 1 cup flour, and salt to milk mixture and stir until blended. Add remaining 3 1/2 cups of flour and knead until fully combined and dough ball is formed.
  • Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 – 2 hours.
  • After proofing, preheat oven to 450° F. Prepare baking sheet by spraying with nonstick cooking spray or lining with parchment paper; set aside.
  • Combine baking soda and warm water in small bowl and set aside.
  • Punch dough down several times to release any air pockets and divide into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a long rope, about 32 inches, and form into pretzel shape. 
  • Dunk entire pretzel in baking soda water then place onto prepared baking sheet. Reshape as needed and sprinkle with coarse salt. Repeat with remaining dough.
  • Bake pretzels at 450° for 7-10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush top with melted butter and top with more coarse salt, if preferred.
  • Serve immediately. Pretzels will stay for about 7 days in airtight container.
Topping option:
  • After taking pretzel out of oven, brush with melted butter and top with cinnamon sugar mixture instead of salt for a sweeter pretzel.
Tried this recipe?Snap a photo and mention @JenniferMeyering
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