Homemade Soft Pretzels
These Homemade Soft Pretzels are fluffy and buttery, baked up just like the ones you get at the mall, but homemade with from-scratch ingredients! The dough is very easy to make.
Have you ever waited in one of those really long lines at the mall for a soft pretzel?
You know…the ones for Auntie Anne’s, or Wetzel’s Pretzels? You just can’t help it, right?
You can smell that darned cinnamon sugar and butter wafting over from like 100 feet away.
Well try these at home, and you’ll never buy those mall pretzels ever again.
These homemade soft pretzels taste much better and only cost a buck or two to make a whole tray.
Not to mention there aren’t any artificial ingredients or preservatives when you make them yourself. And all the ingredients are the simple ones that you’d expect.
I love prepping a fresh batch on football game-watching days, along with a fresh pan of Buffalo Chicken Dip and Baked Chicken Wings. So good!
How to Make Homemade Soft Pretzels:
Start by making a simple yeasted dough, and shape it into a ball.
Let the yeast work its magic and create these gorgeous bubbles.
Sometimes I just stare at the dough because it’s sooooo prettyyyyyy…
Divide up the dough into pieces, and roll each into a long rope.
Shape into pretzels by looping the rope through.
Sprinkle each pretzel with coarse sea salt and send them into the oven.
Bake until golden and puffed, then brush with butter.
Enjoy while they are hot!
UPDATE: I have posted a 100% Whole Wheat Version of these pretzels (cinnamon sugar ones!):
There’s a full video below the recipe card if you want more guidance on how the pretzels are made. Happy baking!
More Snacks:
- Buffalo Garlic Knots
- Homemade Corn Dogs
- Super Fluffy Jumbo Garlic Knots
- Garlic Parmesan Chicken Wings
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 2.25 tsp instant quick rise yeast
- 1 cup warm water 110 degrees F
- 1 tsp sugar
- 12.5 oz all purpose flour, by weight (2.5 cups, if measuring)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
For the Topping:
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- vegetable oil for greasing the sheet pan
- coarse sea salt for sprinkling
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter melted
Instructions
- Combine the yeast, warm water, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, and let sit for 10 minutes until foamy. This indicates the yeast is alive and working. Add the flour and salt. Mix with the dough hook by hand for a few seconds to roughly combine, then fit the hook and bowl on the mixer and knead on medium low for 5 minutes. The dough should feel soft and smooth, not sticky to the touch.
- Cover the dough and let rise for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F, and lightly grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil. You could use parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Place the dough onto a lightly oiled countertop. Divide the dough into 8 pieces (just cut it with a knife).
- Whisk to combine the warm water and baking soda and cook in the microwave for 1 minute. FYI it’s not going to dissolve completely, and that’s okay.
- Roll each of the eight pieces into a long rope, and shape each one into a pretzel (see the step-by-step photos on the blog post to see how to do this). Dip each pretzel into the soda wash and place onto the greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt, then let them rest for 10 minutes.
- Bake for 9 to 10 minutes until the pretzels are golden brown. Brush the pretzels with the melted butter while they are hot out of the oven. Enjoy while they are hot, and keep in mind these don’t taste as amazing the next day. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
Post updated in December 2017. Originally published 2011.
442 Comments on “Homemade Soft Pretzels”
Can you make these ahead of time before baking?
I’ve tried many soft pretzel recipes and this one wins the prize. My husband asked for my “famous” soft pretzels for Father’s Day but I had lost the recipe (it was obviously someone else’s “famous” soft pretzel recipe). I found this one on the internet and it looked similar to the one I used to use. My dough was sticky and didn’t get smooth like the recipe says it should (I feel like my dough attachment on the KitchenAide never works as well as good old-fashioned kneading), and my pretzels looked like fat blobs. NEVERTHELESS, my parents, husband, and two teenagers were obsessed. I WON’T be losing this “famous soft pretzel recipe” 🙂 So delicious!
What if we don’t have a stand mixer can we just do this with a whisk and by hand?
Also am I just supposed to stir the sugar, yeast and warm water together and then let it sit for 10 minutes?
These pretzels were a huge hit! Just crispy enough on the outside, soft & chewy on the inside- make sure you are using fresh yeast- if it doesn’t foam up, it’s not active! I baked mine about 11 minutes as I made 6 thicker ones. Very easy recipe and you know you have the ingredients!!
Awesome and easy recipe! My 8 year old baker & I made these with easy and so delicious. This is the first time I’ve ever tried to make an bread type of recipe. Made a simple brown sugar, butter, whipping cream caramel dipping sauce🙌🏽 Thank you for sharing this recipe, definitely gonna make this again🥰
I loved it!!! Its so easy and great for beginners like me.
Made some last night followed the recipe it’s easy and yummy my 25 year old son ate 5 pcs at once thanks for your simple but delicious recipe 😊 cheers!
These are so good! Easy to make,there is nothing like a warm pretzel and mustard!
I made this recipe like 3 times in a week because my family loved it so much! This is a great recipe, i’m only 13 and always mess up while baking but this turned out amazing:) definitely recommend trying this out!
First time making pretzels and they turned out better then I could have imagined!! I don’t have a stand mixer so I did everything by hand and they were still super soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Thank you so much for the amazing recipe!!