Soft Pretzels
These are the absolute best Homemade Soft Pretzels! They’re fluffy and buttery, baked up just like the ones you get at the mall, but made from scratch with no preservatives. The dough is very easy to make, and even kids can easily work with this recipe. Make this whole recipe in one hour!
Once you try these homemade soft pretzels, you will never bother with those mall pretzels ever again.
I used to love Auntie Anne’s and Wetzel’s Pretzels, and waited in some pretty long lines upon smelling that darned cinnamon sugar and butter wafting over from like 100 feet away, but these are SO much better.
Plus, it only costs a buck or two to make a WHOLE TRAY instead of just getting one kind of pretzel. 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, like flour, yeast, water, and salt.
Tips for Best Results
Use instant rise yeast – At the grocery store you can buy “active dry yeast” or “instant rise yeast” (sometimes also called “quick rise yeast”). They are the same price, and I always recommend the instant rise, which is what we’ll use here.
Make sure the yeast is fresh – Yeast does expire, so make sure those packets haven’t been hanging out in your pantry for too long. Check the date, and try to use newer yeast.
Be patient – This entire recipe, even with rise time, should generally take an hour, which is really fast for bread. However, if your kitchen is cold and the dough has not doubled in size during the 30 minute rise, give it another 15 minutes.
I love prepping a fresh batch of these easy homemade soft pretzels on football game-watching days, along with a fresh pan of Buffalo Chicken Dip and Baked Chicken Wings. So good!
More Flavor Options
The default here is to simply brush with butter, and enjoy these soft pretzels “plain” with butter and salt. However, here are a few more flavor ideas.
Cinnamon Sugar – In my 100% Whole Wheat Version of these pretzels, I share a cinnamon sugar coating that is wonderful.
Garlic Parmesan – Use the sauce from my Garlic Parmesan Wings for brushing the outside, for an extra flavorful garlic parmesan butter.
Buffalo – When the pretzels come hot out of the oven, brush with Buffalo Wing Sauce and serve with Blue Cheese Dip.
Orange Honey Butter – When hot out of the oven, brush the pretzels with Homemade Orange Honey Butter.
Step by Step Overview:
I have a full video on how to make the pretzels, as well as a quick visual photo overview.
Start by making a simple yeasted dough, made with flour, water, instant yeast, salt, and sugar, then shape it into a ball.
You can make the dough in the bowl of a stand mixer, using the dough hook attachment, or you can make it by hand!
Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes in a warm place, to let the dough rise and double in size.
The yeast will work its magic and create these gorgeous bubbles that will give us the rise and fluffy texture we want.
Make-ahead option
If you wish, you may keep the risen dough in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Make sure to cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap.
When ready to bake, simply proceed with the recipe as usual, cutting and rolling the pretzels.
Divide up the dough into 8 equal pieces, then roll each one into a long rope.
Shape the thin ropes into pretzels by looping the rope through the hole above.
The ends of the rope should end up on the bottom. See the video as needed.
Dip each pretzel into a baking soda bath, which is simply warm water with baking soda. This provides flavor, and will also brown the baked pretzels, much like an egg wash makes baked goods golden brown on the outside.
Then finally, sprinkle each pretzel with coarse sea salt or pretzel salt, and send them into the oven on a prepared baking sheet that’s either greased, covered with parchment paper, or covered with a silicone mat.
Let the Excess Water Drip Off
Let the excess water drip off the pretzels before putting each piece of dough on to a large baking sheet. You don’t want the pretzels to be too wet, or they may stick to the tray, even if it’s greased.
You may also place the pretzels on parchment paper or a silicone mat to ensure this isn’t an issue whatsoever.
Bake the pretzels until golden and puffed, then brush with melted butter while hot, or any other sauces or coatings you’d like.
See the box toward the beginning of the post for flavor ideas, but I think the best soft pretzels simply have butter and a good coarse salt, with cinnamon sugar being a close second. I love getting to appreciate their flavor and chewy texture.
How to Serve
These are great hot out of the oven, either with plain butter and salt or one of the flavor options I suggested above.
You can also try serving with Homemade Nacho Cheese Sauce, marinara sauce, honey mustard, or even Basil Pesto.
For something sweet, try the icing on my Overnight Cinnamon Rolls or homemade Caramel Sauce.
More Snacks that Pair Well
If you’d like to make a nice spread of homemade snacks with these pretzels, I recommend Buffalo Garlic Knots, Homemade Corn Dogs, and Jumbo Garlic Knots.
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeños, Homemade Mozzarella Sticks, and Homemade French Fries are also fantastic.
Tips and FAQ
Let cool completely, then keep at room temperature for 1 day, in the fridge for 1 week, or in the freezer for 2 months.
Yes, in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Let them cool first before freezing.
Warm in a 300F oven for 5 minutes. Add an extra 3 minutes if reheating straight from frozen.
Yes, keep the risen dough in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
Did you enjoy the recipe? Please leave a 5-star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. Or, follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest!
Soft Pretzels
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 2.25 tsp instant or "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
- 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, until doubled in size. If your kitchen is cool, you made need closer to 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450F, and lightly grease a baking sheet with oil. You may also use parchment paper or a silicone mat to prevent sticking.
- Place the dough onto a lightly oiled countertop. Divide the dough into 8 pieces (just cut it with a knife or bench scraper).
- Whisk to combine the warm water and baking soda and heat 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 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.
450 Comments on “Soft Pretzels”
So these look absolutely delish!!! but… what is soda water?
Thanks for sharing this recipe with us! It was super easy to make, even for a novice like me.
I look forward to trying more of your recipes!
Thanks for sharing this recipe! It was super easy…especially for a novice like me! I look forward to trying these and more of your recipes soon!
Wilton parchment is rated to 450, FYI.
Hi Joanne!
My family loves these pretzels! I made a double batch tonight and used white whole wheat flour. They still turned out great!! Thanks for such an easy recipe 🙂
Hi Kristan, that’s fantastic!! I’m so glad you all enjoyed them so much.
Hi Joanne
I made your pretzels with a few of my kids last night and they were a hit. I loved how quickly the dough came together (hooray for my Kitchen Aid!) and how quickly the dough rose (rised? risened? oh,well). The kids had fun rolling and shaping the dough and we especially loved gobbling them up.
Thank you, thank you for a quick, simple and fun treat! I’m looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
Hi Michelle, it’s so wonderful to hear that you all had a great time making the pretzels and enjoyed them so much! Happy cooking =)
These were insanely good! Thanks for the detailed descriptions, they came out perfectly!
That’s great Briana! So glad they turned out so well.
LOVE these! I am planning on making some to take to work, however I want my co-workers to enjoy them fresh so I was planning on making the dough tonight, form the pretzels, and then freeze/refrigerate (?) them to bake at work the next day. Have you ever done this? Do you have any recommendations for how to best prep the pretzels ahead of time but bake later?
Thank you so much!!
Hm, I would say it’d be best to refrigerate them (don’t recommend freezing for such a short time period, as you’d have to let them thaw first, then bake). They might puff up a bit in the fridge but they should bake okay =) What a nice co-worker you are!
Trying out this recipe atm! Hope it comes out gooood! 😀
Hope it goes well too!
So, I made these tonight but for some reason I couldn’t get the dough to turn smooth and not sticky. I went ahead and let it rise and made them anyway, but the pretzels turned out spongy, like a breadstick, instead of dense, like a pretzel. Any ideas what I may have done wrong?
Hi Laura, it sounds like the dough had too much water/not enough flour. Next time add enough flour so that the dough feel “tacky” but not sticky. Having a higher water content in bread will make it lighter and more spongy, so just add some more flour next time. I should note though, that these are soft pretzels and probably won’t be dense regardless.
Like bagels, dense (commercial) pretzels are boiled first before they’re baked. This gives them that kind of moist crusty density.
Perfection! Thanks for the recipe. My first attempt @ pretzels & they were perfect. We ate them fresh out of the oven dipped in honey mustard
That’s great Jennifer! The honey mustard sounds wonderful =)
Mmmmm! I made these yesterday, and my whole family wants me to make them again today!
A friend and I made these (but cinnamon and raisin) about a week ago and they were amazingly good, stupidly unhealthy but really very good.
So last night we decided to have another attempt but make them marginally better for us, so we made banana and chocolate ones. They looked absolutely disgusting (particularly pre-cooking) but were literally the best thing I’ve ever tasted. You should definitely give it a go!
We did the recipe as normal then added banana chunks and chocolate before cooking. Next time (there will definitely be a next time) we’re going to try and substitute some of the water with banana, see if it improves the look of them at all!
Thanks for the recipe! I hadn’t been able to find pretzels for sale in about 4 years, so these satisfied some pretty long term cravings 😀
I made these tonight and they were so awesome! I was shocked, I didn’t really know what to expect and I just loved them! Great job and thank you for sharing!!
made these two days in a row…so easy to put together…i don’t have a mixer so stirred together with a wooden spoon and then kneaded for 5 min…perfect gluten gluttony. my daughters inhaled them, exclaiming, “I don’t want this moment to end!”
Hi Cindy, what a comment! I’m so glad you and your daughters loved them!
Your video says to bake them at 500 degrees, but the recipe says 450. Which works best?
Hi Laura, I discovered with my oven thermometer that the oven wasn’t truly baking at 500 (even though that’s what I had it set to), it was more hovering around 450, so I adjusted the recipe. 450 is perfect. And this story is a good reminder to always double check with an oven thermometer for accuracy. Happy baking!
Thanks for responding. I can’t wait to make these with my 11-year old son, who is getting to be a great cook.