I 🙌🏻 made 🙌🏻 pretzels. Homemade buttery soft pretzels. 😍😍😍.
Did you know that you only need 6 ingredients and a baking soda bath? Oh and one of those ingredients is water. That's LITERALLY it. Honestly, I can't believe I've ever even bought pretzels from Auntie Annie's at the mall when I could've just made them for so much cheaper and SO much better!
Ahem. The list for perfect, homemade buttery homemade soft pretzels:
Active dry yeast. AP flour. Salt. Brown sugar. Butter. Water. Plus baking soda for the "bath".
That's it! Oh and if you're worried about the whole shaping thing, it's way easier than you'd think. They make it look all fancy schmancy at Auntie Annie's with that twisting in the thing but there's no need (I'm here for it though). I've also included a picture to make sure you can twist your pretzel up the right way.
Scroll down for this delicious, never need to go to Auntie Annie's again homemade buttery soft pretzels recipe!
Homemade Buttery Soft Pretzels
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 pretzels 1x
Description
Just 6 ingredients and 45 minutes to golden, soft pretzels. Top with melted butter and coarse salt for extra yums.
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 1 ½ cups warm water (heated to between 105 and 110°F.)
- 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet)
- 1 ½ teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted + extra for brushing
- 4 cups unbleached, all purpose flour + extra for dusting
- Coarse salt for sprinkling
For the Baking Soda Bath
- ½ cup baking soda
- 9 cups water
Get Recipe Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Prepare two baking sheets each with silpat or greased parchment paper.
- Activate the yeast: whisk warm water, yeast, and brown sugar together in a large bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer. Cover with a towel and let rest for about 10-15 minutes. Be patient! If yeast is activated, you will see foam on top of the mixture, and even a few small bubbles. Also, if you take sniff, it will smell very much like yeast.
- Add melted butter and salt. Whisk until combined.
- If using a standing mixer, fit it with the dough hook. Add flour 1 cup at a time up to 3 cups, stirring in between until combined. Add ½ cup of flour and stir until combined until dough is thick. If it is still sticky, add remaining flour ¼ cup at a time as needed.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 4-5 minutes until dough is smooth. Cover with a towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
- While the dough is resting, make the baking soda bath. In a large pot, bring water and baking soda to a boil.
- Once dough is done resting, use a pizza cutter or a large knife to cut it into 12 equal sections (about ⅓ of a cup each). Roll each section into a long rope about 22 inches long and with a thickness of ½ inch or less.
- Twist each rope into a pretzel shape: bring the ends of the rope together to form a circle. Twist the ends and then bring them back down towards you to create the shape (see notes for photo*).
- Dip each pretzel in the boiling baking soda bath for 25 seconds, no more than 30 seconds. Otherwise your pretzels will get an icky metallic taste to them. Remove from the bath with a slotted spoon, let water drip off for a few seconds, then place on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarse salt as desired. Up to 6 pretzels per sheet.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from heat, brush with extra melted butter and top with more coarse salt if desired.
Notes
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
Meli says
Do you know how many carbs/ calories the mixture has?
Thank you 🙂
PS: we made the pretzels and they turned out great!!
Sarah Dunsmore says
how many pretzels does this make?
~planning to make them soon for family German night!! 😀
Aberdeen says
Makes about 12 pretzels!
Nicole says
How can I prepare these ahead and serve later?
Maya says
I’ve tried so many pretzel recipes and this one has got to be the best.
They turned out so beautiful, so buttery, my family loved them.
This is now my go to pretzel recipe!
Mw says
I can cook anything under the sun, but this proves again that I can't bake for beans.
I followed the recipe to a t (except I made pretzel sticks) and ended up with some very tasty salty bread, but I can't say that the end result tasted much like a pretzel.
I blame user error, not the recipe