Homemade Soft Pretzels
Thinking back on it I am not sure if I have ever had a store-bought soft pretzel before. So I am not sure at all where this massive craving for them came from. I’m looking at you Pinterest trying to make me eat all the carbs. JK I need no help in that field. All finger pointing aside, the soft pretzel craving was there and it wasn’t going to leave.
Looking at the pictures of glistening perfectly salted soft pretzels I jumped to the conclusion that making them would be too difficult. Thank goodness my stomach makes the decisions in my life and not my brain. Otherwise, I never would have known these are really so simple to make.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 packet of dry activated yeast ( I bought a big jar of it but 1 1/4 tsp is equivalent)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp melted butter
- 3 cups flour plus more for dusting
- coarse salt for topping
- mustard (jk this is nonessential unless you are OBSESSED like me)
You will also need a pot of about 9 cups of water and 1/2 a cup of baking soda that will be boiled to dip the pretzels in before baking.
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let sit for a minute. Then, add the salt, sugar and melted butter until everything is incorporated. A whisk is extremely helpful with this.
Next, you’ll add the flour one cup at a time mixing after each. If you add the three cups and the mixture is still sticky add a little more flour until it isn’t sticky. It’s not science or maybe it is? Either way, you can’t really mess it up. The dough is ready when you poke the dough and have it ‘bounce’ back.
Dump the dough out on a well-floured surface and knead for three minutes. If you are like me and you need to know how to knead your dough here is a really great video: How to Knead Dough
Once your dough is kneaded cover it with a dish towel and let it rest for ten minutes.
At this point, I was really excited that I had ten minutes to drink a coffee. Got it all ready, took one sip, then remembered I hadn’t turned the stove or the water on and I hadn’t greased the tray for baking. My coffee sure does look cute though!
Set your oven to 400 degrees, grease a pan or line it with parchment paper, and start to boil the water and baking soda mixture on med/high heat.
Apparently, this recipe is supposed to make twelve soft pretzels but that is a bold-faced lie. This recipe makes six soft pretzels. If you make twelve you are either a magician or performed a small miracle. Cut the dough into six pieces. (Or twelve, I don’t know your life or your abilities. Maybe you are a magician.) Roll out each piece into a long string. Won’t lie to you this step was a lot harder than I thought it would be. The dough bounces back into shape so it takes awhile to roll it out. Use all your play dough skills from childhood and you will be golden.
To form the soft pretzel lay your string out twist the top around and fold it down. It might not stick together immediately but it will once it goes into the pot of water and baking soda.
Boil each soft pretzel for about 20-30 seconds. Don’t go too much over or they can get a weird taste. I went one by one because to coordinate more seemed like tempting fate. Use a spatula to get your soft pretzels out and let as much water as you can drain off.
Place the soft pretzel on the greased or lined baking sheet. They will be sticky so I salted them one by one as soon as they were on the tray. If you’re not a huge salt fan I would skip this. They are still super delicious without the extra sodium. I live for salt so I doused these guys.
This step is really important! make sure you put the tray of soft pretzels on the lower rack in your oven. For no reason other than to mess up all the pictures you take of them. For real just bake your soft pretzels kinda in the middle of your oven. That is what I did and they seemed fine.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until they look golden and delicious. This is totally optional but if you want once the soft pretzels are out of the oven brush them down with a small amount of melted butter. This will make them a little shiny and obviously taste pretty buttery. Win-win.
Literally ten minutes later my beautiful pile of homemade soft pretzels was almost totally demolished. These are so delicious with mustard or cheese sauce or just on their own. Most importantly though these soft pretzels are quick and easy to make.
