This is one of the easiest ways to prepare homemade soft pretzels and the results are extra delicious. The soft pretzel dough only needs to rest for 10 minutes before shaping. The quick baking soda boil gives the pretzels their traditional flavor. Make sure you watch the video for how to shape pretzels!
Homemade soft pretzels are nothing new around here because this recipe has been a reader favorite for years. The dough requires just 6 ingredients and there’s hardly any rise time, so not only are these easy, they’re pretty quick too. In fact, I remember feeling pleasantly surprised at the ease and speed the first time I made them—it took us only 30 minutes to make 1 batch! Over the years, I’ve added a smidge of melted butter to the dough for improved flavor. Furthermore, we’ve introduced the baking soda bath. While it sounds strange, this step is what gives pretzels that iconic flavor, chewy texture, helps deepen their golden color in the oven, and locks in the super soft interior. If you get the water boiling ahead of time, it really only adds 5 minutes to the entire process. We do it every time now. It’s worth it!
We’ve also made them soft pretzel bites, soft pretzel knots (with various toppings), jalapeño cheddar pretzels, and soft pretzel rolls from this simple dough. We’ve also jazzed them up as crab pretzels. There’s no wrong way to shape a pretzel, but let’s stick with tradition today. I promise you’ll no longer feel intimidated working with yeast, shaping pretzels, or the baking soda bath. Even if you have zero skill in the kitchen, you can make these homemade soft pretzels.
STEP BY STEP PHOTOS
Let’s chat about the dough. You need the simplest, most basic ingredients possible and I guarantee each one is in your kitchen right now. Warm water, 1 packet yeast, melted butter, brown or regular granulated sugar, salt, and flour.
Let the yeast foam in the warm water for a few minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix. You can use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, a hand mixer, or—like you’ll notice in the video below the recipe—no mixer at all. Work with what you have in the kitchen.
Guess what? You don’t have to wait to let this dough rise. YES! Well, we’ll let it rest for 10 minutes while you get the baking soda + water boiling on the stove but that’s it. Don’t have any patience? This is the recipe for you. By the way, did you know that some pretzel recipes call for rising overnight? They’re remarkable pretzels but I’m satisfied with this ultra quick dough!
How to Shape Homemade Soft Pretzels
Now it’s time to shape.
Roll 1/3 cup of dough into a long 20-22 inch rope.
Twist the ends and bring the ends down. That’s a pretzel!
Now drop the pretzels into the boiling water + baking soda. Let them boil for 20-30 seconds each, then place onto a baking sheet. This pretzel dough makes 12 regular size soft pretzels, so I use 2 baking sheets. 6 on each.
Sprinkle with salt and bake in a hot oven. That’s it, you’re done.
And if you want to kick your soft pretzel status into major high gear, add some spicy nacho cheese sauce.
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Easy Homemade Soft Pretzels
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 pretzels
- Category: Snacks
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is one of the easiest ways to prepare homemade soft pretzels and the results are extra delicious! The dough is a family recipe and only needs to rest for 10 minutes before shaping. The quick baking soda boil gives the pretzels their traditional flavor. Make sure you watch the video for how to shape pretzels!
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) warm water (lukewarm– no need to take temperature but around 100°F (38°C) is great)
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons (7g) instant or active dry yeast (1 standard packet)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon brown sugar or granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and slightly cool
- 3 and 3/4-4 cups (469-500g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
- coarse salt or coarse sea salt for sprinkling
Baking Soda Bath (See Recipe Note)
- 1/2 cup (120g) baking soda
- 9 cups (2.13L) water
Instructions
- Whisk the yeast into warm water. Allow to sit for 1 minute. Whisk in salt, brown sugar, and melted butter. Slowly add 3 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time. Mix with a wooden spoon (or dough hook attached to stand mixer) until dough is thick. Add 3/4 cup more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. If it is still sticky, add 1/4 – 1/2 cup more, as needed. Poke the dough with your finger – if it bounces back, it is ready to knead.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough for 3 minutes and shape into a ball. Cover lightly with a towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes. (Meanwhile, I like to get the water + baking soda boiling as instructed in step 6.)
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Silicone baking mats are highly recommended over parchment paper. If using parchment paper, lightly spray with nonstick spray or grease with butter. Set aside.
- With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into 1/3 cup sections (about 75g each).
- Roll the dough into a 20-22 inch rope. Form a circle with the dough by bringing the two ends together at the top of the circle. Twist the ends together. Bring the twisted ends back down towards yourself and press them down to form a pretzel shape.
- Bring baking soda and 9 cups of water to a boil in a large pot. Drop 1-2 pretzels into the boiling water for 20-30 seconds. Any more than that and your pretzels will have a metallic taste. Using a slotted spatula, lift the pretzel out of the water and allow as much of the excess water to drip off. Place pretzel onto prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle each with coarse sea salt. Repeat with remaining pretzels. If desired, you can cover and refrigerate the boiled/unbaked pretzels for up to 24 hours before baking in step 7.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and serve warm with spicy nacho cheese sauce.
- Cover and store leftover pretzels at room temperature for up to 3 days. They lose a little softness over time. To reheat, microwave for a few seconds, or bake at 350°F (177°C) for 5 minutes.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Baked and cooled pretzels freeze well for up to 3 months. To reheat, bake frozen pretzels at 350°F (177°C) for 20 minutes or until warmed through or microwave frozen pretzels until warm. The prepared pretzel dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to one day or frozen in an airtight container for 2-3 months. Thaw frozen dough in the refrigerator overnight. Refrigerated dough can be shaped into pretzels while still cold, but allow some extra time, about 1 hour, for the pretzels to puff up before the baking soda bath and baking.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Stand Mixer or Glass Mixing Bowl | Wooden Spoon | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Pizza Cutter
- Baking Soda Bath (Step 6): The baking soda bath is strongly recommended because it helps create that chewy texture and distinctive pretzel flavor. If skipping, brush the shaped and unbaked pretzels with a mixture of 1 beaten egg + 1 Tablespoon of dairy or nondairy milk. This is known as an egg wash. Sprinkle the brushed pretzels with salt. The egg wash will help the salt stick. If you don’t have an egg, simply brush with 2 Tablespoons of dairy or nondairy milk.
- Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels: Skip the coarse salt topping (and skip the egg wash, see note above, if you aren’t doing the baking soda bath step). Bake as directed in step 7. Meanwhile, melt 4 Tablespoons (60g) of unsalted or salted butter (your choice). Brush the baked and warm pretzels with melted butter then dip the tops into a mix of cinnamon and sugar. I usually use 3/4 cup (150g) of granulated sugar and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Cinnamon sugar pretzels are best served that day because due to the melted butter topping, they become soggy after a few hours.
- Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
Keywords: soft pretzels
Complete failure for me. Weighed out the flour into a bowl, spooned and leveled each cup before mixing with a Danish dough whisk. Added all 4 cups. Seemed to not be sticky, until I turned it out; then it was stick-central. I get the feeling all these recipes are made with a stand mixer in mind, but I can’t really throw down $600 for the only one that’s ever used. Ah well, maybe I’ll try again when I feel like buying 30 pounds of flour to get this right.
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Hi EBH! We actually usually knead this dough by hand – you can see a guide in the video tutorial. Did your dough look similar? Feel free to add a little flour when kneading to prevent sticking.
Would love to make these for a party at someone else home would you recommend? Or do they need to be eaten right away?
Hi Sam, they do taste best right out of the oven, but you can cover and store leftover pretzels at room temperature for up to 3 days. They lose a little softness over time, so if you can bake them close to when you’re heading to the party, that would be best. To reheat, microwave for a few seconds, or bake at 350°F (177°C) for 5 minutes.
These were delicious! Super easy and tasted AMAZING. Will definitely be making these again!
First time making pretzels and it was perfect! Thank you for your hard work and taking the time to share it!!
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I love this recipe and want to make it for a party. Can the recipe be doubled or tripled, or do I have to make individual batches? I am aiming to make 50.
Hi Jen, for best results, we recommend making separate batches rather than doubling or tripling.
My grandniece joined me recently for a bake day before going back to school. She requested pretzels. As we were rolling them, she remarked that the dough was like making cinnamon rolls and wouldn’t these pretzels be just yummy with cinnamon and sugar rather than salty. I didn’t necessarily agree, but it was her day, so we tried it using coarse sugar and some spices, then just for fun topped them with a drizzle of glaze. The result was better than I expected. She absolutely loved it! An interesting twist on an already good recipe.
i followed the recipe to a T and it was perfect!! they turned out really good and this was my first time making them (:
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These came out fantastic. I’m in the Uk and we don’t use cup measurements soo took a bit of converting but as long as your dough isn’t sticky it’s just like making bread. Tasted better than shop bought ones!
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Great recipe! Looking forward to making it. I love all your recipes as they are so helpful to me. I do have a question. I usually weight my flour but your weights in recipes does not equate to weights from King Arthur weights on their website. Can you help me understand the difference.
Hi Beth, I’ve never been able to have 1 cup of spooned and leveled flour weigh 120g. It’s usually closer to 125 or 130g using the same flour, and that’s how I test my recipes. Use the grams given here for best results.
Thinking of using this dough with mini hotdogs. Can I make through the boiling process and then freeze to bake off later?
Hi Nancy, If you want to freeze the shaped, unbaked pretzels, we do find it’s best to do the baking soda bath right before baking– even drop them into the bath while frozen. That being said, we have frozen these shaped pretzels AFTER the bath too. It doesn’t make a huge difference either way.
where was the recipe
You can find the recipe at the end of the page (gray recipe box) or by clicking the “Jump to Recipe” button at the top of the page.
Didn’t work. Dough was way too crumbly. Couldn’t even make the snake. Didn’t add the final flour even.
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Happy to help! How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
Kids loved it, I thought I let it rise enough, but following the sizing recommended in the recipe it only yielded 6+ several “hole” size pretzels.
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Made this recipe for the first time today. My hubby loves soft pretzels and found this recipe for me to look at. For my altitude it took more flour to get to the right consistency but it was well worth it. I’m salt conscious so I cut back on the amount the recipe called for. BIG MISTAKE. It severely lacked the salt taste pretzels are known for. I did the butter and salt before baking and that didn’t make up the difference in the missing salt in the pretzel itself. I will make this again and again. Thank you Sally for a fantastic pretzel recipe!!
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These came out perfectly! I left some plain to do cinnamon and sugar, but also added cardamom, and that was fantastic!
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I went to a restaurant with friends, and had a pretzel with asiago cheese. I haven’t stopped thinking about how yummy it was. I found this recipe and gave it a try. Oh My Gosh!!!!! There are no words for how great they turned out. Coming from someone who doesn’t like to cook, I’m here to tell you that these are super easy.
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I love all your recipes so much thank you . I’m home fighting chemo for lung cancer ( I’m know cancer free) and have tried numerous recipes that my family have enjoy
I love your recipes. These pretzels are so good. I buttered and salted both pre- and post-bake. I can see these becoming a snack staple at my house.
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Looking forward to trying this. One question: If opting to do bite size rather than full size, I assume the only difference is to just cut the rolled out dough in small bite size pieces rather than forming the pretzel. Would there be anything else you would recommend to do differently? I’m thinking this would be a great appetizer for parties and potlucks! I like to have things that don’t require staying hot or cool for these events and while these would also be great warm, they don’t have to be, which is a great plus!
Hi Cheryl! Here’s our detailed soft pretzel bites recipe (using the same pretzel dough).
Absolutely loved this! Our first attempt at making pretzels and this was so easy to follow and turned out absolutely delicious!
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So, are we brushing these puppies with melted butter? If so, pre- or post- bake?
Hi Megan, you can brush them with melted butter when they come out of the oven – yum!
Thanks! They turned out amazing! I feel nervous knowing how easy these are to just whip up…
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I keep improving they are great my family loves them
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Love all of your recipes. I am testing these this weekend to get ready for the upcoming tailgating season. Does using white vs brown sugar make a difference in the taste?
Hi Angela! With such a small amount, it doesn’t matter much here. Hope you love these pretzels!
Great Recipe! My family ate all of them within 30 minutes!
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