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), 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 (spoon & 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 (2,160ml) 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 in a 350°F (177°C) for 5 minutes.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Baked and cooled pretzels freeze well up to 2-3 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 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.
- 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
Turned out amazing
★★★★★
Thank you for delisious recepie. We made it at home just replaced the butter with oil to be diary free and it taste delisious. We are going to make them at school with children for Christmas fair. Can’t wait.
I want to ask if they can be preheated the following day to be warm and could they be preheated in oven or microwave? And how long?
I’m so glad you made them work for you and enjoyed them! A few seconds in the microwave is the quickest way to warm them up! I hope the kids love them!
These are the best homemade pretzels I have ever had. So good!!!
★★★★★
This was my first time making pretzels. They were easy to make and tasted delicious! Better than the Super Pretzels in my freezer (they must have boiled them too long)! I made half into traditional pretzels and the rest into small buns for ham and cheese sandwiches. Next time I’m going to make pretzel bites to store in the freezer for after school snacks. Thank you for this recipe!!! It’s a keeper.
★★★★★
This is definitely an amazing recipe , as much as I’d like to wish I did I skipped some of the reading part and completely overlooked that DONOT drop more than 2 pretzels at a time in the soda bite. That’s fatal I made two batches first ones finished as soon as it cooled enough to touch second was a debacle.im so heartbroken as my kids wanted more and being a working mom times are calculated.wush I had paid attention
★★★★★
These were absolutely delicious! My only issue is that they stuck to the parchment paper and I have never had anything stick to parchment paper before! I will definitely make them again and again and again, but will spray the paper with cooking spray first. Have you ever seen this happen?
★★★★★
It’s happened to me once or twice when I leave the pretzels on the baking sheet for too long after boiling and before baking. I like to use silicone baking mats, but yes– greasing the parchment paper will prevent that!
I just made these and I am BEYOND HAPPY! they are perfect, I love I love. love!!!!
The guys liked so much I had to immediately make another batch
★★★★★
Amazing!! I made these this morning and they turned out wonderful!! My first time ever making soft pretzels. They were a hit with my kids and hubby. Tasted just as good as the ones in the mall. The first batch of 6 I only added the coarse salt, the second batch of six I brushed melted butter, the coarse salt and On 3 of those put cinnamon sugar. They were great too!! Thank you for sharing this recipe!!
★★★★★
I had never made soft pretzels before and this was an amazingly easy and delicious recipe! I even forgot to put the butter in the dough, so I brushed it on while they were still hot and they are outstanding!!!
★★★★★
Nothing like a successful first time. My wife generally taste my experiments first, but this time , I did. A little yellow mustard and voila ! Then I got the wife’s approval. I’ll be taking these to football parties, holiday parties and carry-ins. I followed your recipe to the letter. Thank You Sally!
★★★★★
These are amazing!! My son and I loved making them and eating them!
★★★★★
These were so fun to make with my littles! The triplets are 5 and our bonus is 3, but thinks she’s five. A little help with the rolling the first couple was all they needed. After they mastered the basic pretzel shape they were on to their initials and hearts and so on. My N said, “we should make pretzels every day!” I don’t think we could quite master daily pretzel making, but I predict that once weekly might be doable as it’s such an easy recipe. I’m thinking of upping the sugar just a little and the butter a tad, but wasn’t sure if it would make them too greasy? I’m thinking of making some pretzel bites to take with us for snacks on our upcoming trip as well. It’sespecially nice to find recipe without too many exotic ingredients as we are currently expats and many things that are usually simple to find back home are difficult to find here.
★★★★★
Hi Sally! These were the first recipe I ever made from your blog, waaaay back years ago when you posted it in 2012, and they are the only soft pretzels I have ever made and will ever make……they are good on their own, but escalated to a whole other level when paired with cheesy fondue!!! Tysm Sally!
★★★★★
For those who were asking about my gluten free blend, this is it….
3 cups blanched almond flour
2 cups arrowroot flour
2 cups coconut flour
3/4 cups tapioca flour
This is my regular gluten free flour blend. Sometimes I substitute potato starch for the almond flour, depending on what I am making. The 4 ingredients above, once mixed together and ran through a sifter a few times makes a very fine flour. It helps to pound the almond flour a bit to get it a little finer. You need to use a bit more liquid when using flours with coconut flour in it as it really sucks it up! Experiment with the blend… the total amount of the 4 above ingredients once blended together can be used cup for cup of your regular recipe flour… i hope you are able to make some yummy breads/pretzels with this blend!
Husband was talking about how he would love some soft pretzels just last week. Found your recipe and gave them a try. He absolutely loved them. Will definitely be making these again and again. Thanks for the very easy to follow recipe and tips that you add. GREAT JOB!!
★★★★★
This is the first thing I’ve ever tried baking! And they turned out way better than I thought they would!
They were super tasty and other than the fact that because I didn’t really pay attention to how thin they should be (some of them ended up like pretzel bread ) they were pretty much perfect!
And I had a good time baking!
Thanks for turning this computer nerd onto something that seems totally unrelated!
★★★★★
These are easy and delicious…only problem is they’ll be all gone today! We used melted butter on top after boiling to help the salt to stick. I tried a cracked pepper and salt and it was amazing!
★★★★★
Does anyone else have an issue with their baking soda bath? I swear the first time I did it everything was fine but since then it boils over because the foam is like three inches high! Any ways to fix this?
★★★★★
Hi Nyki! Try turning down the stove heat. That will help reduce the foam.
First time working with dough or pretzels or anything: Came out decent, not really the toe-curling sensation of Auntie Anne’s though for me. Very likely I did something not quite right! I think the outside looked great, shape was more than good enough, but something about the dough was maybe a little too dense, not quite soft enough, perhaps not quite the same flavor. Unfortunately I’m not really sure what step in the process could have led to that, but I plan to try them again next week. We’ll see how it goes! No regrets here for sure.
I made these today. Super easy and really great tasting. I struggled to make the actual pretzel shape. I may need to practice with some clay! Even though my shapes were not pretty, the flavor and texture were great!
★★★★★
Love these! Would you need to make any changes if you want to double or even triple the recipe?
★★★★★
Hi Julie! No changes, but for best taste and texture, I recommend making separate batches of dough.
Hi- if I did everything up to placing on lan, how long can I wait to bake them? I’m thinking I would like them right out of the oven for a party but would like to do the rest of the work prior to guests arriving. Is this possible? Thanks!
Sure is! But I wouldn’t wait too long– cover tightly and refrigerate them for up to a couple hours.
This recipe was exactly what I was looking for. I usually have a difficult time with bread, but this was so quick and easy.The kids and I had an amazing time making different pretzels shapes. Definitely keeping this recipe for our family cooking nights.
★★★★★
My wife was craving a pretzel fix so a bit of Googleing led me here. Super easy and they came out beautifully. I brushed them with a bit of butter at the 10 minute mark and it worked out well. Thanks for this!
★★★★★
Hi, I am wondering about the soda water bath, so many variations thoughout the different pretzel recipes, some say just dip and some say boil, some say leave in hot water for a minute…can you help me clear the fog? What is the purpose of this? Thanks!!!
Hi Jeanne! The baking soda step instructed in this recipe initiates that familiar brown chewy crust on the pretzels. (Which comes as they bake!)
My first time making soft pretzels and it couldn’t have been easier ! Love the simplicity of this recipe and the dough was fun to play with and easy to shape. Results were very good and the pretzels are delicious. Fulfilled my craving!
★★★★★
Absolutely loved the recipe! Made on a whim after our store bought frozen pretzels were freezer burnt. Made them exactly to recipe but did half salt, half cinnamon sugar and they were a hit! We used cream cheese icing to dunk sweet ones. Just made 3 more batches today…. this time hot dog and hamburger pretzle buns for a cook out tomorrow! I added “everything bagle” seasoning to top and they are soooo good! Thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
Soooo GOOD! These are my go to party treats now! Had them with the nacho sauce and they were perfect. Tried them with cinnamon sugar but couldn’t get it to stick – any advice?
★★★★★
Just made these with my 13y/o daughter and they are delicious! My wife had no idea what we were up to in the kitchen because we wouldn’t let her in but when she tried them she was amazed at how good they were. Plus I got some father daughter bonding time on top of getting some tasty treats so that makes it all the better.
Thanks!
★★★★★