These Homemade Soft Pretzels can be made into the traditional shape or cut into bites for a perfect game day or party appetizer!
Photos updated 2/2017
Hi Friends!
Just wanted to pop in a share this recipe with you. Homemade soft pretzels…or pretzel bites. I actually shared it on the blog way back in 2010, but since I have a lot of new readers now and Fall always seems to be the time of year when I make these the most, I thought they merited sharing again!
They’re perfect for tailgating, parties, etc! They’re also mildly addicting so be prepared.
Here’s what you need:
PrintHomemade Soft Pretzels
These Homemade Soft Pretzels can be made into the traditional shape or cut into bites for a perfect game day or party appetizer!
- Category: Appetizer
Ingredients
- 1½ cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2¾ tsp active dry yeast
- 22 ounces flour, approximately 4½ cups
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 10 cups water
- ⅔ cup baking soda
- 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Combine the water, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam.
- Add the flour and butter knead using the dough hook for about 5 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a boil in a large pan.
- Divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a long rope rope. Form into pretzels or cut into bite sized pieces for a pretzel bites.
- Drop into pretzels into the boiling water, a few at a time, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula or a slotted spoon.
- Plan on a baking sheet, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with salt or cinnamon & sugar if desired.
- Bake 12 minutes.
I use 2 c white whole wheat flour and 2.5 c bread flour for mine. They also work well with AP flour. I’ve tried them with all white whole wheat flour and didn’t like them as much.
Let’s chat:
Have you ever made your own pretzels?!
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
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I was so excited for you to post this one! These look fabulous. I love pretzels but never tried making my own. It’s happening… post competition. 🙂
Thanks so much for bringing it from the archives- you miss out on old gems!
This looks so good, and motivates me to give it a go- I’ve always been abit iffy with yeast but its time to bite the bullet! Cheers!
These kind of recipes are why I need to get more comfortable working with yeast — I’ve only ever used it once, and that was when I had someone else helping me out. I’d love to have something like this come out of my kitchen, though, so you may have just convinced me go start experimenting.
you make it look so so so very easy.
like even *I* could succeed!!!!
it’s more fun to eat the recipe than take pics anyway!
I am going to try these. I make homemade pretzels all the time, my boys love them for snacks after school and they are easy to reheat in the oven
i’m totally trying these this weekend!!!
I love, love, love soft pretzels and practically lived on them in college–ha! Yes, this was pre-nutrition sciences major! 😉 Can’t wait to give this recipe a try!!
I’ve never made pretzels before but these look gooooood!
I love pretzels, but I’m always a little bit intimidated to work with yeast! This recipe does look amazing though, so I think I’ll just have to suck it up and give it a try.
Soft pretzels are probably one of my favorite dough products, so this recipe has my mouth watering! So much yum.
I probably say this a lot but THIS, this is my favorite recipe that you’ve posted. I am dying to make these! 🙂
I love making pretzels with my kiddos, we spread the Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Cream Cheese on them…. so good!
I would have eaten them all! 🙂 YUM!!!!
Wow this looks DELICIOUS!! I will have to try these out sometime! Thank you for re-sharing the recipe!
I have not made my own pretzels, but you have inspired me to try it! This looks like a fun project to do with my 5-year-old! 🙂 Pinning for later. 🙂
This recipe is so simple. I would have never thought!
Oh goodness, looks so good! Any suggestions on alt. flours to make them GF? I might be playing around this weekend in the kitchen!
Great recipe. Do you think chickpea flour could work for these? Or any other sort of GF flour? I’d love to enjoy these with a little pumpkin beer this season 🙂
I haven’t tried them with any GF flour…but I’d say it’s definitely worth playing around with!!
Thanks 🙂
I’ll let you know how it turns out!
I am totally going to make these. Perfect cold weather snack. I think I’ll add garlic salt or Italian seasonings instead of cinnamon!
I’ve never made my own pretzels before, but these sound great and so easy!
Those look awesome! I made my own pretzels a few weeks ago, but I had so much difficulty making them look like pretzels. It was SO tedious. Next time, I’m going the bite route!
How cool are these?! I’ve never made pretzels, but I made bagels this week so now I feel like i can conquer anything!
I loooooveeee soft pretzels and pretzel bites are so good. Definitely need to try this!
Yum! Pretzels are definitely on my list of things to make and these look easy enough… I think I will have to test these out! Love the idea of adding pumpkin, especially because we have a major pumpkin surplus at home… Thanks for the recipe, Lindsay!
I would never have thought to make PUMPKIN pretzels. YUM!!
★★★★
These sounds amazing!! I have never made my own pretzels before, but I definitely want to give it a shot. I recently ate a pretzel hot dog pun at a restaurant that was amaaaazing! I need to learn how to make those!
Oh YUM! I love that these are the perfect snacking size!
Yum, what an easy, tasty snack to make!
I saw these on your instagram before and they look soooo good! I love the addition of pumpkin, maybe some pumpkin spices to help the flavor shine through? Need to make these. After competition of course. 🙂
Pretzels are my weakness, especially the soft variety… I almost always get some when we go to the movies, I’d love to make a batch myself!
This sounds great! Do you need to have a dough hook / stand mixer to do this?
No, you can knead it by hand.
Can’t want to make this next week for Sunday football!
Soft pretzels are my absolute favorite game day food – gonnna have to try these stat and maybe make so beer cheese dip to go with!
Yes love these Lindsay. Our daughter and I just made some over Christmas break 🙂
yay!!!
i have not made pretzels before but ever since i saw this, i am craving it so bad!!!! i want all things garlicky and salty.
Great recipe! Can you tell me about how many pretzel bites this recipe makes?
i divide the dough into 8 sections, roll them out into ropes and usually cut those into 10-12 pieces
Oooh these look so great! What a great game-day appetizer. I’ll be whipping these up for March Madness!
Kids loved these! Knowing the pan needed greased and how much salt or cinnamon & sugar to add would’ve been helpful. Will be making again since we learned those on our own! haha
★★★★
glad you liked them! I like to leave the toppings up to personal preference so I didn’t include measurements. Sorry about the forgetting to mention greasing the pan. i like to bake mine on parchment paper!
Never would have thought to make pretzels with my boys (ages 1 & 3), but I saw these on your Instagram stories and decided to give them a shot. A lot easier than I expected and delicious! I want to make them again and try the buns like you did – what a great idea.
★★★★★