Experience the best tasting soft pretzel in your life with this homemade recipe. The dough will be easy to learn and will quickly become your favorite. There’s not a lot of ingredients to a soft pretzel and it’ll be quick to create as well.
Of course, to add special flavoring towards the pretzel, I add melted butter. During sports events and 4th of July, our family make pretzels together. There’s also another secret to creating the best pretzel; baking soda. This process is to create a bath for pretzels that will result in a more chewy texture.
Why Do You Boil Soft Pretzels Before Baking?
Pretzel recipes tell us to boil pretzels in a baking soda solution before baking them in the oven. Can you omit this step? Yes, but the pretzels won’t be what you’re used from the malls. Boiling the dough causes it to puff instantaneously, creating a chewy interior and crusting the exterior to a crisp head start. The baking soda also produces pretzels with a deep golden brown and cracked appearance.
Soft pretzels are not so soft, even after being boiled for a long time. When you first try these, try to cut one in half. It is hard and will not bend back in your hand. But try it, and you will find the pretzel quite soft to the touch. Soft pretzels are not so soft, even after being boiled for a long time.
What Gives Soft Pretzels Their Flavor?
The prominent flavor of pretzels is the salty, toasty malt flavor. These are a good choice for any party, even casual ones. Pretzels also deliver a good amount of carbs — 2 grams per serving for the white variety and 3 for the dark. This means pretzels are an excellent option for someone who’s counting their carbs before the weigh-in. They’re also relatively high in fiber, about 7 grams in white and 9 grams in dark.
How Do You Make Homemade Soft Pretzels?
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. If you don’t have a baking soda solution handy, mix a tablespoon of baking soda into the hot water. Sprinkle small amounts of flour into the mixture and stir together. Add salt and mix, coating the entire mix with flour. Add the boiling water to the dough.
How Long Should I Let Soft Pretzels Bake?
The baked pretzels should be done and completely done in 15 to 20 minutes. Allow extra time if baking multiple batches at once. Read the full instructions below:
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Spray a little water to the soft pretzel then sprinkle salt
- Cook in oven for 5 minutes
Soften Pretzels That Have Turned Hard
Hard pretzels happen to the best of us, sometimes we leave them out for too long, or they we’re given to us in this form. Either way, there is a unique way of reviving this situation. Follow the instructions below for this method:
- Preheat oven to 400°F with the convection setting on.
- Hold Pretzels and pour warm water on top for a couple of seconds.
- Toss them in the oven, the water will steam and soften the pretzel.
Do Soft Pretzels Have Lye In Them?
Lye is like a kind of acid used to leaven soft pretzels (think: baking soda). Once the pretzel is dipped into lye, the dough starts to turn into the color yellow. Once placed in the oven, you will notice the dough starting to brown intensely. Quite the unique way to dip a pretzel.
How To Make Soft Pretzels
To make soft pretzels, you start with your favorite bread dough. For typical pretzel shapes, you begin with your dough from the previous day. For cinnamon sugar pretzels, you mix the regular dough and cinnamon-sugar dough until combined. Next, you gently pat this mixture onto the bottom of a greased cookie sheet.
Cutting the cinnamon-sugar dough to match the shape of the cookie sheet is helpful but not strictly necessary. You can roll it in between your palms or on a rolling pin, then pinch or flatten it to create the look you desire.
Homemade Soft Pretzel Recipe
Ingredients
- 1¼ cup warm water
- 2 tsp instant yeast 1 packet
- 1½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter melted & cooled
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- coarse salt
Baking Soda Bath
- ½ cup baking soda
- 9 cups water
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together instant yeast and warm water. Let the yeast activate (1 minute rest) and add salt, brown sugar, and butter.
- Periodically add in 3 cups of flour, and mix with a spoon until a thick dough forms. Add remaining flour until the dough is not sticky. Check dough by pressing your finger and seeing if the dough bounces back.
- Flour your counter, place dough and knead for 3 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball and cover the bowl with a towel and rest for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. On 2 baking sheets, place parchment paper with nonstick spray
- In a pot, add water and baking soda and heat to boil.
- Cut dough into 3 sections with a pizza cutter. Roll each piece of dough into a 22 inch rope. Form a circle by placing the end pieces together and twist the ends. With the twisted end, bring it down the opposite end and press it onto the dough.
- In the boiling pot, drop 1 pretzel into the boiling water for 30 seconds. Use a spatula to push lift the pretzel out and place onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Repeat for remaining pretzels.
- Bake in oven for 14 minutes or until the pretzel turns golden brown.
- Remove and let is rest for 3 minutes. Serve.
Nutrition
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