Easy Homemade Soft Pretzels

🥘 Ingredients

Dough

• all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
  4 cups, 1 tsp
• baking soda
  1/2 cup
• brown sugar or granulated sugar
  1 tbsp
• instant or active dry yeast
  2.25 tsp
• salt
  1 tsp
• unsalted butter (melted and slightly cooled)
  1 tbsp
• warm water (around 100°F/38°C)
  1.5 cups
• water
  9 cups

Shaping and Boiling

• baking soda
  1/2 cup
• coarse salt
• water
  9 cups

🍳 Cookware

• baking sheets
• pot
• baking sheets

Dough

1. 1

   Whisk instant or active dry yeast and brown sugar or granulated sugar into warm water . Cover and allow to sit for ⏱️ 1 minute .

   instant or active dry yeast: 2.25 tsp, brown sugar or granulated sugar: 1 tbsp, warm water: 1.5 cups (around 100°F/38°C)
2. 2

   Whisk in unsalted butter and salt . Add all-purpose flour and mix with a wooden spoon (or dough hook attachment if using a stand mixer) until combined. Add all-purpose flour until the dough is slightly tacky and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If it is still sticky, add up to all-purpose flour more, 1 Tablespoon at a time, as needed. Poke the dough with your finger—if it bounces back, it is ready to knead.

   unsalted butter: 1 tbsp (melted and slightly cooled), salt: 1 tsp, all-purpose flour: 3 cups (spooned & leveled), all-purpose flour: 3/4 cups, all-purpose flour: 1/4 cups
3. 3

   Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for ⏱️ 3 to 5 minutes , or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for ⏱️ 3 to 5 minutes . If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle all-purpose flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it's thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.

   all-purpose flour: 1 tsp
4. 4

   Shape the kneaded dough into a ball. Cover lightly with a towel and allow to rest for ⏱️ 10 to 30 minutes . (Meanwhile, I like to get the water + baking soda boiling as instructed in step 8.)

   water: 9 cups, baking soda: 1/2 cup

Shaping and Boiling

1. 1

   Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Line 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.
2. 2

   With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into dough sections: 75 grams, which is about 1/3 cup of dough each.
3. 3

   Roll the dough into a 20-22-inch rope. Form a circle with the dough by bringing the 2 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.
4. 4

   Bring baking soda and water to a boil in a pot . Drop 1-2 pretzels into the boiling water for ⏱️ 20 to 30 seconds . Any longer 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 sheets . Repeat with remaining pretzels. If desired, cover the boiled, unbaked pretzels with lightly oiled plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours before baking.

   baking soda: 1/2 cup, water: 9 cups
5. 5

   Sprinkle the tops of the pretzels with coarse salt and bake for ⏱️ 18 minutes or less if already dark golden brown.

   coarse salt
6. 6

   Remove from the oven and, if desired, serve warm with spicy nacho cheese sauce.
7. 7

   Cover and store leftover pretzels at room temperature for up to 3 days.
8. 📝

   See Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions in recipe Notes below for more storage info. To reheat, microwave for a few seconds, or bake at 350°F (177°C) for ~{5%minutes}.