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. This recipe is such a fan favorite, that it deserved a spot in print! You’ll also find this recipe in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101 (which has become a New York Times Best Seller!).
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’ve also made them soft pretzel bites, soft pretzel knots (with various toppings), jalapeño cheddar pretzels, and soft pretzel rolls from this simple dough. There’s no wrong way to shape a pretzel, but let’s stick with the classic 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 bet each one is in your kitchen right now. Warm water, 1 packet of yeast, brown or regular granulated sugar, melted butter, salt, and flour.
Mix the yeast and sugar in the warm water, let it sit for a minute, then whisk in the butter and salt, then add the flour. You can use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment a big bowl and wooden spoon. Work with what you have in the kitchen. And if you need extra help with kneading, see my full How to Knead Dough video tutorial.
You don’t have to wait to let this dough rise for an extended period of time. Just 10 to 30 minutes does the trick. Don’t have a lot of time on your hands? This recipe is for you. If, however, you want to extend the rise time, you certainly could. Doughs that leave time for bulk fermentation (when the dough rises before shaping), typically have a more enhanced, developed flavor. In fact, some pretzel recipes require an overnight rise in the refrigerator. If you have the time for that, do it! However, I find a brief rise suitable for today’s pretzels, especially if I’m making them with younger bakers.
How to Shape Homemade Soft Pretzels
Now it’s time to shape.
Roll about 1/3 cup (75g) of dough into a long 20- to 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 coarse salt and bake in a hot oven. That’s it, you’re done.
Make-Ahead Tip
If you are making pretzels in advance, do not top them with coarse salt before baking. The salt draws the moisture out of the pretzels, and once you’ve placed the baked and cooled pretzels in an airtight container or bag, it doesn’t take long before you’ll notice water droplets forming inside and the pretzels become soggy and wrinkled. Yuck!
If you won’t be serving the pretzels the same day you bake them, omit the salt-topping step. Bake as directed, then allow to cool completely before placing them in an airtight container, and store at room temperature. When you are ready to serve them, place the pretzels on a baking sheet and brush them lightly with water, then sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake them in a 350°F (177°C) oven for 5–10 minutes, or until warmed through.
Same goes for freezing homemade soft pretzels: wait to top with salt until you’re ready to serve them. Cool the unsalted baked pretzels completely, then freeze in an airtight freezer-safe container or zip-top bag for up to 3 months. To reheat, brush frozen pretzels (no need to thaw) with water and sprinkle with coarse salt, then bake at 350°F (177°C) for 20 minutes or until warmed through.
And if you want to kick your soft pretzel status into major high gear, add some spicy nacho cheese sauce.
Print
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 for beginners, and the results are extra delicious! The dough is a family recipe and only needs to rest for 10 to 30 minutes before shaping. The quick baking soda boil gives the pretzels their traditional flavor, and I do not recommend skipping it. This recipe is also in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons (7g) instant or active dry yeast (1 standard packet)
- 1 Tablespoon brown sugar or granulated sugar
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) warm water (around 100°F/38°C)
- 1 Tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 and 3/4–4 cups (469–500g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed
- coarse salt, for topping
Baking Soda Bath (See Recipe Note)
- 1/2 cup (120g) baking soda
- 9 cups (2.13L) water
Instructions
- Whisk the yeast and sugar into warm water. Cover and allow to sit for 1 minute.
- Whisk in the melted butter and salt. Add 3 cups (375g) of flour. Mix with a wooden spoon (or dough hook attachment if using a stand mixer) until combined. Add 3/4 cup (94g) more flour until the dough is slightly tacky and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If it is still sticky, add up to 1/4 cup more (31g) flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time, as needed. Poke the dough with your finger—if it bounces back, it is ready to knead.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for an additional 3 to 5 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 3 to 5 minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of 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.
- 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.)
- 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 75g sections, which is about 1/3 cup of dough each.
- 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.
- 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 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 sheet. 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 (step 9).
- Sprinkle the tops of the pretzels with coarse salt. Bake for 12–15 minutes or until dark golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and, if desired, serve warm with spicy nacho cheese sauce.
- Cover and store leftover pretzels at room temperature for up to 3 days. 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.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: If planning to freeze fully baked pretzels, do not top them with coarse salt before baking. Cool completely, then freeze in an airtight freezer-safe container or zip-top bag for up to 3 months. To reheat, brush frozen pretzels (no need to thaw) with water and sprinkle with coarse salt, then bake 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 at room temperature before continuing with the baking soda bath and baking. You can also freeze the boiled, unbaked pretzels and here’s how: after boiling the pretzels in step 8, place them on a lightly greased parchment paper- or silicone baking mat-lined baking sheet. Freeze the pretzels for about 1 hour, then transfer them to an airtight freezer-safe container or zip-top bag (squeeze out as much air as possible from the bag before sealing) and freeze for up to 3 months. To bake, brush frozen pretzels (no need to thaw) with water and sprinkle with coarse salt, then bake at 400°F (204°C) for 15–20 minutes or until dark golden brown.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Stand Mixer or Glass Mixing Bowl | Wooden Spoon | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Pizza Cutter | Large Pot (such as a Dutch oven)
- Baking Soda Bath (Step 8): 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 9. Meanwhile, melt 4 Tablespoons (56g) of unsalted or salted butter. 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 taste best the day they’re made because the melted butter topping causes them to become soggy after a few hours.
- Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
Reader Comments and Reviews
LOVE this recipe and have had 10 requests for it to be sent to people after they try the soft pretzels. I do recommend that if you are a fan of auntie annes you add 3 times the amount of brown sugar, more if you are doing cinnamon sugar pretzels (don’t give me that look you are cooking yummy sweet bread we aren’t aiming for the healthiest of snacks) and if you want you can also add minced garlic to the dough if you want to make pizza pretzels 🙂
amazing recipe. Very easy to follow. I did add some sourdough starter and some extra flower to offset the moisture from the starter. For a first timer with pretzels I was very happy. Thank you
The pretzels were amazing…everyone at home just loved them and now there are requests to bake immediately again. One point though…..the water needs to be reduced a lot..had to put in almost half the quantity of flour more..but well….end result was great! Thanks a lot.
Sally, thanks for this recipe. It’s so easy and my pretzels came out so delicious. Perfectly brown and a little crisp on the outside, and soft with tons of yeasty flavor on the inside.
Good recipe! I tripled it, and it worked wonderfully! The only thing is when I put them in the baking soda mix, they had a metallic taste after 20 seconds, ended up doing them for 18-20 seconds and it worked better.
I love these pretzels!! Not only are these amazingly simple to make they taste great! This is a good way to get my boyfriend off of the couch ha ha! He loves to make them with me so we have time together making these wonderful pretzels! The house smells so good while they are baking. So darn easy and so stinking yummy!!
These are amazing! We ate the whole batch before it was completely cool.
I’m looking forward to making these soon. Could this dough be used for pretzel dogs? I think my kids would love those too. Maybe instead of shaping the rope of dough into the pretzel shape, flatten it out and wrap the hot dog with it, then the baking soda bath and bake? I’m thinking it would work but I’d love to hear what you think. Thanks!
Hi Terya, Yes! You can shape the dough around the hotdogs in the same way we do for these Cheesy Pretzel Twists.
I am 16 years old and I love to bake. I have made these pretzels several times for family and friends and they are the best!!!! Thank you for this great recipe 🙂
Hello! What happens if you skip the baking soda bath? Will be making these gems today! Thank you!
Hi Liv, the quick baking soda boil gives the pretzels their traditional flavor and lovely browned color. You can skip it, but they taste better with that extra step!
OUTSTANDING!! I made them, and severed them with honey mustard!!! Love ittttttttt!!!!
Insanely good and surprisingly easy. Made the beer cheese dip recipe along with it which was perfect. Thank you so much for this recipe!
When is a good time to add jalapeños, when rolling into a rope or in the kneading of the dough ball?
Hi Linda, I would add them when you are mixing in the flour or when you are kneading the dough.
Would the pretzels be bigger if i left the dough to rise before cutting it? Would this be a good idea?
Hi Khadi, for a puffier pretzel, you can let the dough rest for longer than 10 minutes (perhaps up to 2 hours) or you can let the shaped pretzels rest (covered lightly) for up to 1 hour.
It seemed like the 1 1/2 cups of water with yeast was a lot for the amount of flour going in later, but I stayed with it. I ended up having to add probably 1 1/2 cups more flour than stated just so the mixture wasn’t watery. Anyone else have this problem?
I have sometimes had to add more flour than other times; weather? Yeast? Room temp? I just keep add until not sticky, and turns out well every time. Love this easy recipe!
These are insanely good! I followed the recipe exactly, did the baking soda bath, and they looked beautiful coming out of the oven after about 15 minutes. My only problem is that I popped them onto a rack to cool, went for a 30 minute walk, and when I came back, all but two of the pretzels had mysteriously disappeared! (Seriously, though, what the heck, family?!?) I’m going to make them again tomorrow and have the kids help with shaping them. One question – have you tried making these with barley malt syrup instead of the brown sugar? I like what that does for bagels, and I’m wondering if it would give the same rounded flavor to the pretzels.
The baking soda bath amount of 1/2 a cup was waaaaaay too much baking soda, my water boiled out and so my pretzels had a strong baking soda taste on the outside. How can people following this recipe avoid this! I was so mad that I used 1/2 a cup of baking soda. I was making pretzels as the water was boiling.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS RECIPE!!! 10/10!
We were so happy with the way these turned out! My husband has been wanting to make pretzels for a while now and this recipe came together over one nap time! Thanks for the recipe! It’s delicious!
This recipe was so easy and the pretzels were so good.
Easy pretzels with authentic taste! Thank you! Exactly what we were craving. Kids, fussy hubby and my in-laws loved them too!!!
Loved the recipe!
Easy, doable and not hard at all!
And magical results!
We’ve made this several times, it’s not too difficult to make and it tastes really good! Thank you for making this recipe
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! MY WHOLE FAMILY LOVED IT AND I AM DEFINITELY MAKING THIS AGAIN!
This recipe was super easy to follow, very quick and tasted like a restaurant quality soft pretzel. It was about an hour start to finish. We will be making these again.
Made it the other day, and it was so good! Thank you for sharing your fantastic recipe!
Considering prepping it and baking it at a friend’s house. Can i do the baking soda bath and then bake it an hour plus later for hot out of the oven pretzels, or would you not recommend this?
Thanks again!
That should be just fine, Justin– I’ve had to extend that time before and it’s never been an issue.
This was my first experience baking with yeast. While the bottoms tasted bitter because I was in a hurry and didn’t drain the pretzels as much as I should have, they were really good, especially warm and I just scraped the bottom off with a knife when I reheated them. Sssooooo good.
This was a fantastic recipe! Super easy and tasted so genuine. I was wondering though if anyone had tried making pretzel bites? If so how long did you cook them and put them in the bath? Thanks!
Hi Maya! Here’s my pretzel bites recipe. Pretty much the same dough recipe. Super quick baking soda bath, too.
Delicious and easy! I’m so proud of myself. First time using yeast to make something AND first time using the dough hook on my stand mixer, which I’ve owned for 10 years. For me, the hardest part was rolling the dough into ropes. In addition to cinnamon sugar, I sprinkled some ranch packet seasoning on a few. Very tasty! Reminded me of the sour cream and onion Auntie Anne’s pretzel. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Seriously THE BEST I’ve ever tried and made! So easy, soft and delicious! ❤️!
I’m at the worst baker in the world. Attempted these today. Amazing! Easy and fun to do. Thanks!