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
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!