What do you enjoy doing on cold winter days? I love staying home, doing a craft with the kids, or baking something yummy. This week we made homemade soft pretzels! My kids had fun trying to make their own pretzel shapes and playing with the dough. After all, pretzel dough is kinda like edible play dough that you bake at 450 degrees to make a delicious snack!
I used a recipe from the Food Network’s Alton Brown to make our homemade soft pretzels. He always offers easy-to-follow instructions for making yummy treats and snacks. I also doubled the homemade pretzel dough recipe and used the following measurements.
Pretzel Dough Ingredients
- 3 cups warm water
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 4 tsp. kosher salt
- 2 envelopes active dry yeast
- 8 cups flour
- 4 ounces butter, melted
- 10 cups water
- 2/3 cup baking soda
- Vegetable oil, for the bowl and pan
- 1 large egg yolk, beaten with 1 tbsp. water
- Pretzel salt
Make Homemade Pretzel Dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the warm water, sugar and salt and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow it to sit for 5 minutes.
Mix in the flour and butter. Using the dough hook attachment, knead the dough for 4-5 minutes until smooth and elastic. I like to regularly scrape the sides of the bowl as the mixer kneads.
Transfer into another oiled bowl that’s big enough to allow the dough to double in size. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 1 hour +. I allowed my dough to sit overnight.
Bake Homemade Pretzels
Set the oven to 450 degrees. Prepare 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bring 10 cups water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in large shallow pan.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly oiled work surface and divide it into small balls. Roll out each piece of dough into a rope. Form the ropes into pretzel shapes.
One by one, place a pretzel in the boiling baking soda water for 30 seconds. Carefully remove it using two spatulas and place it onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Repeat for each pretzel. My pretzels were fairly large so I put them in the boiling water on squares of parchment paper to keep the shapes intact and then I fished out the parchment paper.
Brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with pretzel salt.
Bake at 450 degrees for 12-14 minutes until golden brown. Transfer the homemade soft pretzels to a cooling rack before serving.
The warm water, sugar and salt in homemade pretzel dough will make the yeast get a bit foamy.
Similar to pizza dough, homemade pretzel dough is soft and elastic. You can use small amounts of flour to keep it from getting too sticky when rolling out the dough.
Place the formed pretzels on squares of parchment paper to help them keep their shape when dropping them into the boiling baking soda water. Fish out the parchment paper and boil the pretzels for 30 seconds before gently lifting them out with spatulas. The baking soda water is what gives pretzels their tangy taste.
Bake your homemade soft pretzels for 12-14 minutes at 450 degrees until golden brown. My kids helped make our soft pretzels, so they didn’t look perfect but they were yummy!
Homemade soft pretzels are a great snack to bring to a holiday party or to make for a family movie night. My kids really enjoyed helping to make our yummy soft pretzels! Baking with kids is a great way to teach young children some basic kitchen skills.
You can make traditional soft pretzels with salt or create a sweet treat by drizzling them with chocolate. We made an assortment of homemade pretzels. This holiday-inspired soft pretzel is embellished with white chocolate and pomegranate seeds; perfect for a Christmas celebration or New Year’s Eve party!
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Hi, I’m Katie! I live with my husband and 3 kids in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I love Jesus, coffee, creative projects, taking photos and traveling. I’ve previously worked as a web designer, journalist and barista. I hope you enjoy our creative projects and family adventures!
I love this recipe. I have never made pretzels at home before, but this one is amazing
I love this pretzel recipe! It looks like a fun way to get the kids involved in baking too. Will be trying this one out!
My kids love pretzels and this looks amazing, will have to try and make this now
This is definitely some good winter comfort food! I would sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on those with a cup of hot cocoa and be in hog heaven lol.
Pretzels are so good! I have never tried making them at home but I do like eating them. Thanks for the recipe!
Looking for recipes to make with my kids, this one is my favourite so far! Thank you!
Ooh these look so pretty and delicious! My kiddos would absolutely love making and eating these 🙂 I will have to try these someday soon!
Those came out great! I have done pretzels from a kit before, but never totally from scratch. This might have to be a Christmas break project!
I love that these pretzels are so big! They take me back to when I was young and when my Mom took us to the mall we’d get a giant hot pretzel.
Oh my word. My girls would have so much fun making these with us! We are going to have to do this over CHristmas break!
Not only do these pretzels look delicious, but they also look like something I can make! I love a warm pretzel, and I can’t wait to try this recipe!
These pretzels look so tasty and i love the fact that they are so easy to make. Thanks for sharing.
The soft pretzels looks so soft and flavourful! It would be more yummy when i dip it to a strawberry jam.
this looks so good
My kids and I have always enjoyed watching the pretzel store in our local mall make pretzels before our eyes! I would love to try this at home; great tips!
This looks absolutely phenomenal. Fun and delicious. It would make an excellent treat for the family Christmas party 🌲
The pretzel looks sooooo delicious and very very easy to make! Thank you so much for the great recipe, will try it soon.
Chad
http://www.mosaicslab.com
I’ve never made pretzels at home before, but this recipe certainly looks easy enough! I’ll have to give it a whirl.
Wow! This looks sooo yummy! And making this is can be a special moment for you and your kid. Will surely try making this at home!
This is awesome! I have never made pretzels before, but now I’m doing it!! Can’t wait!