Soft Pretzels
With a slightly crunchy and salty crust and an oh-so-soft inside, these made from scratch Soft Pretzels are incredibly delicious. They are perfect on their own but are even better filled with salted butter or made into a sandwich.
Equipment
Ingredients
Dough
- 600 g All-purpose Flour
- 10 g Instant dry yeast
- 2 tsp Granulated sugar
- 2 tsp Salt
- 330 g Water
- 60 g Butter melted
Water bath
- 1 liter Water
- 100 g Baking soda
Decoration
- Coarse salt
Instructions
- Add all-purpose flour, salt, sugar, and instant dry yeast into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer and combine.
- Melt the butter and add it with the water to the wet ingredients. Knead it until you have a soft, smooth, and stretchy dough. The dough is ready if you can stretch it out super thin between your fingers without it tearing, and you can read a newspaper article through it. It’s called the newspaper trick.
- Form the dough into a ball, place it in a large mixing bowl and cover it up with a wet towel. Or I like to use these bowl covers, they are reusable, and the dough won’t stick to it. Let the dough rest for at least an hour or until it has doubled in size.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Take the risen dough out of the bowl and weigh it into 10 100g dough pieces.
- Roll each dough piece into a long string. Take both ends of the string, cross and then twist them, and press the two ends into the bottom part of the pretzel. Place the pretzel on the prepared baking sheet.
- Once you have formed all the pretzels, place the dish into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.
- Fill a large pot with 1 liter of water and add baking soda. Bring to a simmer.
- Take the chilled pretzels out of the fridge. Place one pretzel at a time into the simmering water. Let it simmer for about 30 seconds on each side. Then, with a skimmer, carefully take the pretzel out of the water and place it back onto the baking sheet.
- Drizzle some coarse salt over it. Repeat with all the pretzels and then bake them for about 25-30 minutes.
Notes
These soft pretzels stay good for about 1-2 days at room temperature in a bread bag or covered in aluminum foil.
They freeze very well for up to a month. Individually wrap each pretzel in aluminum foil and place them in a Ziploc bag to prevent freezer burn.