Difficulty: Advanced
Soft Pretzels, do you love them as much as I do? Can you resist buying one when you walk past the pretzel place in the mall? My kids are pretzel fanatics. Any shape or size, hard or soft they love them.
When you find something that all of your kids love to eat you figure out how to make it at home. We can’t afford to make a soft pretzel run every time they want soft pretzels, so now I make them at home.
I have tried several recipes and researched methods to come up with a great recipe. There are lots of Auntie Anne’s copycat recipes floating around Pinterest and I’ve tried a few. They are good and come pretty close to the real thing.
These pretzels are not an Auntie Anne’s copycat. I took my inspiration from The Great British Baking Show. I love to watch that show and highly recommend it if you like to bake. The amateur bakers on that show really inspire home bakers like me to get in the kitchen.
After watching an episode where they made soft pretzels I had a few ways to tweak and change other soft pretzel recipes I had tried. After a bit of trial and error I had my own recipe, but the biggest test was yet to come.
The kids. They would have to like my soft pretzel recipe or it would be back to the drawing board. If I couldn’t hit the nail on the head I may just throw in the towel. There’s no rule that says I have to come up with a soft pretzel recipe of my own. The kids tried them fresh from the oven as they walked in the door after school. All three boys said that they liked my soft pretzels better than the recipe that I usually make.
My daughter, Miss M and my husband Mike both said that they liked my pretzels, but that they preferred the other recipe better. Well I liked mine better, so four against two means my pretzels win.
Try your hand at making these soft pretzels. When they come out of the oven and you slather them with melted butter just try to resist. Let me know if you think they surpass Auntie Anne’s.
Soft Pretzels
3 ¼-4 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Room Temperature Milk (I use 2%)
2 Envelopes Active Dry Yeast
3 TBSP Unsalted Butter (softened)
2 TBSP Unsalted Butter (melted)
½ tsp salt
Additional salt for sprinkling
1/2 TBSP Molasses
½ Cup Baking Soda (for water bath)
Boiling Water
Add 3 cups flour to the bowl of a stand mixer.
To one side of the bowl add the yeast and to the other side of the bowl add the salt. Don’t let salt touch yeast, because it can stunt the growth. Add butter and molasses to bowl and attach a dough hook to the mixer. Turn on low speed and add the milk.
Once dough comes together add an additional ¼-3/4 cup flour to create a sticky, but fairly stiff dough.
Knead dough in mixer for a few minutes or until dough cleans sides of bowl. While dough is mixing pour hot tap water into a mixing bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Remove bowl of water and immediately shut door. Dump water out of bowl, dry it and spray with cooking spray.
Spray hands with cooking spray and remove dough from dough hook and bowl.
Place ball of dough in the bowl and spray top of dough with cooking spray.
Place bowl inside of microwave and shut the door. Let rise until doubled in size about one to one and a half hours. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the baking soda.
Preheat oven to 400֯ F Cut dough into 12 equal pieces and shape into a pretzel.
Roll each piece of dough into a rope about 24-26 inches long. Use little or no flour to roll dough. To make pretzel shape turn rope into an upside down “u”.
Cross the left side over the right and cross left over right again.
Then take the tails and attach them to the “U”. Adjust knot, so that it looks like a pretzel.
Place four pretzels one at a time into the pot of boiling water. Once the last pretzel is in the water start taking the pretzels out starting with the first.
Place on a greased cookie sheet and slash bottom of pretzel open with a knife.
Sprinkle dough with sea salt or kosher salt and bake for 13-15 minutes.When pretzels come out of the oven immediately brush them with melted butter.
Pretzels are best served fresh. If any are leftover (not likely) Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to three days. To reheat pretzels. Toast in a toaster oven on the medium setting or bake for 5-7 minutes in a 350֯ F oven.
