Homemade Soft Pretzels Recipe as an Appetizer (or Dinner!)
Homemade Soft Pretzels Recipe as an Appetizer
(Or Dinner!)
We love soft baked pretzels, love, love, love them. At times we’ll even actually make a separate stop into Sam’s Club to grab one of their soft baked pretzels and cheese dip – I tell ya… it’s a serious obsession…
So, recently when we were heading to a football party, I knew the kids would love to take some pretzels and cheese dip as our fun thing to contribute to the party. Only I had no idea how to make homemade pretzels. So, as nervous as I was, I set out to make soft pretzel bites. They were SO good!
Are you on mobile? Pin this recipe for later.
I will say, to make about 80 pretzel bites it took me about 1 hour including cleanup – so not too bad at all.
Items I used for this recipe:
Here’s how I got these delicious morsels done – and you’ll find a printable recipe below as well. Or, pin this recipe so you’ve got it for when you’re ready to make these delicious soft pretzel pieces.
Pour warm milk into the bowl of a stand mixer (I put notes below in case you don’t have a stand mixer) and sprinkle yeast over top of milk. Add honey and stir the mixture. Allow the yeast to bloom for 5-10 minutes and once it is nice and foamy, it is ready. To make my milk the right temperature, I microwaved the milk in a Pyrex measuring cup for 1 minute.
Next add your flour and salt to the mixer and knead on low for about 3 minutes. If you need to, add flour one tablespoon at time as needed. Your dough will be tacky, but not sticky.
Wash and dry a part of your countertop to roll out dough – do not flour the countertop, though.
Cut your dough into four parts and roll each pretzel dough ball into 20-24 inch long line of dough.
Cut the line of dough into bite size pieces with a butter knife or dough cutter and place pieces onto a plate.
Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Add 1/2 cup of baking soda to your water slowly. It will bubble up as you add it so be prepared for that.
Add your pretzel pieces to the boiling water 10-15 at a time for 30 seconds or so.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, brush each pretzel piece with egg wash with an egg wash brush like this and sprinkle with coarse salt. I love sea salt!
Bake in preheated 450°F oven for 8-10 minutes.
YUM!
Tips:
If you won’t be serving these right away, you will not want to close them in a sealed container. The salt will fall off and they will become mushy. Let them dry and cool completely and then seal them in a bowl or container.
I bought my cheese dip from the store. My grocery had the “soft pretzel cheese dip” with the ethnic foods in the Mexican food area. It is so good and I use it on nachos, too.
Homemade Soft Pretzels Recipe
Ingredients
- 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast less then one packet
- 1¼ cups warm milk 110°-120°F if you have a thermometer, otherwise 1 minute or so in the microwave
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3¼ cups all purpose flour I use unbleached
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup baking soda
- 1 large egg
- coarse salt pretzel salt or I like sea salt if you have it
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.
- Pour milk into the bowl of a stand mixer
- Sprinkle yeast over top of milk
- Add honey and stir
- Allow yeast to bloom for 5-10 minutes until it is foamy
- Add flour and salt to mixer
- Knead for about 3 minutes until the dough comes together in one ball
- Wash countertop (do not flour)
- Place dough on countertop and form dough into a ball, cut into four pieces
- Roll each quarter into an 20-24" strand and cut into pieces using a butter knife or dough cutter
- Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil over medium high heat
- Make egg wash with one egg and 2 T of water
- Carefully, add baking soda to boiling water
- Place dough bites into boiling water about 10-15 at a time
- Remove with a slotted spoon after 30 seconds
- Boil all pieces and place on parchment paper
- Brush egg wash onto each one and sprinkle with coarse salt
- Bake for 7-9 minutes until the tops are browned
- If you do not have a stand mixer, mix the dough by hand with a spoon. Turn dough out onto floured counter top and knead for 3-5 minutes until dough is no longer sticky and proceed with directions.
If you like this Pretzel Bites recipe, you may also be interested in these posts below. Simply click on the picture to go to each post.
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