Soft Pretzels

Originally posted on October 1, 2005.

I’ve always loved the big soft pretzels they sell at ball parks and carnivals. I decided to try making some myself, and it’s not too hard. I made a dozen small ones here, but next time I do it I think I’ll make 6 bigger ones. There’s pictures of each step, enjoy!

Ingredients:	Cost to Make ($1.81, ~15¢ each):
1 cup warm Water 1 package Dry Active Yeast 2 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour 2 tbsp olive oil (or vegetable oil) ½ tsp ordinary table Salt 2 tbsp Baking Soda 2 tsp coarse Salt (I used Sea Salt)	40¢ All Purpose Flour 73¢ Dry Active Yeast (3 packs for $2.19) 46¢ Olive Oil 2¢ Table Salt 10¢ Baking Soda 10¢ Coarse Salt

Basic Instructions:

1. Dissolve dry active yeast in warm (100° – 110°) water and set aside for 10 minutes until foamy.
2. Add 2 tbsp of oil and ½ tsp of salt and mix together.
3. Add first 1 ½ cups of all purpose flour and mix in.
4. Add remaining 1 ¼ cups of all purpose flour and begin kneading dough.
5. Knead by hand for about 15 minutes.
6. Place dough ball into lightly oiled bowl, cover, and set aside to rise for 60 – 75 minutes.
7. Divide dough into 12 even pieces, roll into balls, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes.
8. Roll out each piece until 18 inches long, then shape into pretzel shapes.
9. Cover pretzels and let rise for another 30 minutes.
10. Add 2 tbsp baking soda to a pot of water and boil each pretzel for 1 minute.
11. Place pretzels on greased sheet pan and add coarse salt as desired.
12. Bake soft pretzels at 475° oven for 12 minutes.

Now onto photos of the process!

Here are the basic ingredients we’ll need. Some all purpose flour, a packet of dry active yeast, some salt and some oil (you can use vegetable oil, but I use olive oil for most stuff). Other ingredients we’ll use later (not pictured here) are some baking soda for the boiling water and coarse salt for the pretzels.

Update: After having made bread for a few years now I would definitely go with bread flour in the future. Bread flour has more gluten protein in it, the stuff that gives pizza it’s chewiness.

Add 1 cup of warm water (100° – 110°) to a mixing bowl, then sprinkle on the yeast. Cover the bowl with a towel and set aside to let the yeast “bloom”. After 10 minutes or so the yeast should be foamy, this is good.

Note: The first packet of yeast I used didn’t bloom. The expiration date was fine, but it must have been dead stuff, the water temp was perfect.. Yeast die at 130° and higher, so be careful of the water temp.

I then added in the 2 tbsp of oil and ½ tsp of salt, stirred it together, then added in the first 1 ½ cups of flour. Hold off on the rest of the flour at this point..

Now mix the whole mess together.

Then add in the remaining 1 ¼ cups of flour, and mix it in too.

Dump the sticky dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for a good 15 minutes.

Note: Don’t skimp on the kneading, most dough (with the exception of biscuits) need a good amount of kneading to get the gluten proteins going. The proteins are what will keep it from breaking later when we roll it out, just like how they keep a pizza from tearing when you toss it.

After kneading I lightly oiled a bowl and the dough ball, covered it with a towel, and set it in the unlit oven to rise for 60 – 75 minutes. It’s ready when the dough is twice as big.

Cut the dough into 12 even chunks.. Or if you decide to make big pretzels divide into 6 chunks.

Form all 12 chunks of dough into round balls. Cover them and let them rest for around 15 minutes.

Then we start rolling out the dough into long cylinders..

When they’re fully rolled out they should each be about 18 inches, but it doesn’t have to be exact.

Form them each into the shape of a pretzel, or whatever shape you dig

Then cover your pretzels with a towel and let rise for another 30 minutes. Yeah, I know, we’re doing a lot of dough rising here.. But it needs it!

To get the outside texture you’re used to with a big soft pretzel we start a pot of water boiling, with 2 tbsp of baking soda stirred in.

Boil each pretzel for just 1 minute. Don’t worry about them falling apart, since letting the formed pretzels rise again should have them pretty well stuck together in their shape now.

I let the pretzels boil on one side for 30 seconds, then flipped them over to boil on the other side for another 30 seconds.. I also used a slotted spatula to add them to, and get the out of, the water.

Then I removed the pretzels from the boiling water and set them on a dish towel I had nearby to drain off the excess water before setting them on the greased sheet pan.

Add some coarse salt to the pretzels, not the normal table salt you use on popcorn..

Note: Make sure you grease the sheet pan pretty good. If it’s not lubed up enough you’ll be prying your pretzels up with a chisel later

After baking in the oven at 475° for 12 minutes I pulled them out and put them on a cooking rack and covered with a towel for 10 minutes or so. They turned out good, but I now wish I would have made the bigger version, and browned them a little more.