Making Homemade Soft Pretzels
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Okay, brace yourself.
The recipe I am about to share with you is INCREDIBLE!
Ask anyone who’s ever tried them.
People have even called me the “Pretzel Lady”. (I’m sure they’ve even called me the “Beautiful Pretzel Lady” and the “Unbelievably Intelligent and Witty Pretzel Lady” behind my back.)
I used to sell these at our local farmers market each week. On my best week, I sold over 100 of them in less than 17 minutes (yes, I timed it).
Okay, so here is the recipe and the step by step tutorial on how to make Laura’s Amazing Soft Pretzels:
Ingredients:
1 c. water
2 T. yeast
2 t. honey
2 1/2 cups milk
1 stick butter
1/2 cup honey
4 t. salt
8 cups whole wheat flour (more if necessary)
butter
salt
(You can make these with white flour and white sugar if you want to have a delicious mound of empty calories…but I have found that using these healthier ingredients does not make us like these pretzels any less!)
Okay, here are the directions for preparing the pretzels that are to die for:
In a large bowl, mix 1 cup very warm water, 2 T. yeast and 2 t. honey. Stir this together and kind of mush the yeast around. Let this sit for a few minutes while you do the next step.
Melt a stick of butter in a large saucepan.
Add 1/2 cup honey, 4 t. salt and 2 1/2 cups of milk. Heat this to 120 degrees.
Pour milk mixture into yeast mixture and stir.
Stir in 8 cups of flour, 2 cups at a time. (add more if you need it)
Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.
Plop it into a bowl, cover it and let it rise for 1-1 1/2 hours.
And it should look like this:
Pull it out of the bowl and knead it a few times to get the air out. (Sorry, no picture of that process…my picture takers were out of the room.)
Pull a ball of dough, about the size of your fist off and get ready to make your very first pretzel! (such a proud moment)
Roll it into a long snake.
Then do this:
Then twist it again to look like this:
Then pick up the ends and pull them down to the bottom. (And please make no snide remarks about my blueish, boney hands. It is always a little cold in my house and my hands are never quite warm AND I inherited my Nana’s boney hands and I know my Nana would have never allowed her hands to be put on a blog while she lovingly told you how to shape a pretzel because she was ashamed of her boney hands, but I’m okay with it. I’m not embarassed at all. Not one bit.)
And then, it should look like this. And if it doesn’t, just undo it and try again. By the time you get to the end of shaping your big blob of dough into pretzels, you’ll have the hang of it and be able to talk on the phone, make a grocery list, check your email, tie someone’s shoe AND shape a pretzel, ALL AT THE SAME TIME!
I forgot to take a picture of a pan full of unbaked pretzels. So, after you shape each pretzel, put them on a cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
Melt a stick of butter in a saucepan.
Right when you take the pretzels out of the oven, slather them with butter. Lay it on thick. Don’t hold back.
Then sprinkle salt over them.
And, if at all possible, eat one right out of the oven. They are good two days later too, but OH MY GOODNESS, you HAVE to eat one right out of the oven!
With a glass of milk.
And if you really want to have fun, shape some into hearts for Valentines Day!
Whenever I want to make a special treat for my family, this recipe always works for me!
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I wish I had read the comments before I made these. I made a 1/2 batch, and with a ball the size of my fist (I was using my closed fist as a guide) I only got 6 pretzels. They are crazy large! They’re in the oven right now, but I think I’ll have to cook them a little extra to make sure they’re done. Next time I’ll divide the dough into 12.
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Michelle Reply:
May 1st, 2010 at 1:11 pm
I cooked them a little extra, and they are huge but they’re delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe!
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These were perfect! The kids and their friends got off the bus and devoured them quickly.
I had some leftover dough and made pretzel dogs. They were great too!
I’m not trying to promote my blog at all- I prefer not to, but I wanted to share a picture of what the pretzel dogs looked like.
http://recipes2love.blogspot.com/2010/05/pretzel-dogs.html
Thanks for this recipe and all your others!! You have been a huge part of our adventure to eat healthier!!
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These were so yummy! I topped some with butter and cinnamon sugar and they were absolutely delicious. Thanks so much for this recipe.
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Your pretzels are awesome and all your other recipes we have tried as well. Thank you! We made the pretzels and made a solution of warm water and baking soda and brushed it on before baking and sprinkeld them with poppy seed and sesame seed and they were awesome! Some I shaped as pretzels and some I did a braid. For the braids I didn’t use the baking soda/water solution, those I did with butter. Thanks again for sharing such awesome recipes. I’m excited to try your sourdough. Growing up in Germany that’s all we ever ate.
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Just made these with the kiddos this afternoon. They were yummy. We dipped them in a cinnamon/sugar mixture and they were soooooooo yummy. They think I’m the best mommy ever to make these! ;)
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How do you store these pretzels? I made some (and they were delicious, by the way), and then I stored them in plastic baggies. The salt dissolved after being in the baggie for awhile. I was wondering if anyone had a better way of storing them?
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Laura Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 6:46 am
I usually store them in plastic baggies too. I’ve found that when we’re ready to eat those that have been stored, I reheat them in the oven for a while, then spread on a little more butter and salt. They taste pretty much like fresh ones when I do this!
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Can these be frozen?
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Laura Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Yes, these freeze very well! I reheat them in the oven and sometimes spread more melted butter and salt on the top!
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YUM!!! This is the first weekend of summer break for us and I am looking for healthy snack options I can make at home!! So excited to make this one and the bagels. Thanks so much for sharing your recipes!
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that looks great!
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These look so good! I’m very new to all this so if I do use white flour/white sugar instead of whole wheat flour…how much of the flour and sugar? And leave the other ingredients as the amount you have them, correct (except leave off the whole wheat flour of course)?
Also, does T mean tablespoon, t means teaspoon? Sorry, but I’m very new to all of this!
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Laura Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Same amount of white flour and white sugar. And yes, leave the other ingredients the same. Capital T means tablespoon and lower case t means teaspoon. No apology necessary!! Great questions. Hope these turn out well for you!
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HI,
Just wondering, how much do you sell your pretzels for?
Thanks,
Molly
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Laura Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
I sold them for $1 each, but I was using white flour and white sugar instead of whole wheat and honey. I think I figured that my cost per each pretzel was 12 cents or so…but of course they did take a little time to make!
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What temperature do you bake these pretzels!!!
Thanks so much!!!
Molly
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Laura Reply:
July 21st, 2010 at 1:59 pm
350 degrees! : )
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So instead of 8 cups of whole wheat flour, I would use 8 cups white flour and 8 cups of sugar?
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Could the unbaked pretzels be frozen and still bake well later? Can’t wait to try these. Thanks! (my first comment on here, came across your blog about a week ago)
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Laura Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
I THINK so but I’ve never tried it. I really SHOULD try it because what a great idea!!!
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I need to make 250 soft pretzels for a “project.” I like the idea of the whole wheat and the honey over the white sugar and white flour…..When you baked pretzels for your farmer’s market, how did you store them until you went to market? Separate packaging? airtight containers? Baggies? Or did you freeze them until the day of and then package them? Thanks.
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Laura Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I made them ALL the day before and the day of the market so I didn’t have to freeze them or anything. I wrapped some of them individually for single pretzel sales. I put five in a bag so I could sell them by the bag and I kept the rest in a big tupperware type container for packaging as needed.
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Hi! I found this recipe some time ago and decided to try it for my husband´s b-day party. They were awesome and very loved!! I made half a batch with cinnamon and sugar and they looked and tasted great! There´s a pic here of how beautiful they turned out (http://goodrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/). Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!!!
Aline
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what can i do to make them ahead and have the dough ready for a school lesson (the dough-making will be a “free-time” lesson)?
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Laura Reply:
August 9th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
I guess you can get the dough mixed and ready to rise, then put it in the fridge to slow it down. I’ve never done this before so I’m not really sure what would work best!
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This recipe looks great and I would definitely love to make these for my family along with some of your whole wheat crackers, etc. I’m enjoying browsing through your site. I’m always looking for healthier recipes to make for my family, but I do have a question. I always try to stay VERY light with fats in recipes (butters/oils) so, is there a way to cut down on the butter in this recipe without it ruining it? Do you think I could substitute with something else or at least cut it in half somehow?
Thanks so much.
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Laura Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Hmmm…I’ve never tried cutting down on the fat on this recipe. I think if you used half the butter it would still turn out okay…just maybe not quite as soft and maybe not as nice of flavor. They’d still be yummy though I think.
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My husband was asking if it was possible for me to make some pretzels and I immediately thought of your blog. Looks like we’ll be having pretzels for snacks soon. :)
Oh, and about your “bony hands,” I think they are beautiful. Partly because mine are the same way, but mostly because they are a mom’s hands; a mom who serves her family with them. Thanks for sharing the many ways you bless your family. It helps me bless mine too! :)
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Great recipe! Thanks a lot for sharing this to us. I would definitely give this one out a try as I have been wanting to make a home made pretzel. Great pics too. It would go really well with a hot cup of coffee made from my automatic espresso athome Kudos!
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