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Hi Bold Bakers!
Since I received my pizza oven from Italy, I have been doing a lot of bread making. Something that you have requested a lot is a great recipe for soft pretzels. I tried a few for you and I found this was the best. One huge thing for me is that it is a No-Knead Dough, so you get a great result with little work.
What is a No-Knead Dough?? It is a dough that you don’t need a machine for. You mix the dough by hand and you let the dough proof and ferment overnight. You get great flavor and texture from the fermenting that I personally have not been able to achieve on a machine. It is my favorite method for bread making because it takes the guess work out of creating amazing doughs.
I have made many No-Knead Doughs on Bigger Bolder Baking, like my amazing No Knead Cinnamon Rolls and No Knead Brioche Dough.
This is another recipe where I used my Alfa Pizza Wood-Fired Oven just like my Chocolate Dulce de Leche Empanadas. The results are so lovely and you can’t beat the feeling of making breads/doughs outdoors! So let’s get baking!
As a bread baker I am obsessed with bread making. If you are a little weary of failing when it comes to dough, don’t be. This method of making doughs will make you feel like a professional once you see the results.
Try These Recipes!
Watch The Recipe Video!
Homemade Soft Pretzels (No Knead, No Machine Recipe)
Ingredients
- 3 cups (15 oz/426 g) bread flour
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 ⅓ cups (10 ½ fl oz/315 ml) water
- 2 tablespoons baking soda
- Egg wash
- Flaky salt
- 2 tablespoons (1 oz/28 g) butter , melted
Instructions
To Make the Homemade Soft Pretzel Dough (The Day Before)
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Add in the water and mix to form a dough.
- Cover the bowl with cling wrap and a clean kitchen towel and the dough proof at room temperature for a minimum of 12 hours, and up to 18 hours.
To Shape the Homemade Soft Pretzels (The Next Day)
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 9 equal pieces. Let it rest on the countertop for 2 minutes. (This will allow the gluten to relax, which will make shaping easier).
- Roll each piece of dough to create a rope. Then, holding both ends, gently bang the rope on the counter to stretch it out to 24 inches (60 cm). Twist the ends of the dough and press them onto the opposite sides of the pretzel.
To Poach the Homemade Soft Pretzels
- Preheat the oven to 450℉ (225℃) and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large pot, bring 6 cups (1½ liters) of water and 2 tablespoons of baking soda to a simmer.
- One at a time, place each pretzel into the simmering water and poach for exactly 30 seconds, then transfer to the prepared baking trays. This step is crucial to get the pretzel flavor and color.
- Gently brush the pretzels with egg wash and sprinkle with flaky salt.
To Bake the Homemade Soft Pretzels
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until the pretzels are deep golden brown.
To Serve and Store the Homemade Soft Pretzels
- Enjoy warm with your favorite dipping sauce! These pretzels are best enjoyed fresh but you can store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Reheat in a 300℉ (150℃) oven for 7 minutes.
Recipe Notes
WW PlusPoints: 4
Some fun variations for this dough:
Pretzel knots
A fun variation for your pretzel dough is to make some pretzel knots. Rather then shape like a pretzels knot the dough like you would a pice of string. I sprinkled mine with fresh rosemary and served with mustard sauce.
Cinnamon Pretzels
I love these little cinnamon treats. I just cut the dough into small pieces and once baked I brushed with butter and tossed them in cinnamon sugar with a little pinch of salt. The reason there are only a few in the bowl is because I ate them while taking photos, lol.
I made these yesterday after proofing the dough for 16 hours and they turned out perfectly. My husband says they taste just like the ones you buy. Will definitely be making this again. Thank yo so much for such an easy to follow recipe. I only came across your page after finding you on YouTube last week looking for an easy dough recipe. I’m a subscriber now. Thank you so much.
I have some recommendations for this recipe for people who have issues with the texture. I made these twice and the first time I really didn’t like the texture, they tasted good at first but after a few bites it did taste a bit off. The second time I made it however it was fantastic. I didn’t really make changes to the recipe I just was careful with some things. 1) I used instant yeast instead of active dry. 2) I added the water slowly instead of all at once watching the texture develop in my dough as I mixed… Read more »
Hi Gemma! I know this is one of your older recipes but I just worked up the courage to make them today. It was so much fun. They are so, so good! That boozy fermented flavor is absolutely addicting. And making these really reinforces how the development of gluten impacts the bread. The dough was also extremely easy to work with. Almost like play dough. (PS…. I’ve got a double batch fermenting on my counter already.)
I made these a few times now. They always come out great. Today, however, I misread and mis-remembered the recipe and used 6 tablespoons of baking soda! Yeah, I know there is a big difference, but I was tired from having done dialysis and just wasn’t paying that much attention. So, my suggestion is to change the recipe to 2 tablespoons instead of 6 teaspoons to avoid other silly miscommunications for future bakers, especially novices.
Really wanted to like this recipe but it was just way too wet. I’m an experienced baker so my guess is that it’s the flour difference between there and here (South Texas) but even with adding an additional CUP of flour it was still sticky and hard to roll. I think I’ll be going back to my old recipe but maybe incorporating the overnight rise to see if I like that better. Thanks for the idea anyway!
Hi Gemma! This recipe looks great and I made it a few years ago, and as the flour here in the UK is different it didn’t turn out right but I want to try it again. Will probably use strong white flour instead of plain flour this time round. Was wondering if I could use instant yeast as that’s more of a staple here and if so how much would I use?
If You go by the mentioned amount of water, the dough turns out way tooo sticky. Very hard to work with. I managed somehow, they turned out great tastewise though I had to bake them for 30 mins not 15. The second time I added water slowly and mixed and saw how much I needed and when it was the right consistency, I didn’t add more. For some reason, the water needed was alomst 2/3rd of what was mentioned. Those came out purrrrfect. They didn’t even last 15 mins as the moment they came out of the oven everyone pounced… Read more »
Hi there! I have recently made your sourdough recipe and was wondering if you have made these with starter instead of yeast. If so how much would you add? And would do anything differently from there?
I really enjoyed this recipe! I wrapped the dough around hotdogs and baked for my lunch for work. I chose not to use the egg wash because I don’t normally have eggs in the house. But they still turned out very good even without the egg wash.
I’ve made this recipe for the second time within a week using bread/pizza flour. The first batch of pretzels tasted delicious but I could not get the shape to stay while taking them out of the baking soda boil so they looked more like a filled donut puff. I’ve just taken the second batch out of the oven. This time I decided the traditional pretzel shape wasn’t going to happen for me so I made braids by taken the dough roll, splitting it in half lengthwise leaving the top bit uncut then twisting one side of dough over the other.… Read more »