Ready for an easy soft pretzel recipe that comes out delicious and even smells like the ones from a pretzel shop? Try this easy recipe! You can make it Gluten-Free if you’d like, or even use healthy oat flour!
One of the questions I get most often is “What do you guys eat for snacks?”
Unfortunately, my answer is quite plain and not very exciting: fruit.
Yes, when the family snacks, 8 times out of 10, it’s fruit. The ninth and tenth times might be carrot sticks, homemade pickles, a homemade granola bar, or even dried fruit, but I admit – those aren’t very exciting either.
That’s because since embarking on our real food journey a few years ago, snacking has pretty much lost its luster.
I do love tortilla chips. So, I make my own, which are much tastier than their store-bought counterparts.
Like me with tortilla chips, Mr. Crumbs has a secret crush on pretzels. Just a couple of months ago, he asked me to make him some.
“Babe, do you think you can make me pretzels some time?”
I can’t tell the man “no” when he makes a simple request for pretzels. So instead of the store-bought option, my counter-attack is simple: learn to make them myself.
What makes pretzel dough different?
When it comes to pretzels, there’s a different style for everyone:
- Hard or soft
- Sourdough or yeast
- Plain or salted
- Flavored dough or rolled in a topping
- Philadelphia-style, bites or rods
This particular homemade pretzel is soft and chewy, moderately salty (which can easily be modified to your own liking), and smells deliciously like the pretzels from gourmet shops.
I’m seriously not exaggerating on the smell or the delicious part either. This entire batch of pretzels was devoured in mere minutes. I consider myself lucky to have snagged one for myself and taken a few photos before they disappeared.
Gluten-free folks will be pleasantly surprised to know that I have tested this recipe with Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free 1-to-1 baking flour. It’s perfect for substituting in recipes that traditionally call for wheat flour and you won’t notice the difference. The five taste testers of this pretzel sure didn’t.
Regardless if you’re dealing with gluten sensitivities or you can eat whatever you want, this recipe makes it official – snack time is back on, and it’s fun!
Soft Pretzel Recipe
Soft pretzels are a classic snack that might seem hard to make! Trust me, they’re not hard at all! This recipe is amazing because:
- It’s so easy! With simple real food ingredients, this recipe is fun to make, and it comes together quickly.
- Healthier. You’re using real food, so you’re not consuming the unhealthy sweeteners and preservatives found in store-bought pretzels.
- Delicious! This soft pretzel recipe has the traditional pretzel smell and taste with soft and chewy texture!
- Versatile! For people with gluten sensitivities, these pretzels are the perfect way to enjoy a classic snack. This recipe is also very versatile, so you can make them with any other all-purpose flour.
Ingredients for this Soft Pretzel Recipe
- Warm water
- Honey
- Salt
- Active dry yeast
- Oat flour (make your own here)
- All-purpose flour (any, even gluten-free. I have used Bob’s Red Mill All-purpose gluten-free flour with great success!)
- Butter
- Water
- Baking soda
- Egg yolk
- Kosher salt, for sprinkling
- Olive oil, for brushing
Psst! I highly recommend Ava Jane’s Kitchen for your salt! You may think all salt is created equal, but unfortunately, 90% of salt produced around the world contains microplastics (gross, right?). Ava Jane’s Kitchen is an exception. Their salt is 100% microplastic free, and it’s SO GOOD! Save your pretzels from plastics! Plus, you can get a bag for just 1¢!! (Get your penny bag of salt on this page!)
How do you make soft pretzels from scratch?
- Combine water, honey, salt, and yeast in a medium mixing bowl. Allow yeast to bloom.
- Add the oat flour, all-purpose flour, and butter. Mix. Begin kneading by hand.
- Cover the dough with a towel and place in a warm spot. Allow to rise for 1 hour.
- Line a large baking sheet, or two smaller baking sheets, with parchment paper. Brush lightly with olive oil.
- Combine the 5 cups of water and baking soda in a large, wide pot. Boil water.
- Meanwhile, divide into 16 equal pieces. Knead each piece of dough in your hands.
- Roll each piece of dough into a rope 10″-12″ in length. Make a pretzel shape. Place onto the parchment-lined sheet.
- Boil the pretzels in the baking soda bath for 30 seconds.
- Return the boiled pretzels back to the baking sheet and brush the tops with the egg wash. Sprinkle with salt.
- Bake until golden brown, 13-16 mins.
Additional Soft Pretzel Recipe Tips
- Do not substitute granulated sugar for the honey. This dough needs the extra moisture from the honey, otherwise they will crumble as you roll your ropes.
- Do not skip the parchment paper brushed with oil. After three batches of pretzels that stuck like mad to a very well seasoned cookie sheet, this was the only method that worked for no-stick pretzels.
- This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.
- These recipes are best right out of the oven, but for future enjoyment, consider freezing individually and reheating in an oven or toaster oven.
What Goes Good on Soft Pretzels?
Of course, salt is traditionally used on soft pretzels. Some people like to dip them in mustard or even hot cheese. But guess what? You can also make them as a sweet & yummy snack!
- For a cinnamon sugar topping, mix 1/2 tsp of cinnamon with 1/4 cup granulated sugar and melt 1 Tbsp of butter in a small bowl. Brush the freshly baked pretzels with melted butter, then roll in cinnamon sugar. Try not to eat them at all, unless no one is looking.
- For an almond topping, use Honey Roasted Almonds. Chop roasted almonds into small bits, brush freshly baked pretzels with melted butter, then roll or sprinkle in almonds.
More Easy Snack Recipes
- 25+ Real Food Snacks
- Healthy Homemade Lunchables
- No-Bake Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
- Homemade Fruit Leather and Fruit Roll-Ups
- Healthy Homemade Hot Pockets
ALDI Meal Plan #2
Sign up to get instant access to my ALDI Meal Plan #2, complete with recipes and shopping list!Easy Soft Homemade Pretzels (gluten-free)
Ready for an easy soft pretzel recipe that comes out delicious and even smells like the ones from a pretzel shop? Gluten-Free option too!
- Prep Time: 1 hour 35 min
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 50 min
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Snacks
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup warm water (105-110F)
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast
- 3/4 cup oat flour (make your own here)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free 1-to-1 baking flour*
- 2 Tbsp butter, room temperature
- 5 cups water
- 1/3 cup baking soda
- 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water, whisked together for an egg wash
- coarse Kosher salt, for sprinkling
- olive oil, for brushing
Instructions
- Combine water, honey, salt and yeast in either a medium mixing bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Allow this to sit for at least 5 minutes, or until the yeast has bloomed and looks like beer foam.
- Add the oat flour, gluten-free all-purpose flour blend and butter. Mix by hand using a wooden spoon, or use the dough hook attachment on low to mix until the ingredients are well combined. Begin kneading by hand, or increase the speed of a mixer to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and the bowl is clean, about 5 minutes.
- Cover the dough with a towel and place in a warm spot. Allow to rise for 1 hour. (Note: You will not see a noticeable rise.)
- Preheat oven to 450F. Line a large baking sheet, or two smaller baking sheets, with parchment paper. Brush lightly with olive oil. Set aside.
- Combine the 5 cups of water and baking soda in a large, wide pot. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil.
- Meanwhile, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 16 equal pieces. Knead each piece of dough in your hands for at least 30 seconds, until the dough has a texture similar to play-doh. Add a drop or two of additional oil if needed and continue to knead until the dough is soft and pliable.
- Gently roll each piece of dough into a rope 10″-12″ in length. (Note: Because the dough has no gluten, there is no natural elasticity. If the dough breaks while you’re shaping, simply squish back into a ball, knead for 5-10 seconds and try again.)
- Make a U-shape with the dough and cross the ends over each other twice. Fold the ends downward and press gently into the bottom of the U-shape. Place onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. (Note: Using just the last 1-2″ of each end of rope yields the best shaped pretzel.)
- Working with 1-2 pretzels at a time (however many will comfortably fit in your pot without crowding them), boil the pretzels in the baking soda for 30 seconds. Turn the pretzel over after 20 seconds if it is not fully submerged.
- Return the boiled pretzels back to the baking sheet and brush the tops with the egg wash. Sprinkle liberally (or to taste) with coarse Kosher salt.
- Bake until medium dark brown, 13-16 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
* If you don’t have this flour, you may substitute any type of flour you have on hand.
Recipe inspired by Brown Eyed Baker.
HI there!
I’m wondering if you know of a replacement for yeast. I’m gluten-free and yeast-free (food allergies are hard!), which makes dough of any kind a real challenge.
Hi Talia! You’re going to want to either look at yeast-free recipes that rely on baking soda for rise (which will be dense, heads-up) or make GF sourdough.
Can you use any other sugar beside honey?
Hi Denise,
You could try maple syrup. Let us know how it comes out. 🙂
Just tried this out, and currently awaiting their doneness in the oven! I spent too much time trying to shape them into traditional pretzels which never worked, at all. Transferring them to the boiling water left them in pieces so now they are pretzel nuggets. My favorite anyway! Hope they turn out well and tasty. How did the rest of you manage to keep the shapes?? Thanks!
Keeping the shape isn’t easy, Kathleen, but making them smaller than you think they’d be helps. But there is NOTHING wrong with nuggets or rods! ♥
How can I cut this recipe down to only make 2 pretzels? I live by myself.
I’m not sure Jen; hopefully someone else can chime in with their experience!
Made these today with my daughter and shed a tear after the first bite…these are just like the pretzels I used to get at the mall!! I actually used the Bob’s Mill pizza crust flour as I cannot have oats. First time in years I have enjoyed something this much. Yay!!
My GF kids (only 2 of my 6) and I were so excited to make and eat these! Just want to make sure the 1 CUP of baking soda in the water wasn’t a typo. They all tasted very much of the baking soda, the cinnamon sugar ones did a better job of masking it, but I could still taste it. Thanks for your help!
Hi Kate!! I just reviewed the recipe and it says 1/3 cup… did I mis-type it somewhere?
Has anyone tried making the dough in a bread machine? I use mine for everything from pizza dough (from a non-bread-machine recipe) to your buns recipe to actual loaves of bread, and I should very much love to use it for these, too…
Hi! If we can’t have dairy – for the butter would ghee or coco oil work? Thanks!
I haven’t tried it myself Alexis, but ghee should work well.
I made these this evening. I used sprouted gluten free flour (oat, rice, sorghum and tapioca starch). They were delicious and not terribly hard to work with. I did add xantham gum to mine to make it more pliable and that worked well. I made some in the traditional pretzel shape, but I ran out of time, so did the rest of the batch in rods. I think I actually liked the rods better! Getting ready to make some lacto-fermented mustard to go with them next time 🙂
Have you tried making your own tortilla chips from tortillas (soft taco shells in the refrigerator section)?
My cousins cuts the whole stack w/ her pizza cutter & bakes them.
★★★★★
Quick question….
If you CAN’T have gluten how can you have oat flour?
Gluten free and grain free for me.
Oats are gluten free, from my understanding.
Oats themselves are GF, but they need to be certified GF if cross-contamination is an issue (since they can be processed in facilities that handle gluten).
Okay, I need help. I’m not used to gluten-free baking (planning to do a Lenten-pretzel-making-playdate with friends who are gluten-dairy-free). I ran a test batch this morning (with Earth Balance stick instead of butter and only a half-batch) — the dough was so crumbly that I had to add water just to get it to stick together. And I couldn’t roll them out into ropes at all — had to “pinch” them into shapes (though I may have been trying to make the ropes too thick, since I’m used to making wheat-based pretzels). I’ve gone over and over the recipe and I think I had all the amounts correct. Any hints or tricks I”m missing, other than more practice with gluten-free baking?:) They taste fine (though do not look pretty — yours are beautiful!), I just want to figure out what I’m doing wrong before I’m trying to walk little ones through rolling and shaping. Thanks so much! (and thank you for the recipe, too.:)
Hi Susan! I remember two secrets to avoiding the crumble was a) don’t skimp out on the honey, and b) be sure you roll the dough in your hands before rolling into pretzels. I actually discovered this on accident, when I kept messing up the shape, lol. Kneading in your hand for about 30 seconds BEFORE shaping made the dough pliable enough to shape and hold without it crumbling. Imagine you’re making play-doh. 🙂
These would be considered thinner pretzels, if you’re used to making thick with wheat. Honestly, I don’t know if I’d recommend this shape if you’re working with little ones. Maybe let them do the kneading in their hands and rolling into sticks (for pretzel rods) or into another shape, like a circle? The dough is sensitive when you’re trying to tuck under, and I don’t know if little hands would be able to pull it off. Then again, if they’re tasting okay, that could be part of the fun too. 😉
Oh, wow, thanks for the quick reply. Because of the symbolism aspect for Lent and the like, I want to try to stick with the traditional shape, knowing we may end up throwing up our hands in exasperation, anyway, lol, and just enjoy whatever shape comes out of the oven. And it probably would have helped if I had not been in the perpetual hurry and tried to shortcut the time on kneading each individual ball, eh? Thanks so much for taking the time to share your hints. . . and I’ll try, try again.:)
My 7 year old and I made these this week. It was my first try at a Crumbs recipe (taking baby steps – I had only all purpose flour on hand) and they turned out perfect. We had fun making them and eating them! Can’t wait to try more recipes and get going on a meal plan. Thanks for your website!
★★★★★
You’ve reminded me that I can make this during our challenge – we have plenty of flour! I’m so glad you and your child enjoyed these. Warm, fresh and slightly gooey from the oven… Mmmm… Welcome to Crumbs Jean! I hope to see more of you and get to know you better ! 🙂
Glad to see what happens when using a.p. flour. I will definitely try these!
I’m so glad that you’re being sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. They’re my go to for specialty baking goods (from shredded coconut to rye flour to xantham gum). For most items, the price is absolutely worth it. Now if only I could get my local grocery store to consistently stock Bob’s Red Mill rye flour, I’d be a happy camper.
I’m making these this weekend. I’m so excited.
Me too Audrey, they have some truly amazing products and I appreciate how they care about them too. I hope you enjoy the pretzels!
Does the 1 to 1 flour you’re referencing have a gum already in it (xanthan or guar or something)? I have the BRM all purpose baking flour…no binder or gum already in it.
I was just diagnosed with a wheat allergy and I am SO excited to make these this week! Thanks!
You’re most welcome! Sorry for the late reply, but you can read the ingredients here: http://www.bobsredmill.com/Gluten-Free-1-to-1-Baking-Flour.html
Do you think this would work with White Rice flour?
Hi Michelle! I’m going to say maybe. It definitely needs the oat flour. I tried a recipe using only the 1-to-1 flour (which is mostly rice flour) and it was a bit too dense for a pretzel. You might try 30% oat and 70% rice and see if that works. Remember to not skip the honey and a smaller, skinny pretzel might be the best result (too thick and it’ll just taste chewy instead of fluffy). A dash of baking powder & baking soda might be worth a shot too, maybe 1/4 tsp soda and 1/2 tsp powder?
THANK YOU! I have a dear friend with celiac and I’m always looking for fun gluten free treats and snacks for her. I will be making these tomorrow…..tempted to go make them tonight! I’ve pinned these!
You’re most welcome – enjoy!
yum! So often they have egg IN them which doesn’t work for us, so we will have to try these. For ‘oat flour’ can we just grind up oats? I forget 🙂
Ah, snacks. A struggle, here. I let them have crackers or Annie’s bunnies and squeezies for snack. I want to switch over as Calvin does like raw apples…and then most times I know if he is truly hungry or not by offering fruit 😉 I just struggle as Annie is 18 months and so cheerios (organic, unsweetened ones) are really truly easy…
Yes, just grind up oats in your blender. I remember the cheerio days all too well. Remember, there’s give and take for each season! 🙂 But these soft pretzels should work for her to gum on, since they’re soft… you could do the sticks (if she holds) and let her gnaw.
I asked my husband, who LOVES your meal plan, about these little babies. His answer was, “Yes please!”
LOL – Well I hope he loves them as much as we do! 🙂
I’d like to make these but can’t use oats. How do you think the recipe will work by adding more bobs flour and not using oats?
Hi Kate!
Although we haven’t tested it, it should work out fine without the oat flour, but with more Bob’s. Let us know how it comes out! 🙂
These are so cute! I have to admit, I saw the title and began feverishly scrolling, hoping for some cinnamon-shuuuuugaaaah!! That version will definitely be a hit with my cinnamon loving family! 🙂
Oh man Dena, they really are good. I may or may not have licked the extra cinnamon sugar. 😉
Hey, “don’t waste the crumbs, right??” 😉