Best Ever Simple Homemade Pretzels

Whenever I go to a ball game, fair or movie I have to get a pretzel. Something about the soft, salty (or sweet) pretzel-y goodness just can’t be beat. Of course, I don’t get to go all that much with my budget so unfortunately my life has pretty pretzel free recently.

However, yesterday my good friend Becky, pretzel baker extraordinaire, surprised me with a visit and a impromptu lesson on how to make some of the best pretzels I’ve ever had. And let me tell you, they were so simple I was absolutely shocked at how easy it was. I even got her permission to share the secret to what makes pretzels… well, pretzels.

But we’ll get to that in a second.

For the most part, the pretzel recipe is pretty much similar to just about any other baking recipe. You’ll add the water, yeast and sugar to a bowl and let it sit for a bit until the yeast activates and starts bubbling. It should look like this:

Let the yeast activate before adding the flour. This took about seven minutes.

Then, add the flour and salt and mix it together to form a dough. Knead it until it’s elastic-y just like you would with a regular bread dough. I don’t have a photo of it, unfortunately.

Let the dough rise for at least 30 minutes (mine took about an hour) until it’s doubled in size.

Now for the fun part! Pinch off a bit of the dough and roll it into a long rope. The longer and thinner it is, the more you’ll be able to shape it.

Roll out and shape the dough!

Becky, being the pretzel expert, did this really cool flipping thing to shape the pretzels. It was too fast to get a photo of, but I am pretty sure there was magic involved. I know I don’t have those skills, so I just cheated and shaped them on the table.

You can shape your pretzels however you like, but we went with the traditional shape.

See the most misshapen one? That one’s mine. The really pretty ones? Becky.

Once you have them shaped, then dunk them in the baking soda solution and place them on a greased baking sheet. Them pop them in the oven and wait!

Presto! Pretzels.

They were absolutely delicious. We got about a dozen pretzels out of the recipe, but you could have more or less depending on how big you made them. We melted some cheese and ate them with the cheese, but it was all gone before I could get a shot of it. That’s how delicious they were!!

Here’s the full recipe:

There are any number of things you can dip your pretzels in including cheese, icing, honey butter, salsa, salad dressing… you name it! Happy baking!

Also, a huge thanks and shout-out to my awesome friend Becky for sharing her recipe and expertise with me!!  Thanks B!