Homemade Soft Pretzels

I love just about any kind of pretzel. I remember eating pretzels all time as a kid. My kids love pretzels too. My husband not so much. His siblings don’t like them either, so maybe they just never ate them growing up. Whenever I make my Chex Mix recipe my husband kindly asks me to leave out the pretzels. (If I put them in there, I end up just having pretzels instead of chex mix, since he eats everything else and leaves the pretzels for me. This would be fine except I make chex mix because I want to eat chex mix, not just pretzels). These homemade soft pretzels are awesome. It reminds me of going to a baseball stadium and getting a soft pretzel, only these are so much better.

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These homemade soft pretzels are freezer friendly. The kids love them and they are great for an afternoon snack. We have even had them for a meal a few times. (Because they are easy to take out of the freezer. They reheat from frozen beautifully. I do want to try them with a little beer in the recipe. I will have to let you know how that goes. They would be awesome coated in some Parmesan cheese or if you use this everything bagel seasoning on top instead of sea salt.

This recipe utilizes the Instant pot to proof the dough in order to cut proofing time in half. You can always proof the dough in a warm place in your kitchen if you don’t have an instant pot. It will just take twice as long. I also like using my scraper to cut the dough.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

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• Author: Lisa
• Total Time: 2 hours 3 minutes
• Yield: 20 pretzels 1x

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Description

These soft pretzels have a slight crunch on the outside and are soft on the inside.  This particular recipe has you proof the dough in an instant pot, but if you don’t have an instant pot, just proof it in a warm place in your kitchen until it is double in size for about one and a half hours.

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Ingredients

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• 2 packets active dry yeast
• 1 cup luke warm water
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 7 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• rock salt or sea salt for the top

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Warm milk to lukewarm either in a pot on the stove or in the microwave. (Around 110 degrees). Pour milk into a medium bowl. Then add 2 teaspoons sea salt and sugar and stir.
3. In another medium bowl, add yeast to lukewarm water. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
4. Pour both milk mixture and water and yeast mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add 3 cups of flour and, with a dough hook attachment, beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add remaining flour. Knead with the dough by hand for 10 minutes until it is smooth.
5. Grease your instant pot well with olive oil. (In the image you can see I used parchment paper, but I would recommend just using olive oil because the dough stuck to the parchment paper). Place the dough into the instant pot and turn it over in order to coat the dough in olive oil. Place the lid on the instant pot. (I like to use my glass lid so that I can see what is going on with the dough. You will be using the yogurt setting and this setting doesn’t use any pressure).
6. Push the yogurt button and set it for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes your dough should be double in size.
7. Once the dough has doubled in size, take it out of the instant pot and divide it in half. Make each half into a loaf.
8. Cut each loaf into 10 equal pieces.
9. Roll each piece into about a 20 inch rope.
10. Form each rope into a pretzel shape and place onto a counter lined with parchment paper.
11. Let rise 30 minutes on the counter.
12. During the last 10 minutes of rise time for the dough heat 2 quarts of water in a pot on the stove. Once the water is boiling, add baking soda.
13. Then add pretzels, 2 at a time, and boil them for 1 minute. Remove pretzels with a slotted spoon and place them on your parchment lined cookie sheets.
14. Once all of the pretzels are boiled,lightly beat the egg and water together. Brush egg mixture onto each pretzel and then sprinkle with sea salt.
15. Bake for 18 minutes. Serve immediately or let cool completely and freeze. For freezing instructions see recipe notes.

Notes

To Freeze:  Let pretzels cool completely.  Place them on a cookie sheet and flash freeze for 3 hours.  Once they are frozen, place them all in a freezer bag and put it back in the freezer.

When you are ready to prepare them:  Bake from frozen at 450 degrees for 5 minutes.

• Prep Time: 105 minutes
• Cook Time: 18 minutes
• Category: Snack