We are really excited about this recipe! Homemade pretzels don’t get much better than this. These homemade pretzels are just plain fun to make and are superbly delicious!
This pretzel recipe is lightly sweetened with honey, brown sugar, or molasses; it is your choice! The flavor comes from our fresh milled hard white or hard red wheat berries, your favorite hefeweizen, and the pretzel’s signature boil. These homemade pretzels are crispy on the outside, yet soft and chewy on this inside. Once they leave the oven, they won’t last long! But no worries, because they are easy to make!
This pretzel recipe yields 8-10 large pretzels. The key to this recipe is to really develop the gluten. After kneading, you should be able to pull and stretch the dough quite a bit before it tears. The gluten is vital for the chewy texture of the pretzel and for oven rise! If you would like for the Pretzels to have even greater rise, you can carefully slash the belly of the pretzel with a sharp knife after you apply the egg wash.
Traditional German pretzels are shaped to have fat centers or “bellies” and taper at the ends. When baked, the thicker bellies are soft and chewy while the ends crisp to be more cracker-like. We love shaping our pretzels this way! To us, it is getting the best of both worlds!
Since these pretzels are already enriched with butter, we love serving these with a stone ground mustard. Or, if you really want a treat, try sliding a cooked sausage link through the holes of the pretzel after boiling and proceed with the recipe as written. Oh, my! So good! This recipe is really wonderful and we hope you give it a try!
Add the sweetener and wait 5 minutes until yeast starts to foam.
Add yeast mixture, butter, salt, hefeweizen and flour to a stand mixer.
With a hook attachment, begin to mix on low until the dough form one mass. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes to develop gluten.
Let dough rest for 1 hour in a covered, well oiled bowl or until doubled.
Remove dough from the bowl and separate into 8-10 equal size pieces.
Flatten each piece of dough into a rectangle and begin to roll lengthwise into a tight rope.
Roll each piece of dough until about 18 inches long. Make sure the rope is rolled very tight.
Shape pretzels by twisting ends twice and laying ends at the 4 and 8 o’clock positions.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees and bring 3 cups of water to a boil.
Add 3 tbsp. of baking soda to the boiling water.
Boil each pretzel, one at a time, for 30 seconds each. Coat pretzel fully by spooning the baking soda water over the tops as well.
Using a slotted spoon or sieve, carefully scoop out pretzels, tapping off as much water as possible. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Brush the tops of each pretzel with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse salt or flaked sea salt.
Reduce oven temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 8-10 minutes.
Pretzel Rolls
Use the same recipe for creating pretzel rolls. After cutting into equal size pieces, flatten into rectangles then tuck the ends into the center until you have a tight disk.
Flip the ball over and roll in your palm to form a ball. Let the rolls rest for 30 minutes before boiling.
After boiling, snip the tops of the rolls with scissors to allow for oven expansion. Brush with beaten egg and proceed as usual.
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G Sharon on
Please tell me what is hefeweizen? Pretty sure I’m not the only clueless person. It would be great if this was described in the recipe. Thank you. 🌷
G Sharon on
Please tell me what is hefeweizen? Pretty sure I’m not the only clueless person. It would be great if this was described in the recipe. Thank you. 🌷