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Home » Bagels, Pretzels and Pizza

Homemade Soft Pretzels with Beer

Modified: Jan 2, 2025 · Published: Jan 22, 2017 by Anna · This post may contain affiliate links · 7 Comments

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I have a tried and true recipe for pretzel bread, but it wasn't until recently that I found a favorite recipe for homemade soft pretzels.

homemade soft pretzels

It started off as Alton Brown's recipe, but in the past 2 weeks I've changed it up a bit. The key change being I use quick rising yeast, which changes the mixing method somewhat. Plus I use brown sugar and beer in the dough for extra flavor.

homemade soft pretzels

The dough is easy to work with and the pretzels taste great. If you use beer instead of water, you can really taste the beer in the baked pretzel. I made this batch with my favorite of Lagunitas.

Another nice thing about this recipe is that the pretzels are boiled (like bagels) and then brushed with egg so they bake up nice and brown. I tried some recipes for unboiled pretzels, and while they tasted good, they were more like breadsticks.

Lastly, the recipe halves quite nicely so you can make 5 pretzels at a time. And the pretzels freeze well, too.

soft pretzels
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Recipe

soft pretzels

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Anna
Homemade Soft Pretzels made with water or beer. The beer really does add a lot of flavor, so if you don't like beer use water.
5 from 2 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 hour hr
Cook Time 10 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins
Course Bread
Cuisine German
Servings 10

Ingredients
 

  • 1 packet instant yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour (616 grams)
  • 1 ½ teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter (56 grams)
  • 1 ½ cups water or beer warmed to 130 degrees F.

Boiling Mixture

  • ⅓ cup baking soda
  • 5 cups water
  • 1 egg yolk mixed with a tablespoons of water
  • Some coarse salt

Instructions
 

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the yeast, sugar, 3 ½ cups of the flour and salt.
  • Add the softened butter, then add the hot water gradually to the flour mixture, stirring until well mixed. Dough should still be pretty soft at this point.
  • Attach the dough hook and begin kneading. At this point, start adding the remaining flour 2 tablespoons at a time and keep adding until dough no longer sticks to the side of the bowl as it's kneaded. knead for about 8 minutes.
  • Transfer dough to an oiled bowl and turn so that dough is lightly coated with oil. Cover and let rise for one hour.
  • After dough has risen, divide it into 10 pieces.
  • Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
  • Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large saucepan.
  • Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope and shape into a pretzel shape directly on nonstick foil or parchment lined baking sheet.
  • Working one piece at a time, put the shaped pretzel in the boiling water for 30 seconds, then lift it out with a slotted spatula and return to lined baking sheet.
  • When all pretzels are formed, brush with the egg yolk mixture and sprinkle with salt.
  • Bake for about 12-14 minutes at 450.
Keyword Beer Pretzels, Homemade Soft Pretzels
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you try these homemade soft pretzels, let me know.

Now bring on the mustard!

More Bagels, Pretzels and Pizza

  • Sweet Potato Bagel recipe
    Sweet Potato Bagels Recipe
  • Malted Milk Powder Bagels
    Quick Malted Milk Powder Bagels
  • Pretzels with Milk
    Pretzels Made With Milk
  • Two-Ingredient Bagels
    Two-Ingredient Bagels (or Abominations)

Comments

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  1. Anna says

    May 10, 2021 at 3:27 pm

    Seriously, PBR? Just kidding. Thanks for the review!

  2. Fuzz says

    May 10, 2021 at 3:15 pm

    5 stars
    I made these this morning and they were a hit with my roommates! This was my first time doing pretzels, and I found the dough easy to work with. I used all-purpose flour and beer (I wish I could say I used something fancy, but as a college student I take what I can get and today it was PBR) , and the final product was flavorful and fluffy!

  3. Anna says

    February 25, 2017 at 8:33 pm

    Hi Pat! Thanks for trying them and for taking the time to post a review. I'm really glad you liked them.

  4. Pat says

    February 25, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    5 stars
    I just made a batch of these pretzels. They came out great and were actually easier to make than I expected. Made one with salt and one plain so we could put cinnamon sugar on them. I will definitely make them again.

  5. Sue says

    January 25, 2017 at 7:49 am

    I haven't made pretzels in years. These look so good!

  6. Maria @ kitchenathoskins says

    January 25, 2017 at 1:05 am

    Beer takes these pretzels to a whole new level!

  7. Sonya says

    January 23, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    Thank you for trying all of your experiments! Bookmarking to try!

Peanut Butter Fudge Jumbles recipe baked in a 9-inch square Pampered Chef stoneware pan.

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I'm Anna, and welcome to Cookie Madness. To learn more about me, check the About page.

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