The Best Homemade Pretzels
Small Batch Homemade Pretzels adapted from Alton Brown's recipe. These freeze well.
Servings 6 to 8
Cost 5
Equipment
- 1 Stand mixer with dough hook
Ingredients
- 308 grams all-purpose flour or Artisan bread flour 2 ¼ cups plus more if needed
- 1 ⅛ teaspoon instant yeast
- ½ tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (or use 1 T. butter and 1 T. olive oil)
- ¾ cup very warm water (120 degrees F)** A little warmer than usual to activate the instant yeast. If using active dry, water should be only around 105 to 110F.
Boiling Solution
- 5 cups water
- ⅓ cup baking soda
- 1 beaten egg mixed with a little water
- Pretzel salt or Maldon sea salt
Instructions
- Weigh your flour and combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the melted butter (or butter and oil), then stir in the water to make a soft dough. You can use the paddle attachment or just stir with a heavy-duty scraper or spoon.
- Attach dough hook and knead until dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit in warm spot in the kitchen until doubled (45 minutes to an hour).
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a half-sheet pan with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface and pat it into a rectangle somewhere around 6x10 inches. Using a knife, slice lengthwise to make 6 10-inch strips. If you want to make 8 pretzels, make a 4x10 rectangle and cut into 4 10-inch strips.
- Move all of the dough strips out of the way and work one strip at a time so you'll have plenty of room for rolling your pretzels. Pretend you work at the mall. Roll each strip of dough into a rope that's somewhere around 20 to 24 inches. Or make smaller or larger pretzels. It's up to you, but you need to be able to easily roll the strips into long ropes. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other, make a twist, and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.
- Bring the water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in a large pot.
- Place the pretzels into the boiling water, one at a time, and boil each for about 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula and letting water drip off. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg mixture and sprinkle with your choice of salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
I used to clean out the mixing bowl and oil it a bit before adding back the dough to rise. These days I just leave the kneaded dough in the bowl and cover it.
