Nothing goes better with a cold homebrewed beer than a big soft pretzel fresh from the oven! Today we’re going to set homebrewing aside and look instead at a recipe for large, Bavarian beer pretzels . Below is a recipe I’ve used for years to create delicious pretzels at home:
Soft Pretzel Recipe – makes one dozen large pretzels:
- 1 packet active dry bread yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons soft butter or margarine
- 2 3/4 cups bread flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 5 teaspoons baking soda (for glazing)
- Coarse salt (if desired)
Instructions:
- In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 cup warm water and packet of yeast.
- Mix in 1-1/2 cups of flower, the 2 tblsp margarine, 1/2 tsp salt and tblsp sugar. Beat the entire mixture for 3 minutes to mix well.
- Slowly mix in the remaining 1-1/4 cups of flour, and knead dough until all of the flour is mixed in and dough loses its stickiness.
- Set aside in bowl, and let it rise until dough reaches approximately double its original size.
- Divide dough into twelve approximately equal pieces. Using your palms, roll each piece into 18″ lengths about pencil thickness. Loop and twist the lengths into pretzel shapes and place on a greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again until they approximately double in girth.
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees, and ready a boiling solution of 4 cups of water, and the 5 tsp of baking soda in a shallow non-aluminum (note – aluminum may react with baking soda).
- With a plastic spatula, carefully lift each pretzel from the sheet and lower it into the boiling baking soda solution for 15-20 seconds. This will glaze the pretzels once you bake them.
- Sprinkle the pretzels with coarse salt (if desired, they’re great without salt as well), and bake approximately 7-10 minutes until browned. Serve warm, topped with mustard or cheese, and a pint of your favorite beer.
There is nothing more wonderful than a fresh hot pretzel with a nice cold homebrew! Thanks again for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. Have a great day and happy brewing.
I forgot to mention that I usually make a double batch of these – it takes a while to roll them all out but they are great. If you pop them in the microwave for about 20 seconds later and put a little mustard on the pretzel you will love it!
Made these over the weekend and they were great!
The wife and I loved them with a couple pints of Hefe I got rolling on tap!
Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed these.
I’ll chime in… This recipe is EXCELLENT! I refuse to make something from a recipe unless I know what it’s supposed to look like when it’s done. Your picture looked delicious, so… last night my 8 yr old and I made these and they turned out perfect! Thanks.
We are from Germany originally and have been hunting for this recipe for a LONG TIME. These are fantastic. I usually salt the bottom of the tray to have that ‘all round’ salt taste.
Also when they are done, remove them from the tray immediately and prevent them from sweating – allow all round cooling to occour.
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Do you think you could forget the sugar and use 1/2 cup warm water and 1/2 cup wort? Maybe a little extra malt flavor?
Hi,
It might work – I’ve never tried wort but it could be interesting!
Brad
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How long does it usually take for the dough to double in size?
It usually takes 45 minutes to an hour for the dough to rise.
Not only great and easy pretzels, a little garlic and butter and you have great bread sticks!
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Can’t wait to try these. Is all-purpose flour a suitable substitution for bread flour?
Yes – regular flour will work just fine.
I think that this might be a great use of spent grain flour 😀 I would think that most of the readers of this blog would have easy access to spent grain.
Making a double batch of these for GABF!
Great recipe. I can’t wait to try it! Thanks for sharing, Brad.
Great without spent grain but fantastic using 2 cups bread flour + 3/4 cup spent grain flour! Had some from a batch of rye porter – made a great darker pretzel!!