German Style Soft Pretzels
Maybe it is my German background… or maybe my love of all things salty, but I think nothing is better than a hot pretzel. Soft pretzels are great, but they are only good fresh. Luckily they are not too tough to make at home. The following recipe may look long, but it is easier than making bread. We made a batch for a Octoberfest party we threw and they were a huge hit.
In order to give the pretzels a dunk in boiling water gives them their chewy skin. In order to get the nice caramel color it helps to add baking soda to the dunking water. The baking soda makes the water more basic (the opposite of acidic) which breaks down the starch on the outside of the pretzel and turns it into a sugar that caramelizes when baked. Traditional recipes call for lye, which is a caustic chemical that is dangerous to handle. Pretzels made with a lye bath supposedly have the best texture and the most authentic flavor… it gives it a bit of a tang.
German Style Soft Pretzels
From: The Fresh Loaf
Makes 6 large pretzels
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 tablespoon malt powder or brown sugar
- 2 to 3 cups all-purpose unbleached or bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup warm milk (approximately 110 degrees, which is 1 minute in my microwave)
Directions:
- Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix together until it forms a ball. Start with 2 cups of the flour and mix it together until it forms something like a thick batter. Add more flour, 2 tablespoons at a time, until it forms a nice ball that can be kneaded by hand.
- Either use an electric mixer to mix the dough for 5 minutes or remove it from the bowl and knead it by hand for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough begins to get smooth and satiny.
- Letting the dough ferment can give the pretzels a little extra flavor, but it can be skipped and they will still taste great. If you are going to ferment the dough, return the ball of dough to a clean, greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set it aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately an hour. Then, degas the dough gently before moving on to the next step.
- Before shaping, start preheating the oven to 425 degrees. In a wide and shallow pan bring a quart of water and to a simmer, and then add 4 tablespoons of baking soda. The water should be deep enough so that a pretzel can be fully submerged.
Shaping
- Cut the dough into 6 pieces. Roll each one into a short log, cover with a towel, and let the dough relax for 5 to 10 minutes. After it has relaxed you should be able to roll it out and stretch again fairly easily.
- Place a rope of dough on the work surface in front of you. Take each end in a hand, loop the dough away from you, and bring the ends back toward your stomach, crossing them about an inch above the rope. Apply a little bit of pressure to make the loops stick together, but not too much because you don’t want then to flatten out. You can use a dab of water to help make the ends stick.
- After shaping the pretzel, carefully use a spatula to transfer it to the boiling water. Dunk it in the water, completely submerging it, for 5 seconds. The pretzel should begin to float towards the end.
- Transfer the pretzel onto a lightly oiled cookie sheet (I used a silicone baking mat). Sprinkle with Kosher salt.
- Once you have finished shaping all of the pretzels, place the cookie sheet in the middle rack of the pre-heated oven.
- Bake the pretzels for 12-14 minutes until they are a dark golden brown.
[...] German Style Soft Pretzel Recipe from Cookography [...]
Just made this today and liked the taste very much. Mine weren’t half as crusty as yours look, but maybe thats just my oven…
I tried this but they didn’t turn out anything like the ones on the screen. I am a professional chef and i think that this is a good recipe but it could use less flour.
These look great…I think my kids will really like them. Thanks for leaving out the lye!
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I grew up in Philly and miss the pretzels. There is no way to keep them fresh! They MUST be eaten the day they’re made. Now some people (like me) can be found dunking them in milk the next day, ’cause they’re hard as rocks!
I just used brown sugar. I couldn’t find any malt powder. My batch came out great.
Is malt powder a necessity in this recipe, or will brown sugar do just as well. I’m eager to try but I want to have everything straight. Thanks!
Fantastic! I absolutely love fresh baked pretzels, and don’t necessarily want to go to the mall to get them. This is great.
We used your recipe after several failed attempts with other recipes for our daughters heritage day festival. It was outstanding!!! and was more simplistic then the others. I love soft pretzels and my german grandma made them and it brought back good tastes. Now our daughter can pass on something from her heritage….. guten tag.
I will try these as I love “Bretzel” and they have to be very fresh!
But re: frozen crap at the grocery store, DocChuck. In Germany ALDI sell packs of these at 12 pieces for €1.
They are frozen but taste great fresh from the oven. Better than Cologne central station, where you can see them being made and they cost €1 each.
I thought they would be more complicated but they look fairly straightforward. Thanks for the post, I’ll report back once I’ve tried them…
Using whole flour is a great. That should give it enough flavor to hold up to strong foods… or a good beer!
A paper bag is the only way to store such a thing, and is good for about a day.
i just tried them tonight for the 1st time…i did 1.5 cup reg flour and 1.5 cup wheat and those are amazing! thank you for the recipe, i will be making them quite often
as for storing, i think the best would be a paper bag in the fridge but i dont know
From past experiences, I’ve found jsut storing them in a paper bag and then moistening and placing in the oven just before eating allows them to keep ok. But it’s not nearly as good as eating them fresh.
Any better methods for storing?
[...] German Style, Soft Pretzels [...]
I tired this recipe out last night. It all came out pretty, considering it was my first try. I think I used too much flour in the beginning and they could’ve used a couple more minutes in the oven.
Overall, they were really good. I ate three paired up with brats and mustard and had another for breakfast.
I discovered that they don’t keep well in an airtight container. They became really spongy and the salt dissolved, but I’ll try again. Thanks!
Like you, I love all things salty (although my doctor wife gives me a bunch of grief over it).
I used to seek out soft pretzels, whether they were at the Renaissance Faire(s), or even sometimes the frozen crap at the grocery store.
It wasn’t until I visited Germany a few years ago that I REALLY knew what a GOOD soft pretzel should taste like.
Now my wife and I make them at home (very similar to your method) where they are light years ahead of any “commercial” products.
GREAT post, super photos. Thanks for sharing your method.