Chewy and soft sourdough pretzels are like the classic recipe, but with that flavorful sourdough tang. Top them with salt, cinnamon sugar, or some fresh parmesan cheese for a delicious snack.
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Is there a more comforting snack than warm, homemade, soft sourdough pretzels topped with coarse salt? No way. These homemade pretzels have that classic chewy crust and soft interior.
With more than 100 sourdough recipes on the blog, I’m constantly trying to find creative ways to use up my homemade sourdough starter and bring more recipes to your home.
I’m often asked if I ever don’t want to cook, or if I get stuck in a food rut.
Truth be told, making food from scratch has been a passion of mine for a long time, and there is just no contest between store-bought and homemade.
I absolutely love being able to provide my family and yours with these delicious recipes. From sourdough brioche cinnamon rolls to zucchini lasagna and everything in between.
Being creative in the kitchen and coming up with these recipes also helps me keep the food spark alive.
This recipe is a great way to be creative. Pair it with this delicious cheese sauce.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy: Once you get the hang of sourdough recipes, they are usually not very difficult. Just mix the pretzel dough and allow it to rise, then shape, rise, boil, and bake. I swear it’s not that hard and requires very little hands-on time. This recipe is really quite similar to my sourdough bagels.
Delicious: Soft and chewy, they make the perfect snack or treat. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce, like kefir ranch dressing, or top with cinnamon sugar for a yummy dessert.
Perfect for parties or to make ahead: These pretzels can easily be stored in the freezer for a few months at a time. What’s great is preparing a bunch of them and keeping them in the freezer for a party or when you are just craving a soft and chewy pretzel.
Ingredients
Dough
Sourdough starter – Active and bubbly.
Honey – You could also substitute the honey with maple syrup.
Salt – Adds so much flavor to the dough, and bread without salt is bland.
Unbleached all-purpose flour – Store-bought or fresh-milled.
Water Bath
Baking soda – This gives the pretzels a deep golden color, a cracked exterior, and a pleasantly chewy interior. You will find it is very similar to making sourdough bagels. The baking soda makes the water alkaline and gelatinizes the exterior, which prevents the bagels from fully rising during the baking process, giving them a chewy texture.
Egg Wash
Egg – Gives it that lovely, deep, golden color.
Pretzel salt – Is there anything better than a salty pretzel? You want to use coarse sea salt so it stays nice and chunky.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Tools You May Need
Stand mixer with dough hook attachment
Slotted spoon or spider strainer
How To Make Sourdough Pretzels
Step 1: Add active sourdough starter, water, honey, salt, and flour to the bowl of a stand mixer.
Step 2: Mix the dough on the lowest speed for 5-10 minutes with the dough hook. You could also knead by hand for 10-15 minutes. The dough should pass the window-pane test. Cover the bowl and let rest in a warm place for 8-12 hours or until doubled.
Step 3: Shape. Divide the dough into 15 equal pieces (image 3). Roll each piece into an 18” long rope, then create a U shape (image 4). Take the two ends of the rope and create a twist with the dough (image 5). Twist it twice, then press the ends of the dough into the bottom of the U shape (image 6). Cover the dough and let the dough rise for about an hour.
Step 4: Preheat the oven to 425°F. Bring water in a large stockpot to a boil and add 2 tablespoons of baking soda and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Place the pretzels in boiling water for 30 seconds on each side (image 6). I like to do 4 pretzels at a time so that they aren’t overcrowded.
Step 5: Take out with a slotted spoon or kitchen spider strainer, shaking off excess water, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (image 6).
Step 6: Brush each pretzel with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse pretzel salt (image 7). Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Tips
- You want to use active sourdough starter to make this light and fluffy.
- This is the perfect master recipe that is delicious with just a little salt, or you can customize with additional delicious toppings.
- Sourdough discard can be used instead of active sourdough starter, but you may have to let the dough ferment longer. Or try my sourdough discard pretzel recipe that has active dry yeast.
- You don’t need to be confined to just creating the pretzel shape. Try shaping them into pretzel buns, knots, twists, or rolls!
- If you are new to sourdough, I have a whole post on how to make a sourdough starter and another on how to care for a sourdough starter.
- Some people are sensitive to baking soda, so if you know this is the case, skip the baking soda and just use sugar in the boiling water.
Baker’s Timeline:
Feed your sourdough starter.
Mix the dough. Cover and ferment.
Shape dough and allow to rise for an hour covered. Preheat oven and bring water to a boil.
Boil and bake pretzels.
Reheating Pretzels
To reheat pretzels, gently moisten the pretzels with a little bit of water and place in a 325°F oven for 5 minutes until warm.
You can also reheat in the microwave. Cover with a damp towel and reheat in 30-second intervals until warm. This is not the preferred way, as the results will leave something to be desired.
Pretzel Topping Ideas
Before adding toppings, brush the baked pretzels with melted butter.
- Coarse salt
- Cinnamon and sugar, or even pumpkin spice
- Parmesan cheese
- Everything but the bagel seasoning
- Top with shredded cheese and place in a 350-degree oven until just melted. Serve with some warm pasta sauce to make pizza pretzels.
Recipe FAQ
Place in an airtight container for up to three days, or freeze for up to 3 months in a freezer-safe container or bag.
Yes, most definitely. They are the perfect salty snack. Since the dough is fermented, the vitamins and minerals are more bio-available for your body to absorb, and there is less gluten, making them easier to digest.
Boiling them in a baking soda or lye solution. I prefer baking soda because it is much safer than lye and not poisonous.
The real difference is that pretzel dough is boiled in water with baking soda before it is baked giving it that yummy crust.
Yes. Freeze after baking in an air-tight container or freezer-safe bag. Pop in a warm oven for a few minutes to reheat.
You can also freeze the pretzel dough after the bulk fermentation and after you have shaped the dough. Place on a cookie sheet for 2-3 hours or until completely frozen, then transfer into a freezer-safe bag. To bake, allow the dough to thaw completely and then rise for another hour. Boil and bake as directed.
More Sourdough Recipes from the Farmhouse
- Sourdough Brioche
- Sourdough Banana Bread
- Fluffy Sourdough Donuts With Vanilla Glaze
- Sourdough Hot Cross Buns
- Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Soft Sourdough Pretzels
Ingredients
- ½ cup sourdough starter, active and bubbly (113 grams)
- 1 cup water, 236 grams
- 2 tablespoons honey, 42 grams or maple syrup
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt, 11 grams
- 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour, 420 grams
Water Bath
- 2 quarts water
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon water
- pretzel salt
Instructions
- Add active sourdough starter, water, honey, salt and all-purpose flour to the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Mix the dough on the lowest speed for 5-10 minutes with the dough hook. The dough should pass the window-pane test.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a lid and let rest at room temperature for 8-12 hours. Or until doubled.
- Divide the dough into 15 equal pieces.
- Roll each piece into a 18” rope and then create a U-shape.
- Take the two ends of the rope and create a twist with the dough.
- Twist it twice and then press the ends of the dough into the bottom of the U-shape.
- Cover the dough and allow them to rise for about an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Bring water in a large stockpot to a boil and add 1 tablespoon of baking soda and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
- Boil the pretzels for 30 seconds on each side, being careful not to overcrowd.
- Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Brush each pretzel with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse salt.
- Bake 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Notes
- You want to use active sourdough starter to make this light and fluffy.
- This is the perfect master recipe that is delicious with just a little salt, or you can customize with additional delicious toppings.
- Sourdough discard can be used instead of active sourdough starter, but you may have to let the dough ferment longer.
- You don’t need to be confined to just creating the pretzel shape. Try shaping them into pretzel buns, knots, twists, or rolls!
- Some people are sensitive to baking soda, so if you know this is the case, skip the baking soda and just use sugar in the boiling water.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Any tips for cutting the dough into 15 pieces, for some reason my brain and I are struggling with this lol
Although this is my second time making them, I can not remember how I did it the first time, and I remember they ended up really small lol, I’ll report back with these I might just do 12!!
Could I refrigerate before cutting into 15 pieces if I needed to? For example, I don’t want to finish the process at 4 am so could I just refrigerate til I’m ready to later in the day, etc lol
Yes, you could do that. It may be very challenging to cut and shape. May need to let it come to room temperature before doing so.
I just made these. Oh my goodness delicious!!! Came out perfectly.
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
So my dough was insanely sticky to the point of being impossible tobtoll out after the bulk rise. I used your gram measurements and I think your calculations may be a bit off.. The gram measurements come to almost 2/1 flour to water but your cup measurements are to 3/1. Was this intentional? At this point pretty much considering this batch a fail haha
I did recalculate my cups of flour a while back and found my cups usually weigh about 140 grams. So it should be more like 420 g of flour. But still that isn’t that much difference. It could also have to do with the humidity in your environment, the hydration of the starter, etc. It should’ve still worked out if you added a bit more flour.
Hello! I love your recipes! I use quite a bit of them. Today I am attempting the pretzels and the bagels, however, I miss calculated my timing and was wondering if they can rise longer than the 8-12 hours? Can I put them in the fridge to hold till I’m ready to bake them in the morning? thanks so much!
Thank you! It really depends on how warm your house is and how active the sourdough starter. If it is really warm it may only take 6 hours, if cold it could take much longer. You just want to be careful not to over-ferment. You could always place them in the fridge if timing is off you don’t get around to shaping them when needed. Shaping does become a little more difficult when the dough is stiff.
I have searched the internet, high and low, for a HARD PRETZEL recipe that uses sourdough instead of yeast. Any chance that you have such a recipe??? Ps: I have made these soft pretzels of yours, and they are delicious!
Glad you like the recipe! I do not have a hard pretzel recipe (just this one and the pretzel bites). But I will keep that in mind for something to experiment with in the future!
I’ve tried this twice and both times the dough ends up ultra thin/sticky (there is no ability to form). I tried mixing it longer but no change. I’m not sure what Im Doing wrong
With sourdough recipes there are so many factors like the hydration of the starter, the humidity of the environment, etc. You may need to adjust the amount of water being added. Hope that helps.
Posted this already in the “Reviews” section, but I’m going to repost here in case more people will see it. For those using einkorn starter and einkorn all purpose flour, I made these adjustments: only use 2/3 cup of water for the dough. Only let rise 4 hours for first rise, 30 min for second rise. They turned out well!
Shaping the pretzels is tricky! Pretzel bites would be way easier if you’re worried about shaping.
Also, after shaping and putting them on the parchment paper, the dough definitely sticks to the paper, so it’s very hard to scrape them off once you’re ready to boil them! Once they’re boiled, they don’t stick to the parchment paper. Next time I’m going to try lightly greasing the parchment so I won’t have this problem.
Wow! Absolutely AMAZING recipe! I just made my very first sourdough starter and this is the first recipe I’ve made with it. Soft pretzels are one of my favorite treats. I am so dang proud of myself because my very first batch ever came out so good! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful recipe! It is definitely one I will be making again!!
I am so glad you enjoyed it! Have a great day!
Been working with einkorn for about 5 yrs so it was easy. Yummy! They came out perfect the first time. Just made a double batch but need to know best way to freeze. Anyone know?
This is what I want to know too!
Waiting to see as well!
I made these for the first time and am so disappointed. I followed the recipe but could not get the dough to stretch enough to make a pretzel shape. It kept shrinking back. I let it ferment overnight like the directions said, and the dough itself seems great. But it just wouldn’t roll out for me.
That is such a bummer! I’m sorry it didn’t work for you.
Just mu .02…Next time you have a dough that won’t comply, simply let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes and try again. Sometimes that’s all it takes. I’m going to try this recipe today and see how it goes. I’m very excited to try it!