Authentic Pretzels

These pretzels are boiled in baking soda solution for that unique chewy texture.

I served these with mustard for dipping at a Grey Cup party and they went over really well. They are quite simple to make but will really impress your guests.

This recipe makes 16 palm sized soft pretzels.

Step 1: Materials

1-1/2 C Water
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Packet Yeast
1 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Oil or Butter
~4-1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Baking Soda
Course Salt

Comments

[mastermakoko]

how does the dough rise withought yeast or baking soda?

[craftknowitall]

The very first time I made soft pretzels, the recipe called to boiling the pretzels in lye water. I did it and they were GOOD!

[bmelton1]

TOP ROW: Cinnamon and sugar
SECOND ROW: Sea salt
BOTTOM ROW: Parmesan oregano

[Begradoo]

Me and my wife just made these during the weekend.
They were AMAZING. Great instructable!

[iheardabirdysay]

The baking soda (Na(CO3)2) acts in replacement of lye (NaOH) which is what is used in the industry. It has a higher pH than 7 so it is therefore considered alkaline. Lye is really dangerous to work with at home (as soap makers would know) and so baking soda is a nice substitute. Lye also makes the outside of the dough really sticky which is how salt sticks to it easier than the baking soda ones.

If you are curious on the science of it, here's what happens:

The gluten in the flour is protein, which on an atomic level is just a bunch of amino acids. What the baking soda solution is doing is breaking those amino acids apart into single free units (protein denaturation) which can now react with the sugar components of the flour (starch). The combination of free amino acids, sugar, in the presence of heat makes it that lovely brown color and imparts a specific "roasted"-like flavor. This is called Maillard browning.

I'm in school for food science. We learned this in our food chemistry class :-)

[peetle]

Watch out!  Don't place your pretzels on an aluminum pan in the oven.  The carbonate in the baking soda will react with the aluminum oxide surface layer of the pan and destroy the surface finish.  Ugly!

[Mar HK]

I did that years ago, but never quite figured out why it messed up my pans. Thanks!

[bryandhispup]

good tip, I would have done that... ha ha

[Calorie]

I think you boil bagels before you bake them as well. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of the baking soda is. I wonder how much different it would be if you used no baking soda. The fact that you can use NaOH suggests that something molecular (duh) is happening. Either would alter and carbohydrates...but this is nerd talk. I might try some just with water.

Any how, I wouldn't worry about the whole authentic business. I mean, what is authentic anyways? I've lived in a number of English speaking areas. The English-English are quick to explain the differences between the languages.

Americans speak American-English. The Scots speak Scottish-English (and that changes from city to city.) Same for the Welsh (holla!) and the Irish.

And even the English-English can't agree on what the proper English language is. It's sort of pegged to the "Queen's English" or the BBC English.

Another cool things is that the educated mainland Chinese (who officially speak simplified Mandarin) are no longer learning English-English. Instead they are learning American-English.

So...enjoy your pretzels and labels be, well...ignored.

[FenrisLokison]

I'm guessing that whoever invented the pretzel had access to baking soda (NaOH) and knew how to use it. Just a tiny bit like the inventor of the wheel knowing about bearings and how to use them -lol.

[feralmonkey4]

yes you boil bagels before baking the difference is you use sugar in the water for bagels because you want a chewy crust the baking soda gives a different crust texture.

[zygomatic]

FYI  -  It's not NaOH (sodium hydroxide), it's NaHCO₃ (sodium bicarbonate = baking soda), but you're right about the chemical aspect

[Calorie]

 I was referring to a response by  post by kochen375 below. To quote just a line:

"...or baking soda, is not authentic. You want a 4% sodium hydroxide solution."

I would cut & paste the full appropriate text but it seems that the paste  function has been disabled by Instructables. I'm not sure if it is an "incentive" to pony up the cash for a membership, but I say it's not cool.

[jaston]

These look incredible! I am going to try to make a gluten free version :)
Thank you so much for sharing.

[pl,okmijn]

 1/2 c baking soda?
Don't you mean 1/2 tbsp baking soda?

[NoFiller]

It's used in step 3 to prepare the baking soda solution used in step 5.

[pl,okmijn]

I get it now, it just looked like a lot at first.

[bryandhispup]

Is there any good substitute for Baking soda? I am on a strict Sodium Reduced diet and I MUST avoid things like Salt and Baking Soda? can baking powder be used? or what about a NOSALT [tm] (Potassium Chloride) "salt"-water Boil?

Any suggestions? I LOVE soft pretzels and always regret indulging myself. if there were ANY way to enjoy them without all the salt I'd LOVE to know...

[LingCullen]

you are just boiling in the B.S. I cut mine all the way back to a 1/4 cup in the 8 cups of water. I dont think that all of that salt would find itself into the pretzels themselves. Cut it back even further to 1/8th of a cup, i doubt you would see much difference. Use salt substitute in the pretzel itself if you like as well.

the amount of sodium in these that you would get from the Baking soda seems to me that it would be quite minimal.

[randytrant]

use sugar, like a home made bagel.

[sprockette]

i found this http://www.ochef.com/364.htm

which states that to provide the same amount of lift you'd need 4x as much baking powder, provided the recipe isn't acidic (which this one isn't)

however, because we're not using the baking soda to provide lift in this recipe, i'm not sure how it would work out...but the worst that could happen is you'd end up with less chewy and more risen pretzels!

[bryandhispup]

Awesome, THANKS! gonna give some options a shot. ;)

[LingCullen]

This recipe was a lot of fun! I cut my Baking soda back to about 1/4 of a cup and I let them boil for 45 seconds in the water to try and achieve a little in between the fluffy and not so fluffy stage. My boyfriend and I had a fun time shaping them and flavouring them too.

with these i used :Black salt, thai ginger salt, jalapeno salt, and cinnamon sugar.

Sooo good! thank you for the lovely instructable!

[Vintageshake]

2 and 1/4 tsp of yeast equals one packet.

[eternashine]

Mine didn't have that smooth crusty look, and took longer to cook..... Hmmm

[Tahnka]

Kudos for showing the difference between boiled and dipped. I appreciate that.

[jwallick55]

Excellent pretzels!! Thanks for sharing.

[thegreat58]

Hey, I just made them, they turned out awesome!

[mooseface97]

how much is a packet of yeast.

[rubberducky47]

1/4 oz (7g)

[achancetocut]

A-ha! Second time we did them with no wheat flour, only white, 1/4 cup of baking soda for 8 cups water, LOTS of sea salt on top (except for 2 with cinnamon and sugar instead) and NO parchment paper. They were inhaled by everyone between 2 and 82. We have no real talent in the kitchen, but this easy treat makes us feel like pros.

[TheChemiker]

Wow, these are amazing! Here are a few pointers when making them: Do not use parchment or wax paper, the pretzels just stick like glue to it, use baking spray. Also, this may be different for you, but boil them for about 5 seconds on each side for the best results. Boiling for 1-2 minutes killed 5 of them for me.

[TheChemiker]

I would have pictures, but my family and me ate them too fast! I will make them again, though.

[crzyuilter]

Has anyone tried these with whole wheat flour?  They sound yummy, but I don't use white flour.

[dilinger]

 I'm wondering the exact same thing..

[cjdiersen]

whole wheat (king arthur unbleached white whole wheat) flour must have less gluten than all-purpose white flour, as using 100% whole wheat produced okay-tasting pretzels, but they weren't chewy. Very forgettable. The dough also didn't have that springiness of the dough with white flour. Easier to roll out, but not as good. If you do 50/50 white and wheat the results are much better. I just made a batch with 1.5 cup white and 3 cup wheat that was pretty good. I'll be that with a little semolina or 00 flour you could use as much as 80 or 90% whole wheat. Then again, perhaps there are high-gluten whole wheat flours out there. Don't know, I'm not much of a cook. Perhaps someone who knows can chime in? Don't boil these more than a minute or so.

[SeaLion]

1-1/2 C Water
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Packet Yeast
1 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Oil or Butter
~4-1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Baking Soda
Course Salt

When you say 1-1/2 C does that mean one and a half cup or 'half to a cup' of water? The hyphen makes it quite confusing. This also applies for the flour; 4 and a half cup, right? (I don't want to make the same mistake in misreading ingredients again...last time I did that, my bread was...well, not bread)

I shall try make them tomorrow :D

[NoFiller]

I mean 1.5 and 4.5 respectively. My other worry is people thinking it's 11/2 or something, ha ha. How would you write it?

[SeaLion]

Hmm...1.5 and 4.5 seems fine to me...though I guess if you wanted 1.5 you could've said 3/2 and 9/2 for 4.5...but I guess if I'm the only one who got caught out on this and no one else has asked about it, that means your notation is ok :D
(when I have more free time, I'm definitely making more of these too!!! :D)

[xfirexstarzx]

 This turned out great! I always enjoy when people post up pics of their results so here they are!

They didn't turn out as good looking as I had hoped because I had a hard time rolling them all out and I was a little rushed for time. They sure taste great though! Thanks for the awesome instructable!

[NoFiller]

I love when people post pictures, thank you!

I'm happy to hear they taste great. They sure look good from over here.

[imboox2]

I don't know if these will keep like ones I used to get from a neighbor/friend...if I had any left after a night of friends over I could pop them in the freezer and nuke them for some seconds (depends on the microwave) to thaw them and then put one or two in my bagel toaster to heat them up again.  Adjust the time in either for the chewyness or hardness. I like chewy, so little toasting.

[beans8604]

 my mom did that with these, she said they were just as good

[beans8604]

 this came out soo good. Just a side note if you cut 1 "pretzel rope" into 6 pieces it makes really good pretzel bites. thanks for the instructable 

[soapdude]

First of all is the water/baking soda solution supposed to be messy and bubbly? Kinda came out weird. And also when I had finished baking them i could taste the baking soda? Did I do something wrong?

[NoFiller]

That doesn't sound right. The baking soda fizzed a bit, but it calmed down by the time the pretzels went in.

How big of a pot were you using? It sounds like your concentration of baking soda was too high. If you use the same set up again try cutting the baking soda way back. You should not taste the backing soda once the pretzels are baked.

[soapdude]

Put less baking soda and got just a little fizz this time! Success! came out great. Thanks

[pilotclan9404]

How much did you use this time?

[soapdude]

Very late reply but figured someone might need it. I actually put more water than 4c probably like 7-8 and put like 1/4 cup or just a little more. I pretty much eyed it.

[SeaLion]

Just made them, and I have to say, they are amazing!!! Even my flatmates approved! :D

[Mr X]

 Tried this tonight with the 8cups of water to half cup baking soda and it was still very strong, next time i might halve the amount of baking soda.

[ScotDeerie]

Did you find that they don't save well?  From another recipe (not your's) they tasted delicious when made but by the next day -- YUCK!  Hard as rocks and tasteless.  And I had saved them very carefully in ziplock plastic bags.

[NoFiller]

They saved very well. I kept them in a rubbermade tub on the counter and while they did get a little stale throwing them in the toaster fixed that.

[pilotclan9404]

You can also put a little water on them and microwave them for about 8 - 10 sec

[Ewiks]

Dont use a 1/2 cup. I did and it was just weird. Try a 1/2 TBS

[spraynard]

Don't use a 1/2 cup of what?

[Ewiks]

Baking soda

[pilotclan9404]

ah thanks

[Godot]

 Oskee-wee-wee!

I love pretzels and Grey Cup parties! I've tried baking pretzels before but something was always missing. I never knew about the "soda bath" step. Thanks for the instructions.

Go Cats Go!

[krimille]

Nicely explained!  Good catch on the baking-soda bath, you don't want that too concentrated.  I usually use a recipe from World Magazine, circa 1980.  Very similar, except instead of 1 tbsp white sugar, it calls for 1/3 cup of brown sugar.  It makes a big difference in the taste - not sweet, but strangely addictive.
(At the risk of further annoying the Bavarians, I'd say these are "authentic" North-American pretzels.  Our pizza doesn't taste like it's from Italy either, but that doesn't mean it's not pizza.)

[lampworkz]

I tried the recipe and it came out pretty good! only thing i would recommend is cutting back on the baking soda and spraying the parchment with oil. i could taste the baking soda and see it on spots on the pretzels (1st pic). i had to fight to get the parchment off of them after they came out of the oven (2nd picture). so i sprayed the parchment on the last batch with oil and ta-da!
i modified it slightly when after the yeast mixture. i threw everything in a big kitchen-aid mixer then added ALL the flour, mixed with the dough hook, then let it rise. to beat it down before making the pretzles, i just turned the mixer on for a few seconds and it was ready to go. no messy flour counters! :)
i always thought you couldn't make pretzels unless you had hours and hours set aside but this showed me you don't have to and they're a lot easier than i thought. good job, great instructable. thanks!
my pics won't upload for some reason :( i'll try again another time

[Paladin]

 sounds like you didn't have enough water to baking soda. 

I've made pretzels similar to this, and I was very pleased that they tasted like the ones that the German bakery in Leavenworth WA (run by a real German immigrant). 

All sorts of variations can be made to the recipe. 

Whatever tastes good to you, tastes good to you.

[NoFiller]

I've changed the recommended amount of water to 8 cups for a 1/2 cup of baking soda. I measured it out in the pot that I used and I definitely had more than 4 cups of water. Sorry about that.

[IrellaVent]

I made these this morning with my 3 1/2 year old son before you altered the water to baking soda ratio. We ended up tossing those, (way too baking soda-y), but promptly started again and used 12 cups of water to the half a cup of soda and they came out awesome!

I'll be adding these to my 'collected recipe cook book of things I bake all the time'. Right next to these yummy mini Yorkshire puddings:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Mini-Yorkshire-Puddings/

[kochen375]

Well, "authentic" is open for discussion. ;) The pretzels sook like the soft pretzels you come across at mall food stands, not bavarian traditional bakeries.

The dough looks fine so far, yet I'm sure bavarian master bakers would find something to argue about nonetheless.

What is important however is the solutions you dip the pretzels into before baking. Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃), or baking soda, is not authentic. You want a 4% sodium hydroxide solution (lye, NaOH). In Germany, you can buy sodium hydroxide tablets in the pharmacy. The sodium hydroxide solution is what gives color and the genuine taste to the pretzels.

Be careful while handling the lye! Alkali burns are ugly! Watch Fight Club! ;)

Also, for authentic german pretzels, there is no boiling involved. You want "Brezeln", not pretzel-shaped bagels. ;)

[pmantova]

I've done the lye bath pretzels, and, you're right, it does make a big difference - darker color, chewier crust.

[NoFiller]

I was calling it "Pretzels from Scratch" but someone else already took that name. As "Baking Soda Boiled Pretzels" doesn't sound very good I went for authentic. Maybe I'll add some quotes on authentic...

[Rhyok]

 How much is in "one packet" of yeast? My family has yeast at home, but we bought a small jar of the stuff.

[NoFiller]

The jar of yeast that I use says "2-1/4 teaspoons = 1 packet" on the side of the jar.

[Rhyok]

 Oh... haha. I probably should have checked mine before I asked. I wasn't sure if a "packet" was a standard measurement.

Same here. 

[wiredcur]

Saw the pic in the Instructables email, gave'em a shot and mmm, mmm, mmm... tasty pretzels!

Thanks

[Gbilly]

 Great recipe! I made these super easy pretzels with some five year olds, and they were dynamite! We're NYC street vendor pretzel snobs and they really passed the test. Thanks   

[annikabanannika]

I have a very similar recipe, and I think bread flour is the easiest to work with. a few variations i enjoy, cinnimon and sugar topping, brush with garlic butter, or just melted butter and sea salt. If you have left overs pop them in the toaster for exactly 15 seconds! warms it up but the toppings won't melt off. I also serve it with an easy cheddar dijon sauce from rachel rays website! YUM!

[Thorax]

I don't want to dissapoint u, but those don't look like an original Brezn(that's what it's called here in Bavaria :) ) and i'm quite sure they don't taste like the original. Nevertheless as you surely don't have a real comparison have fun eating yours ;)

[pigpenguin]

what is a grey cup party?
 

[old_bass_masta]

 canadian equivilent of the superbowl

[pigpenguin]

Cool for what sport?

[old_bass_masta]

 ...football.

Look up the CFL (canadian football league) and go Lions!

[capricorn]

Thank you for sharing this My friend, I  was becoming nuts searching for it.

I'll try that as soon I can :)

[zascecs]

Agreed! 

[Kryptonite]

Awesome! Are these crunchy or soft? I'm assuming crunchy but just correct me if I'm wrong. :D

And also, could we get a picture of one next to something like a match stick to see the size? That would be brilliant so we can get an idea on how big they are!

[NoFiller]

The size is really up to you. The ones pictured are about 4 inches across which I thought was a good size to serve as a snack at a party.

[NoFiller]

They are soft but kind of chewy in a nice way.

[pilotclan9404]

Good i love soft

[Kryptonite]

Yummy!

[TheChemiker]

Wow!  I love pretzels, and this looks like something I should try!

[kriemer]

EXCELLENT TUT!!!

I make pretzels using a similar recipe though much abbreviated in terms of effort with only 1 stage of kneading.

1 Cup - All Purpose flour
1 TBSP - Yeast
1 TBSP - Sugar
1/2 Tsp - Salt
Mix dry ingedients

Add
2 TBSP - Margarine
1 Cup - Very Warm Water
Mix well with a fork

Add
13/4 Cup - AP Flour
Knead into a homogeneous dough (when it's mixed its done).

Let rise 1 - 2 hours (until 2 - 3 times original size)

Carefully remove from bowl, do not knead
Cut into quarters
Lightly form into a roll and cut into 3rds

Lightly roll each cut piece into a ball (keeping air in the dough is the point of "lightly").  I have found that pretzel buns are a superior form to the traditional "praying arms" as they stay fresh longer and are way easier to make.

Boil in water/baking soda for 70 seconds a side (I do 6 at a time)

Let cool for a couple of minutes

Paint lightly with beaten egg

Sprinkle coarse salt to taste

Bake in preheated oven: 475 degrees F for 15 - 17 minutes (until golden).

I would advise that you make these in the wee hours of the night as you will find the smell of baking pretzel cause your neighbors to wander over for a taste or 3.

[kcls]

Pretzels are good. I like the puffed up ones because they tend to be more doughy in the center. Great 'ible!

[lemonie]

They look super, I really should have bought some flour on Saturday...

L