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Let’s make something fun and tasty, homemade soft pretzels. These are the best! Warm, chewy, and hot from the oven, there may not be anything better!
This soft pretzel recipe is definitely going to be a hit with your family. Want to make these even better? Make them and serve them homemade queso! This post will tell how to make queso at home, and once you do you will never go back to store bought cheese!
This is the FINAL Technical Bake for the GBBO Collection 2 on Netflix. The other choices for the week were a Layered Picnic Pie and a Wedding Cake. But while I was watching the final with my kids my 16-year-old said: “PICK THE PRETZELS mom!” And so I did!
That kid is ON to something, he always is! He wanted SOFTER pretzels and we tried baking these at 350˚ for just 20 minutes. What a difference. They aren’t brown and crispy on the outside, they are just baked, and oh so good!
We love this Soft Pretzel Recipe and so will you!
There’s just something so fun and tasty about them. The dough is easy to prepare and the twisting of pretzels is a fun family-centric activity everyone can participate in. And if you have sourdough maybe try this Sourdough Pretzel Bites recipe!
Homemade Pretzels Without Malt Extract
So Paul Hollywood’s recipe calls for Malt Extract. And times being what they are (written during the Covid19 outbreak) I’m not going out to find it. I’d have to drive 45 miles one way to find it, so we’ll skip it!
I swapped out brown sugar for the malt extract. The pretzels tasted just fine. If you have to have a bottle of liquid malt extract by all means sub it for the brown sugar. And then let me know how it works!
The Best Way to Twist Homemade Pretzels
If you watch the show there was quite a lot of fretting about how to twist the pretzel dough. But it’s pretty simple:
- divide this dough into 12 equal pieces
- roll each piece to about 18 inches in length, tapering the ends and leaving the middle thick(ish)
- then pick the dough up by both ends, give it a twist, and then fold it over on itself
- dab the two ends with water and pinch them onto the pretzel
- lay it on a prepared baking sheet and repeat
- I put 6 pretzels on two sheet pans covered with parchment paper
Then I started thinking you CAN shape them any way you like, that’s just the traditional way to shape them. So make your initials or shapes or even pretzel bites. Have fun with this soft pretzel recipe!
Do I need special salt for my Homemade Pretzels?
I mean if you HAVE kosher or rock salt (not recommended by me, it may have a different meaning in England but wow those are huge pieces) you can use it. I tried sea salt on mine at first and they were FINE.
You can grab Pretzel Salt on Amazon and it looks good!
Can I Make Bread with All-Purpose Flour?
Yes, you can absolutely make bread even IF you don’t have bread flour. Bread flour has wheat that has a higher gluten content so it’s a little more structurally sound. If you DON’T have bread flour it’s going to be just fine. I test all my recipes with All-Purpose Flour (AP Flour) to make sure they will work for you.
As a mom of teen boys I know buying bread flour in bulk can be hard to do, whether its availability OR price that makes it hard. So I make sure that if anyone needs (KNEADS) to use AP flour, they’ll be just fine to do so.
You can ALSO make your own bread flour out of AP flour. Simply measure out your flour, for every cup remove 1.5 teaspoons of flour and add in 1.5 teaspoons of vital wheat gluten.
Fair Food at Home?
Yes, make Fair Food at Home! Why not try what The Mom on the Move did with her family and make an entire Fair Food at Home dinner experience! She made easy home versions of their favorite fair food, so much fun!
If you LOVE the GBBO why not join our Great British Baking Show Bake-Along? Here are all the details!
Homemade Pretzels
Let's make something fun and tasty, homemade pretzels. These are the best! Warm, chewy, and hot from the oven, there may not be anything better!
Ingredients
- 4 cups of bread flour minus 1 TBSP, you can use AP if that's what you have
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt, use an extra 1/4 teaspoon if you use unsalted butter
- 3 TBSP butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 1 TBSP brown sugar
- 3 quarts of water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- salt for the top, kosher, sea salt, pretzel salt
Instructions
- put the flour in the bowl of your mixer
- add yeast on one side and salt on the other
- warm the milk and butter gently on the stove, the butter just needs to warm up as does the milk
- remove from the heat, stir in the brown sugar
- pour the milk over the flour in the bowl, put the bread hook in, and let the machine bring it together as a ball
- then let it knead the dough for 2 minutes
- put in an oiled bowl and let it rise until double in size
- when it's doubled bring the water to a boil in a shallow skillet or dutch oven
- line two baking trays with parchment paper or foil
- pre-heat the oven to 400˚
- meanwhile, working quickly, divide the dough into 12 pieces, roll a piece 18 inches long, twist the ends together, fold it over on itself, use water to pinch the ends to the dough as needed
- repeat with remaining dough
- once the pretzels are all shaped add the baking soda to the boiling water, stir to combine
- use a slotted spoon to gently put a pretzel in the water, count to five, and pull it out-the pretzels WILL rise up to the top of the water once they're done so you can do it that way too, just don't leave them in the boiling water
- put the boiled dough back on the baking tray, and repeat with the remaining dough
- sprinkle with salt and bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven
- cool on a baking rack until cool enough to eat
Notes
•If you want REALLY soft pretzels reduce the heat to 350˚ and bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through
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