Best German Pretzel Bite Recipe!

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I had been craving a good fresh pretzel for a while.  After a bit of time, I finally have an excellent authentic German pretzel recipe to share!  I made pretzel bites with it as it is a little easier, but the same recipe will do for pretzels too!

yum!!

Here’s the recipe: (or get the printable version here)

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 packet active yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 2 quarts water for bath

Instructions

1. Add yeast to warm water.  Let it settle for about 5 minutes.  Then add the sugar and salt to the yeast and mix in.
2. Add the yeast, sugar, and salt mixture to the flour. Mix together. I used the dough hook on my kitchenaid and mixed for about 5 minutes on speed #2.  Let dough rest for 30 minutes.
3. Cut dough into about 5-6 equal parts. Roll out on a clean surface.  Don’t need to flour the surface, the dough shouldn’t stick.  Roll the dough in a line until it is about 1 inch in diameter.  Cut 1.5-2 inch pieces and place on a lined baking sheet.
4. Place the baking sheet uncovered in the fridge for approx. 1 hour. This is key. This helps build a skin making it have that nice crust.
5. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
6. Bring 2 quarts of water to boil. SLOWLY add in baking soda into the boiling water little bits at a time. *caution* this creates quite a bubbly reaction for a few seconds so stand back and don’t get burned!  It will eventually simmer down after a few seconds.  Then add more.  You have been warned!
7. Add the pieces of dough into the soda bath.  Let it sit for about 10-20 seconds and then remove. I used a pasta server to remove it and found it to be the perfect tool.
8. Sprinkle with coarse salt (I like mine unsalted, so I didn’t).  Bake the pretzels for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.  Move to a cooling rack. Grab some honey mustard, nacho cheese, or a slice of cheese and enjoy!

Pictures of the process:

the pieces freshly out of their soda bath!

 Look how nice and brown they turned out… too hot to eat!

nice and done!

Now grab some honey mustard and enjoy!  My Bavarian figure loves to eat pretzels!

Now for some tips, tricks, and other info regarding German pretzels.

• The traditional German recipe calls for a bath made of lye (yes, lye!!).  The baking soda is a safer alternative.  It tastes *almost* as good.  I’m not willing to go playing around with lye just to make my own pretzel.  Go figure, the real German pretzel is dangerous to make. 
• Letting the dough rest in the fridge allows a nice skin to form which is key.
• You can use this recipe to make pretzel shapes. Just row out about 20 inches of dough and then fold.
• Some recipes call for an egg wash prior to baking.  I tested the pretzel bites with and without an egg wash.  I honestly couldn’t tell a difference in appearance or in taste.  Obviously not needed! 

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