Recipe for vegan, homemade Pretzel Buns. Start making your own because it’s delicious and easy! They’re the perfect base for all your burgers!
The thing with homemade, from-scratch bread is that once you’re used to having your apartment smell like toasty bread and biting into that warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven-bread, you’ll never want to got back to the store-bought bread again. Consider this my warning :)
I’m a sucker for carbs and thinking of bread alone makes me warm and fuzzy. I’ve been making various bread recipes for the last couple of years (many of them found their way on the blog), but homemade pretzel rolls have always been among of my favorites. Sprinkled with poppy seeds and sesame seeds, they are my go-to buns for burgers.
Serve with …
I’ve used these Pretzel Buns for the Green Veggie Burger with broccoli and potatoes. It’s the perfect burger patty, that doesn’t fall apart. You can find the recipe for the Green Veggie Burger here!
You can also use these Pretzel Buns for …

Homemade Pretzel Buns
Ingredients
Bread Dough
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1¼ cups lukewarm water
Baking Soda Water Bath
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons baking soda
Toppings
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- Mix the flour, instant yeast, and salt for the rolls in a large mixing bowl. Then add the olive oil and the water for the dough. Knead by hand until a soft dough firms or use a kitchen machine and let the machine knead the dough for you.
- Once a smooth, non-sticky dough forms (you might have to add more water or more flour), cover it with a clean kitchen towel and let it sit until it doubles in size (about 1-2 hours).
- Preheat the oven to 480 °F / 250 °C.
- Cut the dough in eight equal pieces and form the rolls.
- In a pot, heat the water for the water bath and add in the baking soda. Place one roll after another in the hot baking soda water bath with the top side down and let it simmer in there for about half a minute to a minute. Then put them on a baking sheet lined with floured parchment paper.
- Carve the surface of the dough lightly with a knife and add the poppy and sesame seeds on top.
- Bake the bread in the oven for about 20 minutes and take it out once the surface is wonderful golden. You can knock on the bottom of the bread and when it sounds hollow it's done!
Nutrition
If you give these homemade Pretzel Buns a try I’d love to hear how they turned out for you! Leave a comment or post a picture on instagram, use the hashtag #elephantasticvegan and tag me via @elephantasticvegan to make sure I’ll see it ^.^ I love to see all your lovely creations! Thanks! <3
Carol
Sunday 6th of December 2020
Has anyone tried this with gluten free flour?
Kacy
Wednesday 16th of October 2019
Can these dough balls be frozen?
G
Tuesday 12th of December 2017
This looks great but I would edit the prep time to be more than 35 minutes as it has to sit for an hour or two
Bianca
Friday 15th of December 2017
Thank you! I never know how to deal with the rise time because it's not really active prep time, but I'll check how other recipe bloggers handle this and probably edit all the recipes then.
Natalie | Feasting on Fruit
Wednesday 8th of February 2017
I don't discriminate with bread, if it's a baked carb odds are I'm going to love it. But pretzel bread. Pretzel bread is really in a category all it's own--hands down my favorite whether it be twisty or in bun form! That super crispy/chewy baking soda exterior is just too good <3 And it's so simple on ingredients too! One batch for me with a bottle of the freshly baking bread scent to go with please :)
Rebecca Strength and Sunshine
Tuesday 7th of February 2017
All buns and rolls should be pretzel-ified ;)
Bianca
Wednesday 8th of February 2017
Agreed! So worth the extra step :)