Homemade Soft Baked Pretzels are much easier to make than you’d think! For a beautiful and delicious pretzel coating, you only need baking soda and water. Top them with coarse pretzel salt for the ultimate finish.
As an Austrian (Austria is the small country next to Germany – not to confuse with Australia – you’re welcome for this geography lesson!), I basically grew up on pretzels. There are tiny crispy pretzel snacks but my heart beats for Soft Baked Pretzels topped with pretzel salt.
So I want to share my go-to recipe on how to make these vegan Soft Pretzels at home. And it’s much easier than you’d think!
How to shape the pretzels
1) Form a long rope (12 inches / 30 cm) 2) Twist the lower half one or twice (I did a double twist) 3) Fold over the top half.
From Bread to Pretzel…
For the pretzel coating, I’ve cooked them in a baking soda bath before baking. This adds not only the beautiful brown pretzel color (they’ll turn brown while baking) but also the typical pretzel taste! I’ve tried lots of different water to baking soda ratios and found that 1 1/2 tablespoons baking soda to 3 of cups water is ideal. If you use too much baking soda, the pretzels will turn out very bitter (been there, done that, so you don’t have to).
Serve the pretzels with …
- Nooch Cheese Sauce
- Potato Cheese Spread (or as we Austrian like to call it – Kartoffelkäse)
- Basic Hummus
- Oil-Free Spinach Hummus
Homemade Pretzels are so soft and fluffy!
Homemade Soft Baked Pretzels are much easier to make than you'd think! For a beautiful and delicious pretzel coating, you only need baking soda and water. Top them with coarse pretzel salt for the ultimate finish.
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour + more to dust the dough and surfaces
- 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon olive oil + more to coat the dough
- 1/3 cup water
- 3 cups water
- 1 1/2 tablespoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons pretzel salt
Combine the flour, instant yeast, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add olive oil and water. Mix and knead by hand until a soft dough forms or put all the ingredients in a kitchen machine and let the machine knead the dough for you. Finetune the dough: If it's too sticky, add more flour. If it's too crumbly, add more water.
Coat the ball of dough in a drizzle of olive oil. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rest in a warm spot until it doubles in size (about 2-3 hours - depending on the room temperature!).
Divide the dough into 4 equal parts, roll each part into a very long rope (about 12 inches / 30cm). And shape the pretzels (I've included a photo on how to do this in the post).
Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C.
In a medium-sized pot, bring the water for the baking soda bath to a boil. Add the baking soda. Stir to combine.
Cook each pretzel in the baking soda bath for about one minute. Transfer them to a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Immediately sprinkle them with the pretzel salt.
Bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes until golden. And enjoy!
Did you make these vegan Soft Pretzels? Leave a comment and please rate the recipe for other users! If you post a photo 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
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