The BEST Homemade Pretzel Bread (or Pretzel Rolls) recipe ever. Seriously, once you make this you will never be able to eat store-bought pretzel bread again! It’s dense, soft, chewy, buttery, salty and irresistibly delicious.
This Homemade Pretzel Bread is THE best bread you will ever eat in your life. I am totally not exaggerating either. It is one of my most requested creations and literally everyone who tries it asks for the recipe. It’s dense, soft, chewy, buttery, salty and unbelievably delicious.
I know making homemade bread can seem intimidating…but don’t worry! We’ve created a video that shows you how to make this homemade pretzel bread step-by-step! And if there’s a recipe that’s worth conquering your kitchen fears for, this is definitely it.
I have also included instructions for how to make pretzel rolls as well! Pretzel rolls make a great smaller serving size option. They are also the best hamburger buns in the world!
Ritch absolutely adores this bread, and since it’s one of his favorite recipes of all time I thought I’d let him share his thoughts about it with you….
How to Make Homemade Pretzel Bread
- The first is to simply toss all the ingredients in a bread machine and set it to the “dough cycle.” Even the most sheepish bread-makers can do that, right?
- The other method involves mixing and kneading the dough using a standing mixer or your hands!
I like to do the latter because I can be sure every step of the process is going exactly the way it should be! However, I have used my bread machine with the same delicious results!
The pretzel bread dough only has to rise one time.
If you are familiar to the process of making homemade bread, you will notice that there is one unique step to the dough-making process for this recipe.
Baking soda bath.
How is a pretzel different from bread?
Bake immediately.
Brush with melted butter.
How to make Pretzel Rolls
This recipe makes the best pretzel rolls. To make pretzel rolls, follow the recipe exactly, except make a few slight changes:
- Divide dough into eight equal pieces.
- Boil each dough ball for 30 seconds on each side, remove from the water, transfer to a baking sheet, and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once halfway through.
That’s it! then brush each of the pretzel rolls with melted butter and enjoy as rolls or hamburger buns (YUM)!.
Homemade Pretzel Bread: Substitutions
As always I recommend making this recipe exactly as written, however here are a few possible substitutions!
- Whole Milk. 2% milk works well! I do this often with great results! Half & half or cream also work well!
- All-purpose flour. Bread flour is the only other flour I have used to make this recipe and it produces an incredibly delicious final product!
That’s it! I really don’t recommend tinkering with this recipe any more! 🙂
More homemade bread recipes
- This easy No-Knead Bread is a staple in our house.
- We love making these dinner rolls for holiday celebrations.
- This whole wheat bread makes the best sandwiches!
- And these cinnamon rolls are always a hit!
IF YOU MAKE SOMETHING FROM JOYFOODSUNSHINE I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR CREATIONS! DON’T FORGET TO RATE THIS RECIPE AND LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW! ALSO, FOLLOW ALONG WITH ME ON INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE AND TWITTER FOR MORE RECIPE INSPIRATION AND A GLIMPSE INTO OUR EVERYDAY LIFE!
Homemade Pretzel Bread (Pretzel Rolls)
Ingredients
Pretzel Bread Dough
- 2 ¼ tsp yeast
- 1 cup warm water 105-110 degrees F
- 2 TBS whole milk
- 3 TBS brown sugar
- 4 TBS butter melted
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
Baking Soda Bath
- 4 quarts water
- ½ cup baking soda
Topping
- 1-2 TBS coarse sea salt
- 2 TBS butter melted
Instructions
- Combine yeast, water, and brown sugar in the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the dough hook. Let stand for 5 minutes (until foamy).
- While yeast is proofing…melt butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Mix in milk and set aside.
- Once yeast is proofed, add milk/butter to yeast mixture and mix on low speed with dough hook until just combined.
- Add salt and flour and mix with dough hook until flour is fully incorporated.
- Knead in a mixer until the dough forms a slightly tacky, but firm ball, you may need to add a little more flour 1 TBS at a time, but be careful, you want your dough a little tacky but not too sticky to handle.
- Oil a large bowl, place the dough ball in the bowl, and cover with a damp towel in a warm place to let rise for one hour or until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. When the water is boiling, slowly add the baking soda a little bit at a time (Be careful not to add too much at once or you will have a baking soda/water explosion)!
- Remove the dough from the bowl and gently press out the air bubbles.
- Make two balls of dough the same size (NOTE: The total weight of the dough comes out to be about 800 g, so each loaf should weigh about 400 g), forming them into the shape you want (Do not let it rise at all here! Straight from forming the ball into the water).
- Drop one of the balls into the boiling baking soda water. Boil for 60-90 seconds on each side, turning it once to guarantee both sides covered. Drain the excess water from the dough and place it on an oiled baking sheet.
- Immediately sprinkle coarse sea salt over the bread to your specific tastes, and use a knife to cut a small "X" on the top of the bread.
- Repeat with second ball of dough. (Do not let it rise at all here! Straight from boiling into the oven).
- Bake the bread for 22-25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once.
- Once removed from the oven, immediately brush the melted butter over the loaves to guarantee a soft crust. Transfer to a wire rack to cool just enough to enjoy!
- *You can reheat it on a low temp covered in foil if you decide to make it a bit ahead of time. I cover it with a tea towel or something if I’m not going to serve it right away.
Video
Notes
How to make Pretzel Rolls
This recipe makes the best pretzel rolls. To make pretzel rolls, follow the recipe exactly, except make a few slight changes:- Divide dough into eight equal pieces.
- Boil each dough ball for 30 seconds on each side, remove from the water, transfer to a baking sheet, and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once halfway through.
Nutrition
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Eva
Can you make actual pretzels out of this dough ?
Timea Kiss
I made the pretzel bread this morning, and it is just perfect! I made it with 100% light spelt flour, coconut blossom sugar and goat’s butter and turned out perfect and yummy! I let it bake 30 min. Thank you so much for the recipe Laura, I love it!
Arlene Northway
I made pretzel buns. The are easy to make and quite delicious. I baked them on parchment paper which was a bad idea! The buns stuck to the paper and I had to carefully slice off the bottoms.
Bulmara
I made them. They were so tasty! Thanks for sharing.
Prizm T.
Does this use instant or regular yeast? TIA!
Kerry Kemo
This recipe is so awesome!! I followed directions exactly and was pleasantly surprised. My whole family loved it! Thank you so much for sharing!
Pam
Do you use regular or instant yeast?
Laura
Regular (Active Dry) yeast
Kerry C Kemo
I used instant.
Pam
Thanks
Bill
Any chance the recipe can be updated to included weight scale measurements in grams?
Renee
I just made this recipe. Followed exactly (except for some hand-kneading after removing the dough from my mixer – just to make sure it was smooth and elastic), and WOW!!! It is delicious, absolutely wonderful. Forget about buying store-bought ever. These are hands-down way more delicious. My son and I were having a very hard time not just stuffing the entire loaves into our mouths.
I’m going to use this recipe to make “meat rolls”. After the rise, will lay the dough out, stretch it into a rectangle, and scatter chunks of salami, gruyere cheese, roasted garlic cloves, (possible a few Mama Lil’s peppers?), and sprinkle with parmesan. Then roll up into a loaf shape, bake off, and see what happens! Can’t wait! I’ll report back with how it went. Thanks for a great recipe.
Shari
I made this and it was a hit with the whole family!!! The kids bragged how good it was and my husband said it’s the best bread ever! Definitely a keeper, thank you!!!
Saral
Omg. These are FANTASTIC!! I made the dough in the bread machine and then followed the directions to a t. They were so perfect at 18 mins with rotating the pans halfway. These are absolutely delicious and so easy. This will be a regular recipe now. Thank you!!!
Justin J
Thank you for the recipe, I used it to make pretzel rolls for thanksgiving and in the past for pretzel roll buns for burgers. Both times they were a hit.
Tamara
If I am using a bread maker, and going to step 8, do I skip the bath or do I add those ingredients to the bread pan too?
Laura
You need to do the bath separately – do NOT add those ingredients to the bread maker.
Camille
I have made this recipe several times because the bread is amazing! Boiling dough was foreign to me but it was easy and fun! My husband even wanted to participate and he is not a cook! Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe with the world!
Annie
I knew these would be good, but I had absolutely no idea how amazing they would turn out. Oh. My. Goodness. This is the best bread I have ever eaten in my life. I messed up the recipe at every turn (dough appeared too wet, I forgot to pre-boil the water etc) but my loaves still turned out fantastic!!! Sincerely this is amazing, I’ll be reaching for this recipe in the future!!
Stephanie F.
These are simply delicious! I cannot make them often enough for the family. They worked perfectly for our tuna salad sandwiches. Thanks for such a great recipe!