Sourdough Soft Pretzels
Sourdough pretzels have a deep flavor from long fermentation and the satisfying chew and crisp crust of a classic soft pretzel. These pretzels are a fun, hands-on baking project for the whole family.
Table of contents
Why you’ll love this recipe
This recipe uses active sourdough starter for both leavening and flavor, resulting in a dough that’s complex yet easy to work with.
The process includes a quick dip in an alkaline (baking soda) bath for that signature “pretzely” crust.
I like to start the dough in the afternoon/evening of day 1 and then roll the pretzels the next morning.
If you work on this schedule you’ll have fresh hot pretzels by early afternoon. The baked pretzels freeze really well. Just pop them in the oven to re-warm before eating.
We ate these Sourdough Soft Pretzels with my Jalapeño Cheddar Dip, only this time instead of a fresh jalapeño I made the sauce with chopped up Pickled Jalapeños. YUMMMMMY!
If you don’t have one, check out my post to learn How to Make a Sourdough Starter. Then check out my system to Feed and Maintain Sourdough Starter or you can learn How to Keep a Small Sourdough Starter.
I know you hate to throw away that sourdough discard. Check out these recipes that use sourdough discard.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- All Purpose Flour – Medium content AP flour makes a pretzel with a soft crumb but with enough elasticity to shape into the iconic pretzel twist.
- Sourdough Starter – The recipe was developed using a 100% hydration starter. If your starter is not 100% hydration you will need to adjust the flour or water in the recipe as needed.
- Baking Soda – The baking soda bath is alkaline (not acidic). The alkaline bath gives the pretzel the classic slightly bitter crust. The alkaline bath also aides in browning so the pretzels become deeply golden brown in the oven.
Process Photos
See the recipe card for detailed measurements and instructions.
- Combine the active starter with water and some of the flour. Set it aside for 1 hour. This give the flour time to absorb the water and begins the process of gluten development.
- Add the sugar, salt and remaining flour to the sponge.
- The dough will start out quite shaggy.
- After 5 minutes of kneading the dough should be cohesive, cling to the hook and clear the sides of the mixing bowl.
- Set the dough aside at room temperature for the initial fermentation.
- Every hour fold the dough over itself to aerate the dough and redistribute the yeast.
- After a night in the refrigerator the dough is ready for shaping.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece into a tight ball.
- Roll the dough to a long rope. Pull up the two ends to form a “U”.
- Twist the ends 2x.
- Lift the twisted end toward the center of the “U”.
- Lift the pretzel by the top to transfer to the baking sheet. Set the pretzels aside for 1 hour.
- Boil the pretzels in the baking soda bath for 10 seconds per side.
- Transfer the boiled pretzels to a cooling rack to drain. Continue with the rest of the pretzels.
- Transfer the boiled pretzels to the baking sheet. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with salt.
- Bake until golden brown.
Storage
The pretzels are best warm from the oven or within a few hours of baking. Pack left over pretzels into storage bags and freeze up to a month. Re-warm the pretzels in a low oven to serve.
More Pretzel Recipes
More Sourdough Recipes
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Sourdough Soft Pretzels
Ingredients
- 8 oz active sourdough starter (1 cup, 100% hydration)
- 10 oz warm water (1 ¼ cups)
- 17 ½ oz all-purpose flour (3 ½ cups, see note)
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons table salt
- 2 quarts water
- 2 ½ oz baking soda (⅓ cup, for boiling)
- 1 egg white (lightly whisked)
- salt and seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Combine 8 oz active sourdough starter and 10 oz warm water in the bowl of a stand a mixer with the paddle attached (or mix by hand).
- With the mixer running on low add 10 oz (2cups) of the flour and mix to form a smooth batter. Cover the bowl and set it aside for 30-60 minutes.
- Switch to the dough hook and add 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, 1 ½ teaspoons table salt and the remaining 7 ½ oz flour. Knead on medium speed for 5 minutes. The dough will clear the bowl and cling to the hook after kneading. If mixing by hand knead the dough hand for 5 minutes, sprinkle with extra flour as you knead if required.
- Scrape the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover the bowl and set aside at room temperature.
- After 30 minutes uncover the bowl, lift one side of the dough and fold it into the middle of the dough. Repeat with the other three sides of the dough then flip the dough over. You're basically turning the dough inside-out to redistribute the yeast. Cover the bowl and after 60 minutes repeat the procedure again.
- Cover the bowl and after 60 minutes turn the dough one more time. By now the dough should be lively, elastic and airy. If the dough is still sluggish give it another hour or two at room temperature. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight.
Make the Pretzels (Day 2)
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and sprinkle the paper lightly with flour.
- Turn the cold dough out onto a floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece into a smooth ball. Shape a dough ball into a rope. Using flat hands, roll the dough back and forth moving your hands in opposite directions from the middle of the rope towards either end. If the dough gets sticky dip your hands in flour and continue. The dough should stick to the surface just a little so that the friction will allow you to pull the dough into a long rope. The longer and thinner the rope the more open the pretzel shape will be. Try to get the rope to about 20"-24"
- To form a pretzel lift the dough rope on either end and allow the middle to sit on the surface, forming a "U" shape. Twist the ends of the rope together 2x and fold the twist over and rest on the center of the "U". Lift the pretzel by the two top loops and place on the baking sheet.
- Cover the tray with plastic wrap and set aside to for 1 hour to bring the dough to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, combine 2 quarts water and 2 ½ oz baking soda in a large pot and bring it to a boil. Preheat the oven to 475 °F.
- Drop the pretzels into the boiling water for 10 seconds, flip and boil another 10 seconds. (I can fit about 3 at a time in my pot, don't overcrowd the pan). Set the boiled pretzels onto a cooling rack set over a clean baking sheet. Continue boiling all the pretzels.
- Transfer the pretzels back to the baking sheets. Brush each pretzel with egg white and sprinkle with coarse salt and/or seeds of your choice. Bake until puffed and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Turn the sheets halfway through baking so they brown evenly.
- They’re best eaten warm from the oven. They also freeze really well.
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I baked these this morning and they’re delicious! I have a fairly new and robust sourdough, and am always looking for things to do with the extra.
I noticed quite a few comments mentioning the dough was too wet. My experience was similar, but your description about the dough pulling away from the mixing bowl saved me. I kept adding flour a little at a time until it behaved as described; in total I probably used another half cup. (I should also mention that I always weigh out my ingredients, since I believe there’s too much deviation in volume measurements.)
Thanks for a great recipe! I plan to try some of the other discard recipes on this site.
I made the pretzel dough yesterday and left it in the fridge overnight. This morning when I started to cut the dough into 12 pieces I found that as soon as I made a cut the two sections of dough either side of the cut stuck back together. Was my dough too moist? I ended up by cutting it with scissors and keeping the two cut sides apart from each other as I cut.
I found the dough soft and floppy when rolling it into “sausages” but at least it didn’t stick to a lightly floured bread board. I wondered if it would help if the board were more heavily floured, but I was afraid to add more flour to it in case it spoiled the pretzels. What do you think?
After one hour I lifted the pretzels from the baking tray with a spatula and immersed them in boiling water/soda mix. They were pretty floppy to lift, and impossible to slide sideways off the spatula into the water. However, I solved this by lifting the pretzel onto the spatula and then quickly turning it upside down so that the pretzel dropped flat into the water. Turning it over in the water was no problem.
After all the nervous moments, the pretzels turned out well and my family loved them. 15 minutes after they came out of the oven there were none left.
Do you think my dough was too moist and should I add a bit more flour next time?
I see from the comments that some people have had problems with making the sour dough starter. It might be worth letting people know that it is best to use bottled water because if their city’s tap water is treated with chlorine or monochloramine it could inhibit the growth of the yeast. In fact, my first two attempts failed for this reason (monochloramine). As soon as I used bottled water my starter was a success. I am now thinking that I should use untreated water for making the pretzel dough as well. I’ll try it next time and let you know if it makes a difference.
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Anne, the pretzel dough is a soft dough. That’s why I find it easiest to form the pretzels with the dough while it’s still chilled. I use tap water for all my starters and doughs with no problem at all. But we do have good tap water. If your water is very chlorinated or has heavy minerals you could use bottled water. I made side by side starters using bottled and tap water and the two starter behaved exactly the same. But, again, our tap water is quite good.
Hello Eileen, Thank you for your speedy response. I did cut the dough into 11 pieces to form the pretzels as soon as I took it out of the fridge. Seeing as the ends of the pieces stuck together before I had finished making a cut, does it sound to you as though the dough was too soft? Would adding more flour make it a bit firmer and easier to handle or would this make the pretzels “tough”? I am fairly new to sough dough starter so I find it hard to judge.
After my two failures at making the starter I gave up but when we had a shortage of commercial yeast due to the pandemic, I decided to try again using three separate jars thinking that at least one of them should work. They all worked so now I have a fridge full of active starter and I’m looking for more ways to use it. Haha. You just can’t win.
Our tap water comes from a river over a thousand km in length and the rock along its route is predominantly limestone. The city treats the water with monochloramine and I think it’s also given boosts of chlorine at intervals as it flows through water pipes. I really don’t know if this would affect the starter.
I made these last weekend and they were a big hit! Even though only one of them really looked like an actual pretzel they were devoured! I topped some with classic coarse salt, some with everything but the bagel seasoning and some with panko bread crumbs. And with mustard and beer they were just perfect! Thank you!
Hello, I’d love to make these, but if I want to halve the recipe, would I also halve the amount of yeast?! Thank you in advance!! 🙂
Yes. Or make the full recipe and freeze the extras. A few minutes in the oven is all you need to reheat and enjoy!
I started these yesterday and finished up today. Everything went as expected until shaping the pretzels The dough is VERY wet & sticky. Next time, when separating into 12 pieces I will work with 1/4 at a time and keep the rest cold. Place the pieces onto a floured surface or they will stick – I placed them on wax paper which was a bad decision – I lost the equivalent of 2 pretzels . Where Eileen says lightly flour surface use more than what you think of as light. As I rolled the dough into rope I had better success if the rope was nicely coated with flour. Next time I will not bake on parchment – the paper stuck (it was well oiled) and I had to cut off most of the bottoms of the finished pretzels. I would just oil the baking sheet to bake. Finally, these taste very good but not much of sourdough. Next time I’ll bump up my starter content.