Pretzels in a bag ~ Homemade Soft Pretzels

My husband has a slight obsession with soft pretzels. Since my girls love baking, and their dad loves pretzels…it just seemed natural to try our hand at making homemade soft pretzels together. You probably have all of the ingredients on hand right now to make this simple recipe. Read on to find out just how easy these yummy pretzels are to make!

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I’m super excited to share this kid friendly recipe! Best past…no electric mixer required just a zippered plastic bag. Easy Peasy!

Pretzel Ingredients:

Gallon Zippered Plastic Bag ~ make sure it seals well.
1 1/2 C. water (130°F)
1 Tbsp. rapid rise yeast (active dry or instant yeast works well)
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
3 3/4 to 4 C. flour
1 egg, beaten (to use brush on the top of the formed pretzels)
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Pretzel Directions:

In a gallon zippered plastic bag, add the warm water and yeast. Seal the bag and have the kids squish/shake to combine. Don’t worry, there will be some yeast lumps when your done squishing. It’s ok, I promise.

Next, add the sugar and salt. Seal the bag up again, and shake some more

Dump 2 cups of the flour into the bag (you will be adding the rest of the flour in a bit). Seal bag and knead with fingers to blend all the ingredients together.

Add remaining flour to the bag a little at a time. Seal the bag and knead until dough doesn’t stick to the sides of the bag.

Once everything is combined, turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes until smooth and elastic Form into a ball and cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 10 minutes or until dough doubles in size.

Ready to form the pretzels?

We cut our dough into 12 similar sized balls. Although, make your pretzels as big or as small as you like.

Start by rolling the dough into a long snake or rope. Make sure your surface is floured to keep the dough from sticking. Once you have a long snake, form it into a pretzel shape. It took the kids a few tries, but they caught on pretty quickly. Lay the formed pretzels on a baking stone or lightly oiled baking sheet.

Finally, brush each pretzel with an egg-wash. To make the wash, simply beat an egg and brush the tops of each shaped pretzels. While the pretzel is still wet, sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Let the pretzels rest until they are doubled in size, and bake.

Bake at 425° F for 12-15 minutes. Turn the oven to broil for the last 5 minutes to get the tops nice and brown.