Bavarian Pretzels Recipe

Out of the oven, the first bite gives a crisp crunch and wonderful pretzel flavor with the softest dough in the middle. Absolutely delightful! Once the boys heard the crunch, it was all hands on the cooling rack and nothing left in minutes. The flavor is good enough not to need extra butter (as my husband is wont to do at times) but also goes well with a goood coarse ground mustard and yes! a nice beer. It was so easy I made multiple batches to play with. I reccomend not changing a thing in this recipe. I split the batch into 12 moderate sized pretzels rather than big ones. so that they would last longer (they didn't :) One thing I did try that showed interesting results: Kneading by hand made the inside very soft like frsh white bread. Kneading by Kitchenaid made the center more tough for a heartier chew. Also tried wrapping around already simmered turkey brats after dipping pretzels in baking soda solution and made fantastic pretzel brats. This recipe is a definite keeper. My thanks to the Drexlers for passing this on!

A tip for those that have trouble with the water bath. After shaped, let them rise on counter about 20 minutes, place in the refrigerator uncovered and allow them to form a skin for about 45 minutes and have your water bath ready. To get a better pretzel flavor try baking your baking soda on a foil lined sheet in the oven at 300F for 1 hour; this will make it more alkaline and more like the traditional lye that is used and not as caustic. I prep a whole tray of baking soda and store in the pantry for pretzels and bagels. I use about 1/3 cup per 6 cups water.

Ok y’all....PLEASE weigh your ingredients! I only added about an extra half cup of flour. And do a second rise! After you knead it...cover and let rise until double. (About an hour ish). Then proceed. Those that said they ended up with pretzel disks...that’s what happens! That yeast is WORKING! I made 8 and they’re tasty!

These were good in that any homemade bread is good. I'm making and comparing a few soft pretzel recipes in preparation for an Oktoberfest party, so I suggest1 - Use bread flour, not AP flour. The dough was really soft and sticky, I had to knead in some more flour just to handle it, and the first few I rolled did not develop good surface tension and absorbed water during the alkaline bath. Once I got the right amount of flour incorporated, they rolled better. I find that recipes made with AP flour tend to have this issue where ones made with bread flour don't. 2 - Use a full teaspoon of salt. The dough was a bit bland, and more salt would have helped. Ultimately the texture of these is like a soft mall pretzel -- delicious in their own right. -- not so much a crusty pub pretzel which is what I'm after. Finally, I used a trick for the alkaline bath where I baked 1c of baking soda for 2 hours at 250 to dehydrate it and raise the Ph, which gives better browning. Then I used 3T of this baking soda with the water, and dipped each pretzel for 30 seconds on each side. This yielded the best pretzel crust I've made to date!

Had to add more flour, like 3/4 cup more. I loved the outside shell and the inside dough was soft and tasted like bread. I was expecting more of a dense pretzel like dough inside. To me it just tasted like bread. I would make them again but seems like they needed more of a sourdough feeling to the dough and to be tougher. My daughter made a couple of much smaller ones which actually seemed closer to real pretzels then the large ones I made. Yes, I did knead the dough for at least 8 minutes. I made these for a party and everyone enjoyed them, so they were good. I am not much of a baker, so not sure what I would change next time.

I've been craving "ballpark" pretzels (thicker and slightly crustier than the mall ones) and I figured it was probably easier to make them than drive around until I found one! I just made these and they taste amazing! They're a little softer on the outside than I prefer, but the taste and texture of the inside is perfect. If I can get the outside a little chewier, they'll be absolutely perfect. Maybe I didn't boil them long enough? I slid them back in the oven (which I had already turned off) for a few minutes and they're a little better. Not sure what else to try, but I'll definitely make these again! I did have to add an additional 3/4-1 cup of flour, but they rolled and shaped beautifully. I cut the dough into 8 balls, formed one, put it in the water, then rolled the next one out. As soon as the next was rolled into a long rope, I flipped the boiling one, then formed the rolled one. As soon as it was formed, I put the boiled one upside-down on a paper towel and immediately flipped it right-side-up onto a Silpat on a baking sheet. I sprinkled it with kosher salt and put the next one in the water, then repeated the process. The timing of this worked for me. Thanks so much for this fabulous recipe!!

YUM!!! Wow, are these amazing! I followed this to the letter, although I needed a smidge more flour, as my dough was incredibly sticky. I popped the dough in my Kitchen Aid with the dough hook attachment to knead, just to make my life a little easier. Worked wonderfully :) It is really helpful to roll the dough into ropes, set aside and let them rest as you make the rest of the ropes, and then go back to the first rope and roll it longer. Letting it rest for a couple minutes makes it so much easier to get the desired length. Also, I would like to add in case anyone is new to bread making, it is imperative that the 1 and 1/3 cup water you add to the yeast mixture is warm. That will activate the yeast. Anyways, this is an awesome recipe- easy and delicious. The pretzels have a lovely crunch on the outside, but are tender on the inside. Perfect snack with a nice cold beer! Thanks for sharing Tim Drexler :)

Wonderful and not too hard to make. Even fun for the kids to roll out the dough and shape the pretzels. Made these about 10 times so far since they are SO good. I found if I do not added butter on top they get more of a golden brown, or maybe just be sure to add a little butter not too much. Just experiment with one or two with the butter since it could depend on your oven. Also I made a water/baking soda bath so you don't need to flip the pretzels, and a spatula to scoop them out. If you do not dip them in the water/baking soda bath, you can make them dessert pretzels by adding sugar and cinnamon on top. Do use a flat baking sheet without ridges as these things tend to stick.

I loved it! Simple and delicious. We had to use restraint not to finish them all in 10 minutes! I split the dough into balls after kneading and let rise for 40 minutes before rollungout and shaping

I made four batches. One with 100% Whole Wheat Flour and no butter (I forgot), one with Whole Wheat Flour and Vital Wheat Gluten, and two with Unbleached White Flour and butter. The whole wheat flour pretzels were okay, but they needed more salt... and butter to dip them in. I much preferred the Unbleached White Flour version. They were pillow soft, chewy, and really good.

More flour needed. To prevent soggy-ness, took out of water placed on cookie sheet prepped with no stick spray. Let drip off a bit, then moved to sprayed baking sheet. Egg wash. Took a bit longer in oven than recipe...quite tasty!

I’ve tried so many, but this one stands out.

too small serving but i'll try agin

amazing taste and easy to make!! it turns out so soft in the middle and crispy on the outside.also i recommend using salted butter for everything to give it extra flaver.

This recipe is wonderful and so easy to follow and then you eat a pretzel that tastes like you got them from a bakery in Bavaria I would recommend this recipe to all. Delicious.

Fun and crunchy. Real Philly taste!

Without the proper flour, it's impossible to make authentic bavarian pretzels. That said, these are very good! I made both pretzel twists and buns to accompany weisswurst. Tip: to stretch the dough, gently pull from both ends while tapping the center on the bread board. Twist the length of dough before shaping the pretzel for a pretty stripe effect.

I've used other recipes to make homemade pretzels and loved them, but these were "Bavarian" so I thought I'd give them a shot. Very disappointed. They don't have the classic pretzel flavor or consistency. My whole family reacted, basically, with "I guess they're OK." I'll go back to my other recipes....

these pretzels are so easy to make they are quite large though. my family and I love them

I let the dough rise for an hour after the initial mix and I used a lye bath. Fantastic!