Pretzels, like many non-Italian foods, entered my life for the first time in London. I’d be the weirdo who dunks the poppy seed ones in my hot latte at Pret a Manger. Then came the Winter Wonderland Pretzels that led a long series of ones tried at many German markets around Europe. The stuff is addictive.

After a quick experiment, initiated by Tavo in Singapore (of course, no Pret a Manger), we were so happy with the result! There are many recipes out there as in different areas of Germany (and Europe, US…) Pretzels are made differently. This recipe is probably the simplest one and can be modified slightly if what you prefer is sweet Pretzels (see below in the instructions).

Ingredients

• 550g flour
• 350g lukewarm water
• 7g instant yeast
• 1tsp sugar
• 20g salt
• 20g unsalted butter (melted)
• coarse salt or salt flakes for sprinkling
• 1 egg

For the bath

• 100g baking soda
• 2L water

Step 1 – In a cup, mix a third of the water with the yeast and a teaspoon of sugar and let it activate. Once it forms a thick foam, it is active. Meanwhile, place the flour, melted butter and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Once the yeast is active, add the yeast and water mix to the bowl. Add the rest of the water and start kneading with the hook attachment of the stand mixer. Knead for around 5 minutes. If when you poke it it slowly rises back, your dough is ready.

Step 2 – Shape the dough into a ball, place it in a clean bowl and let it rise for 10 minutes.

Step 3 – At this point, you can turn your oven on at 200°C . Once the ten minutes have passed, you can start shaping your pretzels. Take a small part of dough from your ball, it should weight around 75g. Roll it into a rope 50cm long. Then form a circle with the rope, bringing the two ends together at the top of the circle. Twist the ends together and bring the twisted ends back down towards yourself and press them on the circle to form the typical Pretzel shape. Repeat until you run out of dough. You can check out this page for visuals.

Step 4 – Your formed pretzels now can rest for around ten minutes. Meanwhile, bring water and baking soda to the boil in a pan. Drop 1 pretzel into the boiling water at a time, leaving it there for no longer than 30s. With a spatula, fish it out and place it directly on a lined baking tray. Sprinkle it with coarse salt. If you intend to make sweet pretzels, skip the salt, and bake your pretzels without.

Step 5 – You should get a total of 12 pretzels, which you can bake in two batches of 6. Break the egg in a cup and beat it to make an egg wash. Brush your pretzels with the egg wash and if you have a scoring knife, make small cuts in random areas of the pretzel to encourage openings in certain areas. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown and serve warm if possible!

Step 6 – In case you want a sweet version, you would have skipped the salt at step 4. After baking, brush your pretzels with room temperature butter and press them one by one, on a dish that you previously prepared with a cinnamon and sugar mix or cocoa and sugar mix, etc.

Step 7 – Store your pretzel in a air tight container, it will keep well for up to 3 days.