Yield: 12 pretzels

How Much Baking Soda in Water for Pretzels (Soft Recipe)

A full soft pretzel recipe built around the bath: the baking soda to water ratio in cups and grams, how long to dip, and why the alkaline water browns the crust.

Prep Time30 minutes

Cook Time15 minutes

Rising and resting1 hour 20 minutes

Total Time2 hours 5 minutes

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 1/3 cups warm water, 296 g, at 100-105 F (38-41 C)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast, 3.75 g; or 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast, bloomed in the water for about 5 minutes
• 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, 540 g
• 3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, 49 g, melted
• 2 tablespoons white sugar, 30 g
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, Diamond Crystal; use 3/4 tsp table salt instead. The source gives no gram weight
• 1 1/2 teaspoons diastatic malt powder, optional

Baking soda bath

• 1/2 cup food-grade, aluminum-free baking soda, about 110 g by our conversion
• 9 cups water, about 2.1 L by our conversion; stir the soda in before heating

To finish

• coarse pretzel salt, optional; add right after the bath, for pretzels eaten the same day

Instructions

Dough

1. Mix the dough. Stir the yeast into the warm water (if you use active dry yeast, let it bloom for about 5 minutes). Add the flour, melted butter, sugar, salt and malt powder, if using, and mix until a shaggy dough forms.
2. Knead. Knead for 5 to 8 minutes, by hand or on stand mixer setting 3, until the dough is smooth, elastic and passes the windowpane test.
3. Let it rise. Cover and leave the dough at about 85 F (29 C) for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
4. Divide and shape. Divide the dough into 12 pieces of about 75 g each. Roll each into a rope 18 to 24 inches long (a shorter rope gives a more bun-like pretzel), shape a U, cross the legs twice and press the ends down to seal.
5. Rest the shaped pretzels. Leave the pretzels uncovered on parchment-lined sheets for 20 to 30 minutes. If they look puffy, refrigerate them for this rest instead. Heat the oven to 400 F while they rest.

Bath and bake

1. Make the bath. Stir the baking soda into 9 cups of cold water in a wide nonreactive pot, then bring it to a boil. Adding soda to water that is already hot makes it foam up and boil over.
2. Dip. Lower one or two pretzels at a time into the bath for 20 to 30 seconds. An adult should do this step, because the water is hot. Lift each pretzel out with a slotted spoon, drain it and set it back on the lined sheet.
3. Salt. Sprinkle coarse salt over the wet pretzels right away, if you are eating them the same day.
4. Bake. Bake at 400 F for 12 to 15 minutes, until the crust is deep golden. The range comes from a recipe written for a smaller dough, so judge by color and trust the timer only as a guide.
5. Cool. Move the pretzels to a wire rack. Let them cool a little before you serve them warm.

Notes

Dough formula and weights follow Sugarologie, yield 12 pretzels. The bath ratio and the 400 F bake follow Peanut Blossom. Gram weights for the bath are our conversion.

The 12 to 15 minute bake is a source range for a smaller dough. Judge by a deep golden color.

Prep time covers kneading and shaping and is our estimate. Rising (about 1 hour) and the rest (20 to 30 minutes) are counted as passive time.

Nutrition values are estimates calculated from typical USDA FoodData Central values, per 1 of 12 pretzels. They count the dough only, so the sodium picked up in the bath and from any coarse salt topping is not included. Fiber is left out because our sources did not list a value.