Pretzel Practice: Almost Auntie Annie’s Recipe
Do you get pretzel cravings? I do. Not the crunchy Snyder’s ones and not those skinny pretzel sticks. I’m talking soft, warm pretzels with melty cheezy sauce (or caramel, or butter, or whatever you prefer!). These baked bits of doughy goodness are not actually that tough to make, contrary to popular belief.
So I did a little digging and found this “Almost-Famous Soft Pretzels” recipe (which is an Auntie Annie’s Pretzels copy cat). A little daunted by the work involved, I wasn’t 100% sure they’d be a success. But I new I needed some pretzel practice if I was ever going to come up with the right ones to satiate the
need for these delicious, doughy treats.
I printed the recipe. Read it over a million times. Assembled the ingredients. Then it was time for pretzel practice!
…or so I thought. The one part I seemed to pass over: rising time for the dough. :\ In reality, this 55 minute recipe takes more like 2.5 hours. But it’s well worth it! I did have to make a couple of tweaks to the recipe on the fly (and will make a couple more when I go to make the next batch).
- Flour
Add more flour than the instructions call for before allowing to rise. The dough should be sticky….but not stuck. It should roll off your fingers….not have to be scraped off…which is what happened to me. - Salt
You only need to use a small pinch of salt to the dough. By adding what the recipe calls for PLUS what goes on top, I found they came out incredibly salty for our taste. - Baking Soda
The baking soda didn’t completely dissolve in the warm water. To avoid having most of it sitting on the bottom, either make the water HOT (not warm) or stir in less baking soda (about half) a little at a time and stop adding when it’s no longer dissolving in the warm water. - Baking
I bake in Florida, so the elevation is roughly sea-level. I would actually cook them a little slower next time so the insides get a little more done (but not dry).- Consider baking them at 425 degrees F instead of 450 for the same 10-12 minutes, checking them regularly and
- I turned the pan 180 degrees to make sure they cooked evenly (front and back), since I don’t have a speed-bake function on my oven.
Ultimately, shaping these babies requires a little skill. With a little pretzel practice, they should actually look like pretzels….though you could make them into buns or rolls or twists instead. Just make sure if you change the shape, you keep the dough thin enough so they cook all the way through.
Good luck on your pretzel practice and be sure to comment below when you try them out! Especially if you have any suggestions of your own to share!
Happy baking!
