Easy Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites
These easy homemade soft pretzel bites are AMAZING and so fast to make! Get ready for mall-style pretzels in no time.
If there’s one recipe you should drop everything and make right now, it is these soft and chewy, buttery and amazing, quick and easy homemade soft pretzel bites.
Seriously, they are so delicious, they defy description.
And the fact that you can make them at home in a little over an hour and end up with something even better than the mall (yes, really) is pretty much life changing.
We make these little pretzel bites all the time. But beware, they go fast! In our house, you better get yourself to the kitchen right when they come out of the oven or else you risk missing out completely. And no one will feel all that sorry for you.
Homemade pretzel bites = so fast
The reason this pretzel bites recipe has been on repeat for the several years is because not only are they amazingly delicious, they are so fast!
The dough is ultra-simple to make and thanks to the relatively quick rising times, they don’t take all day (not even close) to make.
When I decided to update this post with new pictures and new excitement, I enlisted the help of Cade, my 3rd son who loves to cook and bake. He is the pretzel bite making master, and he’s here to show us how easy it is to make these delightful carb-loaded snacks.
Hi, Cade! Nice to have you here. (Now is not the time to tell all these nice people that your mom forced you into this during spring break.)
How to make pretzel bite dough
This bread dough is mixed a little differently than some of the other bread recipes on my site.
To start, all the dry ingredients go into the mixer first.
- flour
- salt
- teensy bit of sugar
- yeast
Instant yeast vs active dry yeast
I always use instant yeast, but you can sub in active dry yeast.
Use the same amount of active dry yeast and proof it in about 1/4 cup water and a pinch of sugar. When it’s bubbly and foamy add it to the mixer with the water (decrease the water by 1/4 cup).
Mix the dough until it forms a ball that isn’t sticking to the middle and/or sides of the bowl. If it’s still really tacky to the touch, add additional flour, a few tablespoons at a time until it’s not so sticky.
Alternately, if it seems kind of stiff and tough (or has dry floury spots), drizzle in another tablespoon or so of hot water.
The dough should be really easy to handle. Soft and stretchy. But not too sticky.
A different rising method
This pretzel dough goes right into a lightly greased or floured gallon-size ziploc bag.
The bag gets sealed and the dough rises in the warm, slightly humid environment.
If you feel more comfortable with the ol’ greased bowl rising method, don’t worry, that works, too.
As long as your kitchen isn’t completely frigid, the dough will puff up and rise pretty quickly. About 20-30 minutes and it should be ready to go.
Take the dough out of the bag, press it into a thick rectangle of sorts and cut the dough into four strips.
They don’t have to be even. These easy homemade soft pretzel bites are rustic and imperfect, and that’s why we love them!
Cut each of the strips into six or eight little chubby pieces.
Ditch the boiling water
To make this recipe even easier, we’re going to ditch the classic boiling water bath that pretzels often get before baking.
Instead, mix a little bit of baking soda with super hot water and dunk each of those pieces of dough in the baking soda/water solution before transferring to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Don’t forget to grease the parchment paper!
Sprinkle the wet pieces of dough with coarse, kosher salt and pop those babies in the oven for 7-8 minutes.
Cinnamon and sugar option
For a cinnamon and sugar option, leave off the salt. When the pretzels come out of the oven, butter them as directed and then roll the hot pretzel bites in cinnamon and sugar. Whoa yum.
Don’t be afraid of the heat
This recipe calls for preheating the oven to 500 degrees F. I recognize that may cause some of you a bit of anxiety. It’s ok. I get it!
But that high temperature is what gives these pretzel bites their perfect golden color AND it crisps up the outside of the pretzels while leaving the insides soft and chewy.
Just do it! I’ll be here virtually holding your hand.
The ultimate key to the deliciousness
The minute the pretzel bites exit the oven, have the melted butter ready.
And then liberally brush on melted butter until you think you should stop – and then brush on some more.
The butter + the piping hot pretzel bites is the key to the ethereal deliciousness of these homemade soft pretzel bites. Please, please, please leave no pretzel unbuttered.
Dipping options for pretzel bites
We love eating these hot and buttery pretzel bites straight off the baking sheet. No wasting time. No dipping.
BUT, they are also amazing dipped in everything from mustard to ranch to cheese sauce. (See the above note for a cinnamon and sugar version.)
For a quick, homemade cheese sauce, we use this recipe. It’s simple and easy and works great with yellow or white cheddar cheese.
When you want the other-worldly yumminess of homemade soft pretzels but don’t want to stress about long skinny ropes of dough and intricate pretzel shapes, pretzel bites are the only way to go!
I love recipes like this that provide a ton of rock star status with very few, very easy to find ingredients.
All I know is, I better never be left alone with a batch of hot, buttery pretzel bites. I’m not super proud of how I already know that would end. But I also know I would enjoy every single moment (and bite).
FAQs for Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites
You can lightly warm them again to get that same texture right back if you’ve lost some of the straight-out-of-the-oven yumminess.
We toss them in a ziploc bag or covered container, then we usually we warm them up for a few seconds in the microwave.
If you don’t have parchment paper you should be fine with just a greased pan. I just use parchment for easy cleanup.
If you absolutely can’t make them fresh (they are much better that way), I’d make the dough and refrigerate it, then take it out 2-3 hours before baking so that it is at room temperature.
Yes! I always double the yeast when I make a double batch.
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Easy Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites
Ingredients
Dough:
- 2 ¼ cups (320 g) all-purpose flour (see note)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 1 cup warm water
Topping:
- ½ cup very hot water
- 2 tablespoons baking soda
- Coarse, kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons (43 g) butter, melted
Instructions
- In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, add the flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Mix. Add the water. Mix well, adding more flour, if needed, a bit at a time to form a soft, smooth dough that clears the sides and bottom of the bowl. It should be soft but not overly sticky.
- Knead for 4-5 minutes until the dough is soft and stretchy. Grease the inside of a gallon-size ziploc-type bag with nonstick cooking spray and place the dough inside. Close the bag, leaving room for the dough to expand, and let it rest for 20-30 minutes (or up to 60 minutes) until doubled in size. Alternately, the dough can rise in a lightly greased, covered bowl.
- Preheat oven to 500°F. The high heat ensures the pretzels will brown beautifully on the outside while staying soft and chewy on the inside. Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly grease with cooking spray.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly greased or floured work surface, and cut the dough into four thick strips. Cut each strip of dough into about 6-8 pieces. It doesn’t have to be exact.
- Combine the very hot water and baking soda and whisk to combine well.
- Dip each pretzel bite in the baking soda solution (this helps give the pretzels a nice, golden-brown color). Let the excess liquid drip off before placing the pretzel bites a couple inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Sprinkle the pretzel bites with coarse, kosher salt. Allow them to rest, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.
- Bake the pretzels for 7-8 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove the pretzels from the oven, and immediately brush them with the melted butter. Keep brushing the butter on until you’ve used it all up; it may seem like a lot, but that’s what gives these pretzels their ethereal taste. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from this recipe (originally from King Arthur Flour)
369 Comments on “Easy Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites”
Very tasty! I love the flavor!
Outstanding and so easy.
These pretzels were fantastic!! Amazingly easy, and so good! It’s so difficult to stop eating them!!
I didn’t have instant yeast, so I dissolved the yeast in the warm water before adding the dry ingredients, which worked out great. After two minutes of baking, I flipped the bites over so the bottom sides wouldn’t burn, and cooked them for another three minutes, which worked very well. When the bites came out of the I basted on melted butter and then rolled them in a cinnamon-sugar mix. Perfect!! The first time I made these, the recipe turned out probably closer to four dozen; I might have had over fifty bites. I halved the recipe the next time and still ended up with over thirty.
Thanks for the fabulous recipe! Definitely a keeper!
These are amazing and so easy! My son requests these for Football Sundays- definitely on the list of Super Bowl Food. Another great recipe from Mel :).
A tablespoon of yeast sounds like a lot, but I think it’s just semantics because 3 teaspoons are a tablespoon. We are having a fondue party for my daughter’s 11th birthday today and I’m going to make these. Thank you.
Can you write a recipe for this using just sourdough starter? I know you mentioned how you tweak recipes that call for yeast, but this one doesn’t seem to make sense to me!!
Made these for a World Cup party and was very skeptical that *I* could make actual pretzels. But man did they turn out amazing! Every one loved them! I just let it rise in bowl and turned out great. I plan to make them again for Christmas—do you think I can make the dough the night before and chill it overnight?
Sorry for the delay in responding – yes, you can do that!
Another question. On the step by step picture version of the recipe, you say to let the dough rest after cutting into pieces AND after dipping in the baking soda/water. But on the printable recipe it only says to let the dough rest after dipping in baking soda/water. Which is it? Or did I read something wrong?
The original instructions were to let the dough rest just after dipping in the water, but I like to let them rest after cutting, too for a slightly fluffier texture. Either is fine.
I noticed this recipe is almost identical to your soft pretzel recipe. Just the yeast and rising time seem to be different. Can I just use this recipe to make regular soft pretzels? Is the texture different? This one is quicker!
Yes, you can make regular pretzels with this recipe. 🙂
I Love soft pretzels and while yeasty stuff is Not my forte, I thought I’d give them a try. Fairly good result, for a first attempt, but I’m thinking that ratio of Baking Soda to water is a little too concentrated as 10 minutes later and I’m still tasting the bite of the baking soda on my tongue ?!?!?
Also, if anyone is interested, I did them in my Ninja Foodi XL Pro 10 in 1 toaster oven at 425F for 6 minutes – came out great!
Love this quick super easy recipe, I use it to serve a bite along with our cider for our tastings. Everyone loves them! I usually end up adding a bit more flour.
“Pretzel bites? Well sure…sounds delicious, but I’m not a professional baker who has all day…” Mel to the rescue! These were so easy, quick, and DELICIOUS. I ate an embarrassing amount of them. Thanks (once again) Mel, for a fabulous recipe!
These are SO GOOD! We love them every bit as much as Wetzel’s Pretzels, and the cheese sauce Mel linked is amazing. These are a new favorite!
My daughter has a wedding in September. Her fiancé has requested pretzel bites. Since I will need to make several batches to ensure that we have enough for 100 plus people., do you have any advice to create a great experience for them?
I appreciate any ideas that you may have.
Thank you
I haven’t tried to make these ahead of time…do you have a way to keep them warm?
Just a warning… do not use foil in place of parchment if you don’t have any. I did this a few weeks ago with a different pretzel bite recipe and the best we can figure the baking soda and the foil had a bad reaction and the pretzels tasted horribly of aluminum I’m obviously just assuming this was the problem but it’s was such a disappointment. I’m going to try again with your recipe and parchment paper
Hi! I’ve made the a couple times and they are a favorite. I was just wondering if it’d be able to make the dough and let it rise over night? Thanks
The dough will rise quite a bit in the fridge overnight, so you might want to cut the yeast in half if doing so.
Hi! These look delicious! Would I be able to make these ahead of time and freeze? Is it better to freeze before or after baking? I’d like to make them for an Oktoberfest party and I try to do as much as I can ahead of time. Thanks!
I think you could form the dough into pretzel bites, freeze on a sheet pan, transfer to a ziploc bag, and then pull out, thaw and finish the recipe (dip in the water mixture and then bake). Or you could try making, baking and freezing and then reheating.
Did you try making them ahead of time? If so, did it work? I’m trying to figure it out for my daughter’s wedding.
Please let me know what worked best for you.
Thank you
How long could I let the prepared dough sit? Can I put it in the fridge until I am ready to bake them? Thanks!
Yes, you can definitely refrigerate the dough.
We love love love these…always make them with homemade tomato soup. So delicious and easy to make
I’m going to surprise my family with this- just wondering though, can you make this with gluten-free bread flour? I can’t eat normal flour and making these gf one day sounds blissful
I haven’t tried this recipe with gluten free flour so I’m not sure – sorry!
They were so good defiantly going to use this recipe again.
Always a hit in my family. Made a triple batch for our family of 7 (all five kids are teenagers!). Most of them regular, some wrapped around little hot dogs and some with cinn/sugar. Tried the cheese sauce tonight, too, yummy! Only a few left…but I left them out and they’ll be gone before bedtime!
Handed this recipe to my 13 yo daughter today to make for super bowl snacks and she did it from start to finish and they were delicious! I love the trick for skipping the boiling water part.
These were amazing and super easy to make. I’d already started my day making 2 loaves of french bread and forgot to pick up pretzel bites at the store from the freezer section.
These are amazing and now I no longer need to buy the expensive boxes!
I was a bit worried about having my oven turned up so high, but thank you for holding my hand.
They were GREAT! I was able to make them in 1hr and 30min which was perfect! I barely had to do anything.
My kids LOVE these!! Do you think they would be okay to freeze and pack for school lunches?
Yes!