Easy Homemade Soft Beer Pretzels
Easy Homemade Soft Beer Pretzels: Do you love snacking on soft, warm, and salty pretzels while sipping on a cold brew? If so, you’re not alone. What if I told you that you could make these delicious treats right in the comfort of your own home? That’s right, forget about heading to the mall or the pretzel stand at the ballpark, because we have the perfect recipe for easy homemade pretzels. Not only will you save money, but you’ll also impress your friends and family with your baking skills. This post will walk you through the step-by-step process and share some tips and tricks to ensure that your pretzels turn out perfect every time. So grab your apron and let’s get baking!
How to Make Easy Homemade Soft Beer Pretzels
Imagine sitting in your comfy chair watching the game with a plate of warm, soft pretzels and a cold beer in hand. Sounds like the perfect snack, right? This homemade pretzel is different than most pretzel recipes because the beer is incorporated into the yeast dough! If you’ve always wanted to learn how to make pretzels at home but thought it would be too hard or there would be too many ingredients you’re in luck. This delicious soft pretzel recipe doesn’t require a lot of time or ingredients and is the perfect game day snack.
ARE YOU READY TO MAKE THE BEST SOFT PRETZELS?
EASY HOMEMADE SOFT BEER PRETZEL RECIPE INGREDIENTS (full recipe available below in the recipe card)
- 1 bottle (12 ounce) amber beer OR non-alcoholic beer
- 1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry instant yeast
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 10 cups water
- 2/3 cups baking soda
- 1 egg large yolk
- 1 tablespoon water
- coarse salt
EASY HOMEMADE SOFT BEER RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS
- In a small saucepan, heat beer to a simmer, remove from heat.
- Stir in yeast until dissolved.
- In a large mixing bowl combine butter, sugar, salt, yeast mixture and 3 cups flour.
- Beat in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky).
- Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth, about 4 to 5 minutes.
- Place in a large bowl sprayed with non stick cooking spray, turn once to cover the dough with oil.
- Cover with plastic wrap, place in a warm place (scroll down for my favorite technique) until dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Punch down, turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into equal pieces, and shape dough into eight balls; HOW TO MAKE A PRETZEL SHAPE: roll into a 24-inch long rope; curve ends of rope to form a circle; twist ends once and lay over opposite side of circle, pinching ends to seal (see above pictures).
- In a Dutch oven, bring water and baking soda bath to a boil.
- Drop ONE pretzel into boiling water.
- Cook 45 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon; drain well on paper towels.
- Place pretzels 2-inches apart on greased or parchment lined cookie sheet or baking sheet pan.
- In a small bowl, make an egg yolk wash. Whisk egg yolk and water; brush over pretzels.
- Sprinkle with coarse salt, how much is up to you. Add a lot if you like a salty pretzel or a little for a hint of salt.
- Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove from pan, serve a warm soft pretzel with your favorite beer cheese sauce (recipe below).
The Oven Light Method for Cold Kitchens
More Homemade Pretzel Recipes
•HOMEMADE PRETZEL HAMBURGER BUNS •GAME DAY HOMEMADE PRETZEL HOT DOG BUNS
What Beer Works Best in This Recipe?
For maximum beer flavor, choose to use a strong beer ( like an IPA, stout, our Belgian). I don’t drink beer or wine. Not because I don’t want to but it just doesn’t taste good to me. But…I love cooking with it. There’s something about the cooking process that changes the flavor for me. So if you are a connoisseur of beer, go for it and use your favorite beer in this pretzel recipe. I was conservative and used amber beer.
Customizing Homemade Soft Pretzels
- EVERYTHING BAGEL SEASONING
- SESAME SEEDS
- PICKLED JALAPENO SLICES AND CHEDDAR
- GARLIC PARMESAN
Dipping Sauces
Traditional yellow mustard is a good choice, scroll down for more delicious dip options.
HOW TO STORE HOMEMADE SOFT BEER PRETZELS
I’m going to be real here, pretzels don’t last that long. To store fresh pretzels, wrap them in plastic wrap followed aluminum foil. this help the pretzel retain its moisture. For short-term storage (one day) keep them on the counter at room temperature. For longer than a day, freeze them. If you freeze them when they’re nice and soft, they’ll be like that when you reheat them. To freeze a soft pretzel, wait for it to cool, and then wrap it in a double layer of plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Then put them in a freezer bag. Label and freeze. Will stay fresh up to 3 months.
CLICK HERE IF YOUR CRAVING TRADITIONAL PRETZELS→HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE SOFT PRETZELS
Easy Homemade Soft Beer Pretzels
This delicious soft pretzel recipe doesn't require a lot of time or ingredients and is the perfect game day snack.
Ingredients
- 1 bottle (12 ounce) amber beer or non alcoholic beer
- 1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 4 to 4½ cups all-purpose flour
- 10 cups water
- 2/3 cups baking soda
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon water
- coarse salt
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, heat beer to a simmer, remove from heat.
- Stir in yeast until dissolved.
- In a large mixing bowl combine butter, sugar, salt, yeast mixture and 3 cups flour.
- Beat in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky).
- Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth, about 4 to 5 minutes.
- Place in a bowl sprayed with non stick cooking spray, turn once to cover the dough with oil.
- Cover with plastic wrap, place in a warm place (I like to place mine on the top of a heated stove) until doubled, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Punch down, turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide and shape dough into eight balls; roll into a 24-inch rope; curve ends of rope to form a circle; twist ends once and lay over opposite side of circle, pinching ends to seal.
- In a Dutch oven, bring water and baking soda to a boil. Drop ONE pretzel into boiling water.
- Cook 45 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon; drain well on paper towels.
- Place pretzels 2-inches apart on greased or parchment lined cookie sheet.
- In a small bowl, whisk egg yolk and water; brush over pretzels.
- Sprinkle with coarse salt.
- Bake 12 to 14 minutes.
- Remove from pans, serve warm.
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Sheryl, I absolutely love soft pretzels and these sound like a great snack for game day or any day! Thanks for sharing and pinning – happy Friday!
One of my most favorite indulgences are soft pretzels!!! I was so happy to find this at the Pin It party on Dish of Daily Life. I cannot wait to make these!!
Sheryl,
I love soft pretzels and can’t wait to try this recipe. I went to the county fair this week and just had some pretzels but that just whetted my appetite for more.
Annamaria
Love soft pretzels!!!
Thanks for coming and linking up at #The Weekend Social. Please be sure to come back next week starting Thursdays at 9PM EST The Midnight Baker ! I hope to see you there!
Judy@ http://www.bakeatmidnite.com
Soft pretzels are the best! I am definitely making these soon.
I’m not a beer drinker. Can you give me some examples of an Amber beer please? Thanks.
Most beers from Mexico are an amber beer or a dark beer. I don’t know that much about beer either. You could google it. 🙂
I used dos equis and they were great.
Yummy Justin!
I LOVE a good soft pretzel….being able to make them at home would be wonderful! And SO dangerous!
Mmm, I could go for one of these right now. I’m stopping by from Simple Supper Tuesdays!
Yum! I wish I had one of these now! I would probably have to make pretzel bites because I have a feeling I would be challenged by the pretzels themselves, but I’d love to try this! Thanks for linking them up with us at Foodie Fridays!
I love soft pretzels and I’ll definitely have to try this recipe! Thanks for sharing it at the Pin Junkie pin party! Your pretzels are being featured this week at http://www.thepinjunkie.com/2014/08/pin-junkie-pin-party-82.html
Thanks Bonnie. 🙂
They look like Auntie Anne’s! Yum.
That’s the BEST compliment EVER Andrea! 🙂 Thanks.
I have made these 3 times now and my family loves them. I follow the recipe exactly and then add some unsalted butter at the end while they are warm out of the oven. I don’t have a Dutch oven, so I just use the largest pot I have and it works great. Another awesome recipe!
I have never made any type of dough before so I struggled a little bit. The dough was sticky as told in the instructions, but after I let it rise it was still extremely sticky. It was stuck to my hands so I couldn’t really do much with it. What should I do differently? Should I add more flour?
Hi Sam, I’m sorry you had a hard time with this recipe. Yes, if the dough is too sticky you can add more flour. I don’t know where you live but humidity plays a big roll in whether your dough cooperates or not. Good Luck. 🙂
Two questions! Can I knead this with the stand mixer using the dough hook? Also, do you have a great mustard-y or beer cheese recipe? Thanks!
Hi Donna, Yes, you can use a dough hook for the pretzels and yes I have a delicious beer cheese dip recipe. Click here for the recipe—->>>>BEER CHEESE DIP
Would love to try this, but that seems like a lot of dough for just me. Do you freeze the dough before rolling it out or do you freeze after making the pretzel shape? Thanks!
Hi Kelli, I would freeze the dough after you have shaped them. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, freeze and then store them in a zip top freezer bag. When you take them out of the freezer, place them on a piece of parchment paper and let them come to room temperature before adding them to the boiling water.
If making pretzel bites, do you still boil the bites before baking?
Hi Carol, Yes, treat them as if they were a full size pretzel.