These easy homemade pretzels are so easy to make your kids can do it! Do you ever walk through the mall and get that wonderful aroma of dough wafting at you? It’s just begging you to come and get it. Many people have a weakness for chocolate, not me, my weakness is anything related to soft puffy fresh bread. I can’t resist soft pretzels dipped in pizza sauce or melted cheese when I am shopping. I’ve always avoided making homemade soft pretzels because I thought it would be complicated or labor intensive. I am so excited to share with you how these easy homemade pretzels turned that doubt into success. I am not a baker, I am a cook, and there is a difference. Baking is an art, and I have had many bread fails, but these were super easy to make and successful on the first try.
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. If you purchase from these links there is no extra cost to you but we earn a commission for sharing this great information with you.
Here’s the secret to making easy homemade pretzels.
I love to cook with my kids in the kitchen and was so excited when Fleischmann’s Yeast sent us this great kid’s cooking set
Tips to making Easy Homemade Pretzels
So there are a few tips for successful dough making that I am learning the more I do this. First is the temperature of the water you mix in with your yeast. I don’t have a natural feel for it, so I use a thermometer, 120-130 degrees is the right temp to get your yeast to rise. If it’s too cold, it won’t bloom, and if it’s over 130 degrees, you will kill it.
The second trick is a warm, dry place to let the yeast do its magic. I have tried a counter away from any outdoor walls, in a warm oven, but neither worked for me. My magic spot is on top of the dryer with it running on medium heat. I know it sounds crazy, but it works! Matthew is learning numbers and time, so he set the timer that came with our cooking set.
Cooking can be a great teaching tool for your kids. While making our pretzels, we talked about measurement, time, and fractions. The Pretzel Creations Kit comes with everything you need pre-measured, you only need water and oil. I use my stand mixer, but you can use a fork to mix it all together as well. Once we put everything together, we let the dough do its magic for 25 minutes. While we waited, we got a pot and added 6 cups of water with the packet of baking soda included in our kit. The baking soda in the water gives the soft pretzels the beautiful golden sheen when they are baked. The kids loved seeing the reaction of the baking soda in the boiling water.
Once the dough was ready, we divided it into 9 pieces and rolled it out into long snakes about 18″ long.
Some we twisted into traditional pretzel shapes. Don’t worry the package has step by step pictures on the back to show you how to do this. My sweet boys also made me some hugs and kisses. Once your water boils you just plop them in for 10-15 seconds then remove them to a cookie sheet, add salt, and bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
They were perfect. The outside was crusty and inside was warm and soft with just the right amount of chewiness. The boys really enjoyed making these and asked if we could do it again. I really enjoyed spending time with them and teaching them a few things along the way. You can also check out some other great ideas for these pretzels in Fleischmann’s recipe section here, and I’ve included a great pretzel tip sheet with lots of nifty fun ideas you can Click Here to Download and have some fun with your family!
13 Responses