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Quicker Sweet & Savoury Pretzels

Overhead close image of a rose gold cooling rack with homemade yeast sweet and savoury pretzels.
Make my sweet & savoury yeast pretzels. Classic salty pretzels and a sweet lemon & orange version, all a little quicker than regular methods.
Caro @ Caroline's Easy Baking Lessons
Prep Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Cooling/Boiling/Inactive time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 57 minutes
Serving Size 12 servings

Equipment

  • Digital scales or measuring cups
  • Measuring Spoons
  • Jug
  • Stand Mixer with dough hook
  • Timer or Phone Timer
  • Knife and chopping board
  • Baking/parchment paper
  • Pen, pencil, ruler
  • 2 Litres Water (68 fl oz, ½ gallon, boiled)
  • 60 grams Bicarb/Baking Soda (2 oz, 3½ tbsp)
  • Large heavy bottomed cooking pot
  • Slotted ladle
  • Plastic/silicone baking spatula
  • 2-3` Baking Trays/Baking Sheets
  • Cooling rack
  • Small -medium sized cooking pot (for sweet syrup)
  • Brush (pastry brush or artist brush)

Ingredients

For The Basic Dough:

  • 7 grams Dried Yeast (¼ oz, see notes below)
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tbsp Dark Brown Sugar (17g)
  • 250 grams Flour (F1) (8¾ oz, 2 cups, Plain/All Purpose or Bread flour, *see notes)
  • 360 ml Lukewarm Water
  • 1 tbsp Butter (14g, ½oz, melted)
  • 250 grams Flour (F2) (8¾ oz, 2 cups, Plain/All Purpose or Bread flour, *see notes)
  • 155 grams Flour (F3) (5½ oz, 1¼ cups, flour, *)

For The Sweet Dough Additions:

  • Orange or Lemon zest (*see notes)
  • 1 tsp Orange extract
  • 1-2 tbsp Poppy Seeds (optional)

For The Savoury Toppings:

  • Rock Salt
  • Sesame Seeds (optional)
  • Nigella Seeds (optional)

For The Sweet Toppings:

  • Orange & or Lemon Zest
  • Sugar Nibs

For The Orange Syrup:

  • Orange & or Lemon Zest
  • 5 tbsp Orange or lemon juice (45ml, 1½ fl oz)
  • 4 tbsp sugar (50g, 1¾ oz)

Instructions

Prepare The Dough

  • Start by making sure the flour is in 3 bowls. Melt the 1 tbsp Butter & add to a jug with the 360 ml Lukewarm Water & whisk. Add the 1 tbsp Dark Brown Sugar, the 1 tsp Salt, & 7 grams Dried Yeast to the stand mixer bowl, followed by the liquid mixture.
  • Attach the ‘k’ mixing paddle, add in the 250 grams Flour (F1) & mix on medium speed for exactly 2 minutes.
  • Add the 250 grams Flour (F2), and mix for 2 minutes. Then very gradually, (about ¼, 2 tbsp at a time), add the F3 flour. **You might not need all the flour. Gradually add in and mix until the dough starts to come together, pulling away from the sides of the bowl & cleaning the bowl. It will be a little sticky & a rough dough.
  • Swap over to the kneading/dough hook and knead the dough for 3 minutes. Then scrape the dough down, turn it over & continue kneading for 3 more minutes. If kneading by hand, knead for a total of 8-10 minutes. The dough will now be much smoother and stretchy.
  • Form into a ball, leave in the bowl & cover with a clean tea-towel. Leave in a draft-free place for 10-20 minutes to prove.

Forming The Pretzels

  • The dough will have risen a little, and domed, but we must ‘knock the dough back’, with our knuckles to deflate the dough.
  • Divide the dough in half, placing on half back in the bowl. Divide the other half into 6 triangles and form each into a tight ball of dough.
  • For the sweet dough, take the remaining half of dough, open out into a square/rectangle shape with your hands, dot on top 1/3 of the Orange or Lemon zest & 1/3 of the 1 tsp Orange extract. Fold over the ends of dough & pinch to seal. Turn the dough over, open out & repeat. Once all used up, divide into 6 balls of dough.
  • Cut a long pieces of baking/parchment paper, and mark a straight line 51cm/20” long on it. Use a pencil or pen, as we will turn over the paper. Take one ball of dough, roll between your hands, or on the work surface with spayed hands, starting in the centre & working your way out. Taper the ends and roll out until the length meets the line drawn on the paper.
  • Fold the dough in half, with the bend nearest you and sitting vertically on the paper. Line up the half-way mark with the line on the paper. Twist the dough at this mid-point. Then twist again. Use both hands to widen this loop you created, pulling outward and down. Take the tapered ends with both hands & fold onto the loop, letting the ends overlap the loop of dough. (See the video or process image collage 9 in the step-by-step instructions before this recipe card). Now just neaten the pretzel and widen the loop again. Repeat with the rest of the pretzels, making sure to keep the sweet ones separate.

Blanching The Pretzels

  • Have a work area ready before starting. The paper-lined baking trays/baking sheets near your stove-top. A slotted ladle and ordinary spatula. Also the toppings and something to use as a timer for 30 seconds. Set your oven to: 200°c/180°c fan oven/400°f/Gas Mark 6.
  • Boil 2 litres (68 fl oz, ½ gallon) water in a kettle and add to a large heavy bottomed cooking pot with the 60g/2oz/3½ tbsp bicarbonate of soda, (baking soda). Let it come back to a rolling boil.
  • Take one savoury pretzel, place onto the ladle, and carefully slide into the boiling water. Turn over the ladle or use a spatula to help it slide off if needed. Start the 30 second timer right away. After 30 seconds, remove, shake excess water over the pot and transfer to the prepared baking tray.
  • Repeat with the rest of the pretzels. Meanwhile, start adding the Rock Salt and Sesame Seeds or Nigella Seeds, to the top of the savoury pretzels. For the sweet version, add some of theOrange & or Lemon Zest, along with Sugar Nibs.
  • Once all dipped and topped, pop in the oven to bake for 11-14 minutes, till bigger and a deep golden brown colour.

Make The Orange Syrup

  • This can be made now or ahead of time. Simply add the 5 tbsp Orange or lemon juice, Orange & or Lemon Zest & 4 tbsp sugar to a cooking pot and let come to a boil. Allow to boil vigorously for 10 minutes, then reduce and simmer till thickening. Note it doesn’t need to be extra thick or coat the back of a spoon, just no running off the back of the spoon really quickly.
  • Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes before using or leave out covered with cling film/plastic wrap until ready to use.

Cooling & Serving

  • Leave the baked pretzels to cool on the tray on top of a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Then remove the tray and leave to cool. For the sweet ones, leave on the tray. Then brush on plenty of the orange syrup, getting into all the holes.
  • Enjoy the pretzels when still a little warm or at room temperature. Serve for breakfast, lunch or as snack. The savoury ones pair nicely with some mature/sharp cheddar cheese & hot tea.

Storing

  • Store the savoury pretzels (or unglazed version), in paper bags, or food bags, inside a bread bin. Or in a metal cake or cookie tin. The sweet ones are best on top of some of the baking/parchment paper you baked them on, and stored the same way. And they will be fine for up to 3 days.
  • Unglazed pretzels are fine frozen for up to 12 months in a food bag, with air removed & double-bagged or in a labelled air-tight container. Learn more at Freeze It.co.uk -freezing pretzels.

Notes

Yeast - listed is the amount for dried yeast.  This can be any instant/fast acting etc.  Read more about the yeast in the ingredient section at the beginning.  *7g is the amount in 1 packet of dried yeast.
Flour - bread flour (strong flour) can be used but is not essential for these pretzels.  UK Plain or US All Purpose works great.
Overhead image of a round rose gold cooling rack, with homemade sweet abd savoury yest prezels on top.
Flour F1, F2, F3 - for this quicker method for working with yeast dough, the flour must be divided up.  So don't skip this part.  ***Please also note, you might not need all the of the last flour (F3).
Toppings - the savoury pretzels have rock salt or course sea salt on top. You can also add sesame seeds or Nigella seeds.  For the sweet we have some orange &/or lemon zest and orange extract in the dough as well as an orange simple syrup once baked.  You can add poppy seeds to the sweet dough.  Just knead in 1-2 tbsp before forming into 6 balls.  Sugar nibs on top of the pretzels is also nice.
Extra close, partial shot of a golden, yeast pretzel,, with salt & sesame seeds.
Recipe Yield - 12 pretzels made, 6 savoury, 6 sweet.
******SEE THE VIDEO OR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS WITH PROCESS IMAGES FOR A MORE DETAILED RECIPE & HELP.
Image showing the texture of a piece of savoury pretzel, with more in the background.
Other Quick yeast Recipes - like the quicker method?  Then try some other recipes like my 90 minutes hot dog buns.  Go to quicker breads.
Close shot of a homemade hot dog bun with sesame seeds, fille dwith hot dog, onion and gerkin pieces, served on pink plate.Reference - see foot of post
Nutritional Information - I am not a qualified nutritionist & all values are approximate.  These are based on using ingredients as listed above for 1 savoury pretzel, from a total batch of 12.  Make bigger or smaller pretzels and these values will change.  For 1 sweet pretzel with all syrup used, the calories are about 250 per pretzel.  However, there will probably be syrup leftover. Values calculated on MyFitnessPal.com.
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
Nutrition Facts
Quicker Sweet & Savoury Pretzels
Serving Size
 
1 pretzel
Amount per Serving
Calories
212
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
2
g
3
%
Saturated Fat
 
1
g
6
%
Cholesterol
 
3
mg
1
%
Sodium
 
203
mg
9
%
Potassium
 
70
mg
2
%
Carbohydrates
 
41
g
14
%
Fiber
 
1
g
4
%
Sugar
 
1
g
1
%
Protein
 
6
g
12
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.