German Soft Pretzel Sticks – How to make homemade soft pretzel sticks. These pretzels are golden and slightly sweet. Perfect appetizer for a crowd.
*Updated January 2017 – This recipe has been the MOST popular recipe on the blog going almost 3 years strong now. You guys have pinned and shared and just can’t get enough of these. And I can honestly see why. I’m such a pretzel fan myself. So I’ve updated these photos and hope you’ll enjoy them just as much or more than the originals. Happy snacking!
I think you’re going to love these slightly sweet pretzel sticks. These are homemade with a delicious dough, baked until golden and salted. These pretzel sticks are so great for the Big Game, time with friends or family, movie night, Friday night snacking and much more.
After making these pretzel sticks one gorgeous afternoon I let the family dive in. Well, only after photos were taken of course. So when it was time to write up this post I was having a bit of a hard time describing them. I knew they were delicious. But so is most food (to this girl, anyway!). I needed more descriptive words.
I didn’t have to look far for the words I needed. There’s this family eating my food. Surely, I could ask them. Husband and 3 kids. How would you describe these pretzel sticks?
“Soft.”
“Golden.”
“Awesome.”
“I could eat them all in one day.”
“Surprising!”
“Delicious.”
PIN THIS RECIPE NOW!
And my absolute favorites by my hubby….
“There’s a party in my mouth and everyone is invited.”
“Better than Philly Pretzel Factory.” (Shh….Don’t tell anyone that one.)
So there you have it, folks. Lots of reasons to try these awesome surprising delicious German soft pretzel sticks. As if you need more than one reason. ☺
Amaze your friends, family or neighbors with these homemade delicious sticks. This recipe makes plenty to share!
WHAT YOU’LL LOVE ABOUT THIS RECIPE:
I’ve created a how-to video to help you in the process.
They taste so much better than a pretzel you can buy on the street.
This recipe makes enough to share.
They don’t have to be perfect to taste delicious. Go enjoy!
Til we meet and eat again,
FOLLOW ALONG: Gather for Bread
BLOGLOVIN’ | PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | SNAPCHAT: @GATHERFORBREAD | TWITTER
Be sure to sign up for our emails so you don’t miss the latest recipes! ⇒ Sign up here. ⇐
This post contains affiliate links. If you click and purchase we get a small portion to help support our blog.
Tools to help you get the job done:
German Soft Pretzel Sticks
Ingredients
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 2 cups warm water about 110 degrees
- 5½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- ¼ cup vegetable or canola oil
- 5¾ cups all-purpose flour plus more for kneading
- ¾ cup baking soda
- 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water
- 1 Tablespoon of butter for buttering parchment
Instructions
- In a large bowl of stand mixer, combine the brown sugar and 2 cups of warm water until dissolved. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vegetable oil and 3 cups of the flour. Knead in the remaining 2¾ cups of flour; the dough will be slightly sticky. Knead until smooth and silky, about 3 minutes. If the dough is very sticky, knead in up to ¼ cup more flour.
- Transfer the dough to a large, greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until doubled, about 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450°. Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper. Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough lightly, flatten it out and cut it into 24 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 7-8 inch stick about ½ inch thick. Transfer the sticks to the prepared baking sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between them. Let stand uncovered until puffed, about 25 minutes.
- Heat up 1 cup of hot water on burner. Keep hot until needed. (Or heat in microwave.)
- In a large, deep skillet, stir the baking soda into 2 quarts of water and bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium. Using 2 slotted spoons, carefully transfer 6 pretzel sticks at a time to the simmering water for a total of 30 seconds. Turning once after 15 seconds. Add about 1 cup of hot water before cooking the second batch of pretzels. Transfer the pretzel sticks to paper towels to drain, then return them to the baking sheets, spacing them evenly. Add another cup of hot water before the second batch.
- Brush the pretzel sticks with the egg wash and sprinkle with salt. Bake until deeply browned, about 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
PIN THIS RECIPE NOW!
P.S. I’m pretty sure you’ll love these too! ↓ ↓ ↓
Pretzel Bread Bowls
Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites
Garlic Parmesan Pretzels
That is the best idea I’ve heard all morning. I always run out of words to describe my food! Love the last two 🙂 I’m convinced! Pinned!
Me too. I’ve got a keeper for a husband. 🙂 Thanks for pinning Mary Frances!
These look and sound amazing! Pinned
So glad you stopped by! Thanks for pinning! 🙂
Homemade pretzels are seriously the best! I could snack on this all day.
Me too and then that becomes a serious problem. 🙂
These look delish, Melanie! I haven’t eaten at Philly Pretzel Factory – but I have eaten at Aunt Annies and yours definitely look way, way better!
Aww. You’re so sweet Shashi!
This is so weird because just YESTERDAY Shawn asked me if I could make him soft pretzels! It’s like you read my mind! This is going to make his day : )
Yay! Totally meant to be. Hope they turn out well. 🙂
I was just talking about trying to make soft pretzels at home just 2 days ago. The kids and I have a project today!
They do take a bit of time but I think they’re fun to make. For my daughter’s 11th birthday party we made these with her friends. They absolutely loved it! Enjoy your day!
Oh, I have always wanted to make pretzels! These look perfect! All I need is a little mustard and I’ll be happy.
I need the mustard to give with em too. Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie these look fantastic! I love pretzels and love the idea of them being in a stick form. Wow!!
Thanks Chelsea! 🙂
Oh these look fabulous! I think I will make them for my son’s game tomorrow night; I’m snack mom 😉
Awesome! Hope they turn out well.
Your homemade pretzels look terrific!!! My youngest son adores these and I finally made him a batch in December. I think he’d appreciate me testing your recipe, too 🙂
Give it a try and let me know what he thinks. Thanks for stopping by Liz!
Yummy, love a good pretzel with some mustard. They look delicious Melanie. I bet they’re way better than the Philly Pretzel Factory.
I love all things soft pretzel! These look SO GOOD.
Me too!
They look fantastic! Being German I love pretzels and always miss them when aborad. I should try these then. 🙂
Hope they live up to your standards. We thought they were great! Thanks for stopping by.
These look just amazing, Melanie. What’s the sauce? Is it mustard?
Thanks Helen. Yup. Good ole yellow mustard. Definitely one of my simple favs with pretzels. Glad you stopped by.
How do you keep them from not deflating when you put them in the boiling water? Everytime I try pretzels that you boil after they have raised they just end up pretty flat. 🙁
I used two slotted spoons. One in each hand. It is a little tricky but just like everything else in my life the more I practice the easier it gets. Avoid using tongs as this will crush them.
Another trick for these to make them easier to handle would be to make 48 sticks versus 24. The smaller pieces would be much easier to get in and out of the hot water. Hope these tips help!
Don’t give up! Pretzels are worth the effort. Well, at least in my opinion. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Jamie!
I put the pretzels on waxed paper to rise. Leave enough room between pretzels to cut the paper with scissors (an inch or two at least). When pretzels are risen, cut the paper between the pretzels. You can lift the waxed paper by the edges and slide into the boiling water/baking soda mixture. The paper slides right out when it’s wet. No more collapsed pretzels, even if they’ve over-risen.
If they rise for too long before you put them in the water they deflate. This happened to my bagels last week :/
Wow these look perfect! I haven’t made soft pretzels since I was a kid… with a lot of my mom’s help, of course! I’m seeing a pretzel making adventure in my future!
You definitely need to get on that. Make it a pretzel making date night with the wife. Well, that is if she enjoys being the kitchen. Don’t forget to rent an awesome romantic flick to round off the night.
You can thank me later for the awesome date advice. 🙂
I LOVE soft pretzels! Thanks for sharing the recipe, I found you on Whimsy Wednesday!
Me too. Glad I found a fellow pretzel friend. So glad you stopped by. 🙂
These pretzel sticks look so yummy! We can also picture dipping them in melted cheese 🙂
These look so delicious! I love that they are slightly sweet. I can’t wait to try this recipe. Pinned!
Thanks for pinning Allison! Glad you stopped by!
Melanie these pretzel sticks look so good!!! We love soft pretzel in our house. I have only made them once before, but these pictures make we want some again 😀
I love soft pretzels and yours look so delicious! I think your husband’s description is my favorite too! That’s so funny! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Thanks. I know. He makes me laugh. So glad you stopped by!
Oh goodness…I’m officially hungry now! These look amazing and I can’t wait to try them. I have everything on hand I need to make them. 🙂
Hope they turn out well for you Jessi! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
IF there are any leftover how do you store them?
We froze them. As with most soft pretzel recipes they are best eaten the day of. But the following day they still taste OK if you pop them in the microwave.
To store overnight I suggest just a brown paper bag or throwing a loose towel over them so the salt doesn’t dissolve.
Good luck Carolyn! Thanks for stopping by.
Oh – totally a weakness for me- I would have a hard time sharing with the family.
Your hubby’s description is the best ever! 🙂 Now I must try these, so that I can have a party in my mouth, too!! 🙂 Pinned!
These look so good I am completely obsessed with pretzels!
Soft pretzels are a weakness of mine! These sticks look incredible, Melanie!
Quick question…I’ve never made pretzels before but wanted to try it and had a question. I was going to make it with kids at an after school program I help with and the kids range from kindergarten through sixth grade. I only have about an hour with them so I’m going to have to do it over the course of 2 days I think. I have worked with quite a few Yeast bread and I know some are ok in the fridge and pulled out the second day for the second rising and turned out fine, others end up hard or not fluffy if you do it with refrigeration. So my question is … if you have ever tried it and what is your recommendation?
I wish I could help you Rebekah. But I have never refrigerated pretzel dough before. Other doughs, yes but not pretzel dough. My only suggestion is to give it a try before that day and see how it goes. If I ever do have the time to try it out I’ll be sure to come back and post the results.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
I’ve made these delicious pretzel sticks the day of, and also tried them the next day after refrigerating them- I didn’t notice a big difference in the texture, they still rose very well. No complaints here!
Also, I tried cooking them at 350 instead of the original temperature and they turned out just fine.
THat’s awesome Valerie! Thanks for that helpful feedback! So glad you enjoyed them.
Happy New Year!
I love…LOVE pretzels and these look soo good!
Thanks Tiffany!
Looks amazing! I would love to make these pretzels. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by Allison!
Grr. Followed recipe to a T and my pretzels are flat with an overly strong taste of soda. I can barely stand more than a couple bites. Reviewed at least 2 other recipes for same method and suspect I misunderstood the “30 seconds” bath….. please clarify your recipe as I read it as 30 seconds on EACH side. I’ve never made this style pretzels before, so as a first time, not such a bad thing, but I still dislike wasting ingredients.
So sorry they didn’t turn out Rebekah. I’ll adjust the recipe to state the 30 seconds total. Not sure why they turned out flat though.
Is your baking soda fresh?
Baking soda was opened 3-4 months ago. It would seem they soaked up too much fluid in the bath.
Is it a misprint that the recipe calls for 3/4CUP of baking soda?
No, it is not. That’s what the original recipe calls for.
Those descriptions have me sold! After the cake I’m baking, I think we’ll give these a try
These would be perfect for our Oktoberfest this year. Do they stay soft for a few days after making them?
As with most pretzels they are best the day of baking. I’d say 2 days at most. But pretzels freeze fairly well. Wrap them in foil then place in paper bag. Good luck!
I want to try these tomorrow, i dont see salt in the Dough? Is that correct? They look wonderfull
That is correct. No salt in the dough. Just for sprinkling the top. Good luck! Hope they’re delicious.
I just finished making these and have had multiple comments on how good they were. I will absolutely make these again..I ended up making them Twinkie sized…next time I will make bite sized. I also want to see how it works as a pizza crust. yum.
Thanks for the great feedback Janni! So glad everyone enjoyed them! I’ve thought about the pizza crust thing too. Gotta figure it out.
Have a wonderful day!
Can these be frozen ??
Yes, see comment above in response to Brittany. Thanks Selene!
Any advice on halting this recipe? Would I half the amount of yeast? Thanks
Kathy, I would half all ingredients. I’m working on writing up a post for a half recipe. It’s still in the works though. Check back for it soon! Good luck.
Update
I made these this AM, halved the recipe and they came out great!
Awesome. I did the same thing on Friday because I wanted to be able to give you the best answer and they turned out perfectly for me as well!
So glad it worked well!
Have a wonderful day Kathy!
We can’t have eggs….any tips on what to use for the egg wash?
I’d love to help with this Roberta. I have not personally tried it but I’m thinking melted butter would work. Come back and let us know if you have any luck with it!
Thanks! I will let you all know!
Would I be able to grease the parchment with olive oil instead of buttering it? I’m lactose intolerant, so I try to steer clear of any hint of it. If not olive oil, I suppose I could use margarine.
That should work. I would brush the parchment with some oil.
I did just made these again this week and they do want to stick a bit so it’s important to use something to avoid that.
Good luck!
Hi!
I’m wanting to make these for my son’s birthday party. Do you think I could make the dough the night before and store in the fridge?? And maybe cook them a couple of hours before the party?
Hannah,great question. I haven’t tried it so I really don’t know what the dough would be like. I’ve tried different dough for rolls, breads and bagels overnight in the fridge but never the pretzels. Maybe someday I’ll have time to try it out.
They’re definitely best fresh. Good luck with whatever you decide!
I just made these today. They are easy and very delicious.
Thank you for the feedback Jennifer! I really appreciate it! Glad it turned out well.
Pretzels are so perfect for winter time! So warm and yummy!
These look amazing! I can’t wait to try them when we have a few friends over to watch some football this weekend…what a perfect game-day snack 🙂
What makes them German as opposed to regular bread sticks?
They’re pretzels sticks and it’s just the bit of sweetness Chris. Hope you give them a try!
I made homemade soft pretzels a few weeks ago, not this exact recipe, and I had a question about the “bathing”. I felt like the pretzels tasted like baking soda. It was almost overwhelming and we ended up throwing them out. The bath I made was ten cups water and 2/3 cup baking soda. I boiled the bath and bathed each pretzel for thirty seconds. I figured the next time I would half the baking soda, or leave out this step all together. Any thoughts on what I did wrong? Or is this step really necessary?
I always use baking soda in the bath when I make pretzels and I’ve never had that problem. I’ve made these and other pretzel recipes many times. If that were me I would try lessening the baking soda a bit and be sure that you are only bathing them for 30 seconds. I always remove with a slotted spoon so that they aren’t sitting in a puddle of water too.
Wish I could be there to help figure out what went wrong but I’ve had lots of success with these!
I’m going to a lunch-in tomorrow and we are supposed to bring a cultural food. Now, German being my second language naturally I’m drawn to this. How do they hold overnight? If I were to prepare them tonight would they still be good tomorrow afternoon?
They would be OK but not great. They taste best made the day of. Definitely not terrible though. Good luck deciding! So glad you stopped by Amy!
You don’t see these in Australia. At least, I’ve only come across them in Switzerland. All you can buy are packets of dried, hard, tiny pretzels from Israel, of all places. I have made bretzels (as the Swiss gent corected me), with reasonable success, and am keen to try these. Can you use a bread machine to make the dough?
I have never tried using a bread machine for the dough. However from my experience using a bread machine in the past with other dough I would think it would work as long as your bread machine can handle this amount of dough. If not you could cut the recipe in half and go from there.
I’m so sorry that you don’t have access to warm soft pretzels. They are one of my absolute favorite foods!
Hope you get to try them! Thanks for stopping by MaryAnne.
Soft pretzels are one of my favorite things to eat! I can’t wait to try out this recipe! Thanks for sharing
Hope you found time to give these a try Janette! Thanks for stopping by.
I just found your blog via Pinterest. I’m looking forward to trying some of your bread recipes.
Is 3/4 cup of baking soda accurate for the recipe above?. Seems like a lot.
Thanks!
Never mind….maybe if I had read through the recipe before commenting, I’d realize the baking soda isn’t part of the pretzel ingredients.
Sorry about that :-/
Yes, and I’m glad you figured it out. Hope they turn out great for you Lori! Let me know. 🙂
Has anyone tried baking these? Thanks
Hi Melanie,
I want to make these, but I am a bit confused. I see that I need to preheat the oven to 450 but I don’t see where it says to cook them in the oven. When you say to let stand until puffed does that mean in the oven?
Thanks!
The baking instruction is at the very end. Bake for 10 minutes or until deeply browned.
The ‘puffing” is letting them rise a bit, this step is before you bake then.
Hope that helps. Enjoy!
Happy New Year!
What type of salt did you use?
I use pretzel salt for the topping but you could also use a coarse sea salt.
These were delicious! I made them a few nights ago and they are soft and slightly chewy and perfect. What dipping sauce did you use? I served with cheese sauce but I want to try stuffing them with buffalo chicken to serve with blue cheese dressing. Thanks for sharing this is going to be a go to recipe for me.
Yay! I’m always excited to hear my reader’s good experience with these. I usually just serve with mustard. I love all sorts of mustards, so I’ve served with yellow, honey, spicy and German sweet style.
Buffalo chicken sounds so tasty. Great idea! My family loves all things ‘buffalo’.
Have a great day!
Hi Melanie! I love this recipe, I have tried so many pretzel recipes in the past and every one turned out bad… except yours! Thanks for sharing it!
Yay! That’s great feedback, Mackenzie. I love hearing from everyone who’s tried the recipes. Thank you for letting me know.
So glad it worked out so well for you. Hopefully, you now have a go-to pretzel recipe. 🙂
Just made these…OMG they are amazing 🙂 So glad I came across the recipe on Pinterest! Thank you for posting 🙂 Bit late finding them I know 😉
Yay! So glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for the feedback!
You’re welcome! They’ll be a favourite in this house now 🙂 x
is it possible to substitute eggs? it looks amazingg and what is the dipping sauce u have used?
Hi Rahul, thanks for the question. Melanie is away on vacation but will answer your question as soon as she returns. Have a great day!
Hi Rahul! I used just a standard yellow mustard for dipping.
Here’s a link for a website with substitutes for egg wash. Maybe you’ll try one of these.
Have a great day!
These were amazing! Worth the work. Next time I make them, I will make them into 36 pretzels instead of 24. Not sure if the yeast I used was on steroids, but they ended up the size of large hot dog buns/mini french loaves ????. I served them with Nacho Cheese soup-worked great for dipping.
Hi Lisa! Thanks for the feedback. I just made these again yesterday. These do puff up and I think it ultimately depends on 2 things. How long they sit before they are in the water bath and how long they are in the water bath. Because I have to make them in 2 stages, the 2nd batch which sat around a few minutes longer ends up being bigger than the 1st batch. But either way my kids gobble them up! 🙂
And it does make a lot of pretzel sticks! That sounds like a tasty combo and I’m sure my kids would love them with Nacho cheese soup!
So glad you enjoyed them! Appreciate your time in writing.
These look sooo good! I could go for a few of these right now!
Thanks! They are definitely a fan favorite here on Gather for Bread. 🙂
Can I use the dough hook on the stand mixer instead of kneading? Physical limitations prevent me from being able to knead the dough!
Absolutely! I use my mixer a lot to save time and hard work. 🙂 Enjoy!
Going to try these this weekend. Regarding the brown sugar – is that ‘packed’ brown sugar or just spoon enough brown sugar to fill the measuring cup, no packing?
Great question Annie! Packed brown sugar. But I doubt it would make much difference in the overall taste. Enjoy!
You need to edit your prep time and cook time. 10 minutes each is undercutting it.
What temperature do you need to put on the oven?
450 degrees F. Enjoy!
These came out really great. BUT, I was concerned about baking the 10 minutes with wax paper under the pretzels. The paper was smoking and set off all my smoke alarms in the house. Paper burns at 457F, so baking at 450F isn’t far from that. Next time I might try baking on buttered tin foil instead.
Hey, Mike. Glad you gave them and tried and they turned out good. Did you use wax paper or parchment? We suggest only using parchment paper for this recipe. I’ve never had issues with it burning.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hey Melanie!
I just made 2 batches of these. Some of them turned out wonderfully and others had these weird mushy spots after baking. Do you have any idea why this happens? Just trying to prevent it with the next batch!
Thanks so much!!!
Hi Emily! Glad you enjoyed them. I wish I could pinpoint the problem to help you make these again. However, I’m not sure. I’ve never had that happen. Could it be that they were soaking in the water too long? Or perhaps not thoroughly mixed?
Hope they turn out perfectly next time!
Come back and visit soon!
What a great idea! Thank you – I was looking for something to go with the Christmas meal but kid -friendly and I can’t think of any kid who wouldn’t get excited with hot salted pretzel & warm cheese ! Yum 🙂 This will be so fun to have.
Thanks, Allie! Enjoy the pretzels!
Has anyone made these prezrl sticks with gluten free flour? If so, are they still tasty and what adjustments were made to the recipe?
These were perfect! Made them for a treat on my low carb diet ????
Awesome!
Do you think these would freeze well?
They do freeze ok but they’re not perfect. I recommend freezing by wrapping in foil and then placing in a paper bag.
Made these tonight ! Loved them, although I did end up adding almost a cup extra flour, did I do something werong ?
Hi Melanie: Thanks for the recipe, they look yummy and I plan to make some this week. I only have bread machine yeast, you think that would work instead of the active dry yeast?
J
I’m sorry for the late reply. I hope you took a chance and tried them. They can be used interchangeably.