These soft pretzel knots are exactly like regular homemade soft pretzels, but shaped and tied like garlic knots. There’s more compacted surface area, which means there’s more room for toppings such as cinnamon sugar, garlic parmesan, or jalapeño cheddar. They’re also excellent for dipping and soaking up sauce like tomato sauce, bacon spinach dip, spicy cheese sauce, or your favorite mustard. The dough requires just 6 ingredients and there’s hardly any rise time, so this is a wonderful recipe for yeast beginners. Have fun shaping the knots (they don’t need to be perfect!) and enjoy warm flavorful homemade pretzels within an hour.
Warm pretzels! Toppings! Dips! All the good stuff in life is right here today!
Soft Pretzel Knots Details
- Flavor: If you enjoy soft pretzels, you’ll love today’s soft pretzel knots. They’re completely homemade, so unlike store-bought frozen soft pretzels, each has that soft, warm, and fresh-from-the-oven taste and texture. You can keep the pretzels traditional with a sprinkling of coarse salt or try various toppings. There’s a detailed list of options below.
- Texture: The difference between pretzel-shaped (or knot-shaped) bread and soft pretzels/soft pretzel knots is an alkaline bath. This is when shaped soft pretzel dough takes a dip in boiling water and baking soda, a surprisingly easy step that provides the iconic chewy pretzel texture and adds a deeper, richer color to the baked pretzels. The boiling water also locks in the shape so they don’t over-puff in the oven. (Without the baking soda bath, you lose texture, that deep brown color, and flavor. So, basically, you will have bread instead of a pretzel.) We do this key step when making regular soft pretzels, pretzel rolls, and soft pretzel bites, too.
- Ease: Have you ever made my recipe for regular homemade soft pretzels? It was one of the first recipes I ever published, only to be republished with step-by-step photos a few years later. It’s become one of the most reader-loved recipes on this website because the pretzels are relatively quick, extremely easy, and deliver great taste. Same story with these pretzel knots! Though the recipe requires yeast, I always say that this pretzel dough is a terrific starting point for yeast beginners because there’s very little rise time. Shaping takes a little practice, but the knots do NOT need to be perfect. No matter the shape, they’ll still taste like pretzels. Still, if you’re a perfectionist, this recipe yields 14-15 knots so you have opportunity to get the shape right.
Soft Pretzels with a Slightly Different Shape
The goal for today’s soft pretzel knots recipe was to make a soft pretzel with more compacted surface area for toppings and for holding onto dips and sauces. I never stray from the original soft pretzel dough, so that’s what you’ll use as the base for these pretzel knots. You need just 6 basic ingredients to get started including warm water, yeast, a little sugar to feed the yeast, melted butter, salt, and all-purpose flour. (If you have it, the same amount of bread flour works too!)
The dough doesn’t require extended rise time and the baking soda bath is pretty quick, so besides the baking step, the longest stretch of time this recipe requires is shaping.
- Divide the dough into 14-15 pieces, which is about 1/4 cup (about 2 ounces) of dough each. Roll each into 14-inch ropes. Tie the ropes into a knot like you do when making garlic knots, then tuck the ends underneath. The ends are quite long so rather than tucking the ends straight underneath, I curve them around the pretzel before tucking under. You can see me do that in the video below.
Topping Options
Immediately after the baking soda bath while the pretzel knots are still wet, sprinkle with coarse salt. Or if you’d like a different topping, skip the coarse salt and try:
- Cinnamon Sugar: Bake the pretzels completely plain without salt. Once done and still warm out of the oven, brush with melted butter then dip into a mix of cinnamon and granulated sugar.
- Garlic Parmesan: Bake the pretzels completely plain without salt. Once done and still warm out of the oven, brush with melted butter then dip into a mix of grated parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt, and Italian Seasoning. Italian Seasoning is a store-bought item, but you can make your own homemade Italian seasoning. You need 1 and 1/2 teaspoons.
- Jalapeño Cheddar: When the pretzels are still wet from the baking soda bath, sprinkle with coarse salt as if you were making plain salted pretzels. Arrange 2-3 thin slices of jalapeño on top. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with cheddar cheese, then return the oven to finish baking.
Detailed instructions for these toppings are available in the recipe notes below. I bet you could have fun with even more toppings such as everything bagels seasoning instead of coarse salt. Heavily sprinkle on the pretzels while they’re still wet from the baking soda bath before baking.
Great for Dipping & Soaking Up Sauce
The knot shape yields a doughier pretzel than the traditional soft pretzel shape, so they require longer in the oven. And because they have more interior, pretzel knots are perfect for dipping and soaking up sauce. Serve with:
- Tomato Sauce (great with the garlic parmesan pretzels)
- Bacon Spinach Dip (tasty with the salted pretzels)
- Spicy Nacho Cheese Sauce (pictured above and delicious with the jalapeño cheddar or salted pretzels)
- Salsa (try with jalapeño cheddar pretzels)
- Pepperoni Pizza Dip (wonderful with the garlic parmesan or salted pretzels)
- Stone Ground Mustard (always great with salted pretzels)
- Homemade Pesto (try with the garlic parmesan or salted pretzels)
- Maryland Crab Dip (love this with salted pretzels)
I always serve cinnamon sugar pretzels plain, but you could try vanilla icing if you wanted to serve them with a dip. Lots of options here, so have fun!
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 22 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Yield: 14-15 knots
Description
These soft pretzel knots are exactly like regular homemade soft pretzels, but shaped and tied like garlic knots. There’s more compact surface area, which means there’s more room for toppings such as cinnamon sugar, garlic parmesan, or jalapeño cheddar. Review recipe notes and watch video tutorial before starting.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) warm water (lukewarm– no need to take temperature but around 100°F (38°C) is great)
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons (7g) instant or active dry yeast (1 standard packet)
- 1 Tablespoon brown sugar or granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and slightly cool
- 3 and 3/4-4 cups (469-500g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
- toppings: coarse salt/coarse sea salt or toppings described in notes
Baking Soda Bath
- 1/2 cup (120g) baking soda
- 9 cups (2,160ml) water
Instructions :
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