Crazy Dough Pretzels – easy homemade pretzels, golden brown, crisp thin crust and chewy interior. Just like from bakery!
I owe you an apology! When I first published recipe for Crazy Dough for Everything in 2014, I promised to post other recipes that use Crazy Dough, like bread, pizza, focaccia, dinner rolls and pretzels. I made the other ones, but somehow the pretzel recipe has been waiting until today.
Small Crazy Dough Pretzels from 2014 (no egg wash).
Larger Crazy Dough Pretzels (with egg wash).
Pretzels can be made with regular Crazy Dough, as well as vegan and gluten-free. Depending on how many pretzels you need, you can use whole batch of Crazy Dough (for 16-20 pretzels), 1/2 batch (for 8-10 pretzels) or 1/4 batch (for 4-5 pretzels).
First time I made smaller pretzels sprinkled with coarse salt. This time pretzels were larger and I also used egg wash to make them nice and shiny. I must admit I didn’t like the taste of the egg, so I omitted that in the recipe. If you’d like, you can mix and egg with 1 tsp water to brush pretzels before sprinkling them with salt.
Unlike other baking products, pretzels are not proofing, but instead boiling for 30-60 seconds in water/baking soda solution, similar to bagels. It gives them deep brown color, crisp and very thin crust which is in nice contrast to chewy interior. It also affects the flavor. The longer you boil them the chewyer they will be.
Whenever you mix a batch of Crazy Dough, treat yourself with a few fresh baked pretzels!
How to make Crazy Dough? See the video below or go to the Crazy Dough Recipe.
- 1/2 batch Crazy Dough*
- 1 qt (4 cups; 1 liter) boiling water
- 6 tsp baking soda
- 4 tsp salt
- coarse grain salt or flaky salt for decoration
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On a floured surface, divide Crazy Dough to 8 or 10 pices (for 8 large pretzels or 10 smaller ones). Roll each piece into 12-14" long rope and twist to the pretzel shape.
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Boil 1 quart water with baking soda and 4 tsp salt. Using a slotted spoon, dip one by one pretzel into water for about 30-60 seconds.
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Place pretzels on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Sprinkle with coarse salt.
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Bake at 400 F (205 C) for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
*Find recipe for Crazy Dough here: https://www.kitchennostalgia.com/bread/crazy-dough-for-everything.html
I love the Crazy Dough recipe and use it a lot! Look forward to trying pretzels as well! Thank you!
Elina, I’m so happy that you use Crazy Dough. 🙂 I hope you will like pretzels as well!
My son and I just made your dough, then we madePretzels rules, and cinnamon buns. The flavor is awesome. Thumbs up from my celiac son. My guess is my yeast is not active anymore, because nothing popped up. We did a story so all of her friends could see. Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome, Natalie! Glad I could help.
I love this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing it. I use it most of the time when making bread, but also made cinnamon rolls (delicious!), focaccia, pretzels, and now used the pretzels recipe and made bagels instead. Always works! And I often mix all sorts of flours when making bread, and it still works. Thank you!
That is great to hear, Elina! 🙂
Can we use crazy dough for bread sticks…how long to bake them and at what temp.
Sadly my pretzels stuck to the parchment paper. Tasted great though once I cut off the bottoms.