Vegan Soft Baked Pretzels are a fun homemade appetizer or game day snack! Made with under 10 ingredients, they're cute & delicious dipped in mustard.
Jack here with my second recipe on the Love and Lemons blog. This recipe is one near and dear to my heart – big, doughy, German-style pretzels!
Now, while Germans tend to dip their Laugenbrezel in butter, that’s not how I do it. I dip them in spicy brown mustard. And when we started working with Sir Kensington’s, the first thing I said when I opened up the sample package of Ketchup and Mayonnaise was “Where is the mustard?” Sir Kensington himself has heard my call, and here is the mustard. And its best friend – pretzels.
The traditional recipe for Laugenbrezel is nothing short of terrifying. Why? Because they make the dough, twirl it up and dip it in lye. As in, the stuff that soap used to be made of. As in, the stuff you wear rubber gloves and eyewear to handle. We will not be doing that. But one thing we will be doing – and what does NOT terrify me – is making dough.
Dough has become one of my favorite things to work with. Many of you may not know this, but I’m a software engineer by trade, and I like things to be… measured. When I’m cooking with Jeanine, it’s always “a pinch of this, a splash of that.” Also, Jeanine has a fairly well documented problem with waiting in lines. Well, working with dough is full of exact measurements, and waiting for it to rise may as well be waiting in line to her. So I’ve found my “thing” for the blog now, and my thing is dough.
These pretzels are wonderful and simple, because you’re essentially making fairly standard dough, using baking soda and boiling water to smooth out the outside, then baking it. That’s really about it. The hardest part, probably, is twirling the pretzel. My main modifications from Laugenbrezel are to use maple syrup instead of barley malt syrup, oil instead of butter, and baking soda instead of severe burns and lawsuits (lye).
And of course, serve these wonderful vegan pretzels with your favorite spicy brown mustard. Might we suggest Sir Kensington’s?
Vegan Soft Baked Pretzels
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- ½ package (1/2 tablespoon) active dry yeast
- ¾ cup water (1/4 cup for proofing, ½ cup for dough)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons baking soda (this is for the boiling water NOT the dough)
- 6 cups water, in a pot (for boiling)
- Coarse salt (for sprinkling)
- Proof the yeast: Put ¼ cup warm water, maple syrup, and yeast into a small cup and stir until yeast dissolves. If yeast does not foam, try again with another yeast packet.
- Make the dough: If you have a mixer with a dough hook, put the flour, salt, oil, proofed yeast mixture, and an additional ½ cup of water (for a total of ¾ cups water) into the mixer. Run on medium low for about 5-6 minutes (until the dough pulls away from the bowl). If you don’t have a dough hook, mix and knead dough ingredients for about 8-10 minutes.
- Brush the inside of a large glass bowl with a little bit of oil. Form the dough into a ball and put it in the bowl. Cover and allow the dough to rise for about 40 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.
- Uncover your dough and punch it down few times. Really let it have it.
- Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper on it. Set aside.
- Prepare an oiled work surface. Cut the dough into 4 or 6 equal sections (depending on the size you want your pretzels), and roll each out to an approx. 18-24 inches long rope.
- Grab the ends of each dough rope to make a U shape, then form into a pretzel shape.
- Put 6 cups of water into a pot and dissolve the 2 tablespoons of baking soda into the water and bring to a rolling boil.
- Drop pretzels, one at a time, into the pot (get close so it doesn’t splash!). Each should sink a little then rise up. Wait 30 seconds, then lift out using a slotted spoon and place each onto the cookie sheet. While still wet, sprinkle liberally with coarse salt. Take a sharp knife and cut a 4-6 inch slit along the bottom of the pretzel. (This slit will open up during baking).
- Bake for about 14 minutes. Watch them like a hawk – when they’re golden brown, they’re done.
This recipe is built up of some research of multiple recipes, but is mostly based on this recipe from Saveur.
This post is sponsored by Sir Kensington’s. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that keep us cooking!
I LOVE PRETZELS! I made these this week, when I got home LATE from work, and I did not care how tired I was. This was therapy for me!! I love cooking. They were AMAZING! I am going to do a double batch right now to take with me on a trip.
Hi Gloria – I’m so thrilled that you loved making (and eating) these!! Thanks for coming back to let me know!!
Perfect pretzel recipe. Thank you. I only had quick yeast and this worked very well (not that I have basis of comparison other that the fact these tasted delicious). I had every intention of varying up some flavours and dipping a few in some raw chocolate sauce…um, but we ate them ALL within minutes of them appearing all fluffy and bronzed fresh from the oven. Doh! Time to double, triple, quadruple the batch! thank you again. Team Goodman x
ha ha, so glad you loved these!
OMG JUST MADE THESE. THEY ARE PERFECT!!! Love vegan food!!!
I tried making these and they look beautiful, but they taste horrible. They are so sour it’s disgusting. I was so dissapointed, I think the recipe calls for too much soda. I don’t know.
I am literally such an idiot!! 😂😂😂 I put the soda in the dough! Wow, I never mess up recipes like this. I’m going to try again because I really wanted pretzels!
oh no! I’m going to make that part of the instructions more clear 🙁
I just made them and they’re soooo good! Soft on the inside and kind of crunchy on the outside 😍😍😍 love it! We made them with wholewheat flour and filled them with cream cheese and it still worked perfectly
Thank you so much for this awesome recipe. It is truly a family favorite in our house. I can’t even count how many times we have made them. My Husband is ALWAYS asking for them. They are just so good and easy, too!
Hi Brennen – I’m so happy to hear that!! Thank you for coming back to let us know, Jack will be especially happy to hear since he worked so hard on this one 🙂
I use this recipe to make mini pretzel bites so I can at least try to help myself from overeating. Used a tablespoon and a half of Bragg’s Organic SPRINKLE and they taste amazing. Going to experiment with par-baking then freezing!
I just made these pretzels yesterday and they were AMAZING!! These tasted almost exactly like soft pretzels from the mall. I even dipped one in brown sugar and it tasted identical. I think overall my family enjoyed my previous non-vegan pretzels more because they were sweeter and more buttery (they didn’t taste anything like mall pretzels), but these disappeared within 5 minutes. Even my dad, who calls vegan food “vegetable food” and thinks any vegan recipe includes broccoli and sweet potatoes, loved them. A great way to fight the stereotype! For the most part, I followed the recipe. I made the yeast mixture twice because I didn’t know what I was doing. The only difference was how long I heated the water for in the microwave – 15 seconds worked great, 30 seconds didn’t foam at all. Be sure to give it some time though; at first, we thought we messed up because there were yeast chunks and no foam, but after a few minutes the foam was almost overflowing. We added all the right proportions of ingredients to our mixer but the dough was SUPER sticky, so I just threw it in a bowl anyway. I let it sit out for like 2 hours instead of 40 minutes, and it was fine. Still super sticky though, so we added more flour and it worked well. Our pretzels didn’t sink to the bottom of the pot of water, but just floated, so I flipped them halfway through. I tried to put a slit in the bottom like the recipe said, but it was a bit of a challenge and I really don’t know that it made a difference. Also, I baked them for about 11 minutes at 375 and they were golden brown on top, so make sure you check them if you do 14 minutes at 450! I also brushed them with vegetable oil once they came out of the oven because I was worried they would be a little dry, and it worked out great. Next time I make them, I’ll definitely double the recipe because it’s just a lot of work and dishes to only eat 5 pretzels. But I’m so glad I tried it!! I was on the fence because I’m not big on experimenting but was very thankful I did! It’s a very foolproof recipe because we had no idea what we were doing and they managed to turn out great! Plus if you mess up, it’s not a huge waste because no animals were harmed! Can’t wait to make them again!
Hi Emma, I’m so glad your family enjoyed these! Thank you for your thoughtful, detailed tips!
Sorry to bother! I dont see where you put in the mapple sirup!:( Also,could you please write in grams the recepie?!:)
it goes in in step #1, while proofing the yeast. I’m so sorry, I’m sure you can google for a metric recipe converter – I’ll keep that in mind for future baking!
hello nice food…we have a catering company in india kerala we are providing good quality foods..
Hi,
Can I use this recipe to make pretzel rolls?
Thank you,
Clorinda
Hi Love and lemons, I made this recipe today and I’ve been wondering why my dough didn’t rise as much as when I make loaf bread recipe. I proofed my yeast correctly and I used luke warm water to be mixed with the flour, I didn’t even use metal utensil and I added salt into the flour before combine with the yeast mixture. I made my dough twice because I was so curious then I got the same result. They also have an odd bitter taste after I baked them. I am clueless now, any suggestion? Thank you
These look amazing! Do you think I could sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on them instead of salt?
Made these for my son’s kindergarten class for St Patricks Day… Doubled the recipe, dyed them green and twisted them into a small shamrock-ish shape. The class LOVED them. Making them again today for us to hoard and enjoy! Thanks for the great recipe!
These are making me fat but very happy. Thanks, simple recipe with ridiculously delicious results.
Thanks so much for this recipe. I’m having a vegan Oktoberfest party at my home and want to make these. I was wondering how they freeze? It would take some stress out of the party if I could start making these well in advance. If so, can you recommend the best way to store in the freezer and thaw? Thanks so much!! Yay!!
Hmm, I honestly can’t say we’ve ever tried. I pretty much eat all of them instantly. 🙂
Since they have a nice pretzel shell, I would think that just making sure that they don’t get moist in the freezer and reheating in a low-heat oven would do the trick? Let me know how it works out.
These look amazing! I found this recipe amid a search for vegan pretzel rolls to use for BBQ jackfruit sandwiches. If I wanted to make them into rolls/buns, do you think I could just shape the dough into balls instead of pretzels without disturbing the texture and density?
These look amazing! I found this recipe amid a search for vegan pretzel rolls to use for BBQ jackfruit sandwiches. If I wanted to make them into rolls/buns, do you think I could just shape the dough into balls instead of pretzels without disturbing the texture and density?
Cute post! I’m sure my husband would love to make – and eat – this recipe! He is also a software developer 🙂 Charlie
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Amazing recipe, amazing typography, amazing design. Really really love your site.