My kids love pretzels. Not the hard kind you purchase in a bag at the store, but soft pretzels that Auntie Anne’s sells.
Since I don’t like paying a premium for mall food, I decided to see if I could recreate soft pretzels at home. I also wanted to try the bread machine, since it makes everything so easy!
These soft pretzels rise like crazy, so make the dough thinner than you think it should be to account for the rise.
If you don’t have a bread machine, you can still make homemade soft pretzels. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes then let the dough rise until doubled. The follow the rest of the directions according to the recipe.
Bread Machine side note: Years ago I stopped baking bread in my bread machine. Even though I have a Zojirushi machine that bakes the loaves in a regular shape instead of that weird vertical loaf, I like the taste of bread baked in the oven.
You can use any bread machine to knead the dough and hold it through the first rise, which takes most of the work out of baking fresh bread. You can also use the bread machine to make delicious foods like cinnamon rolls and homemade bagels.