These Pretzel Bites are unbelievably good! Brush ’em with butter and sprinkle with coarse salt or enjoy them dipped in cinnamon sugar! Dip salted pretzels in an easy cheese sauce or cinnamon sugar pretzels in a cream cheese glaze.
Our Favorite Pretzel Bites
I blame my younger sister for my family’s complete obsession with soft pretzel bites! Her favorite treat is Auntie Anne’s® pretzel bites (or cinnamon pretzel bites) and she got my kiddos hooked on them this past summer. She took them on a few outings to a nearby mall that recently finished building a new play place. Each time they went, she got them a batch (or two) of pretzel bites. And now, they constantly ask ME to go to the mall but only for the pretzel bites — they could care less about the play place, ha!
In my attempt to save some driving time and those high sticker prices, I’ve created and refined our ideal Pretzel Bites recipe. These bites are soft inside with a crisp exterior — they practically melt in your mouth! They’re perfectly buttery and salted and completely irresistible when dipped in the cheese sauce! No need to get restaurant pretzel bites–nothing beats homemade!
What are Pretzel Bites Made Of?
Pretzel bites only require 8 main ingredients — yeast, flour, salt, butter, honey, milk, water, and baking soda.
Most of these ingredients you probably already have on hand (especially if you like making yeasted breads like French Bread, White Bread, or Honey Whole Wheat Bread from scratch).
Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Milk: We recommend whole milk, but 1% or 2% will also work. Avoid skim or plant-based milks — neither will deliver the richness we’re looking for.
- Water: Warm, not hot, water works best. Drizzle a few drops of the warmed water onto the inside of your wrist. If it is warm and comfy for you, it will be perfect for the yeast.
- Honey: We love the subtle sweetness the honey delivers to these bites — not too much is needed, so don’t skimp here!
- Yeast: Both instant and active dry will work, but active dry can make the rise time a bit longer.
- Flour: We’ve tested this recipe with both all-purpose and bread flour. While either works, bread flour is the hands-down winner. Bread flour has a higher protein content which yields a superior chewier texture.
- Salt: We add some salt to the dough then some to top the pretzels with later.
- Butter: Again, some goes in the dough and then some is brushed on top! Use unsalted butter to perfectly control the amount of salt in these Pretzel Bites.
- Baking soda: We mix baking soda with boiling water to create a “bath” for the Pretzel Bites.
How To Make Pretzel Bites
A great thing about Pretzel Bites is that they only require one rise! These bites come together nice and easy with a few kitchen tools (But don’t worry, they’ll still work without this suggested equipment!):
- Dough scraper and/or a sturdy rubber spatula are great for scraping the sides and transferring dough from surface to bowl.
- Silicone liners or Parchment paper is important for even browning –especially on the bottom crust. Be sure you’re using parchment paper– not foil or wax paper. Wax paper will melt in the oven! (We love these sheets of parchment paper for ease!)
- A stand mixer is invaluable when making Pretzel Bites!
- We love these flour sack towels for covering the dough as it rises.
- A flexible measuring tape helps ensure the dimensions of the dough are on track.
Step One: Warm the milk and water, then proof the yeast.
- Warm the milk to 105 – 115 degrees F.
- Next, we proof the yeast, which means that we activate it. To do this, pour warm milk and warm water together. Sprinkle on top the yeast and honey. Whisk together and let it stand for 5-10 minutes.
- Activated yeast will have a bubbly foam on the surface. If you don’t get the foamy yeast, you’ll need to start again or you’ll end up with dense Pretzel Bites. The two most common reasons for the yeast not activating are old/bad yeast, or the milk/water being too hot.
Quick Tip
Why do they call it ‘proofing’ the yeast? Just think about it: yeast that doesn’t rise won’t make good bread. So, when you put the milk, water, honey, and yeast together, you’re proving that it’s all fresh. And that’s proof! To be grammatically correct, we should probably call this process ‘proving’ instead of ‘proofing!’
Step Two: Combine Ingredients
- In a separate bowl (that attaches to a stand mixer), combine flour and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the melted butter and then the yeast mixture. Use a spatula to scrape every bit of these two mixtures into the flour.
- Mix until the dough gathers around the paddle attachment, adding extra flour if needed. It’s tricky to give an exact flour measurement for yeasted recipes as measuring flour can greatly vary from person to person, plus there are variations due to altitude and humidity. Watch for dough that is smooth and tacky. When you touch it, your finger should face a little resistance but shouldn’t stick in the dough. Add flour slowly– you can always add more, but you can’t take it away!
Quick Tip
We also tested this Pretzel Bites recipe using a hand mixer. While a bit more work, they’ll do the job!
Step Three: Let the dough rise.
- Cover dough and let rise until doubled– about 1 and 1/2 hours— in a warm, draft-free environment.
- The ideal rise temperature is 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Higher temperatures might kill the yeast and keep the dough from rising while lower temperatures will slow the yeast activity (which will increase rise time).
Step Four: Roll out dough, cut out Pretzel Bites, add to a baking soda bath
- Once the dough is risen, give it a nice punch to deflate all those air bubbles. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface.
- Cut the dough into 2 equal pieces and each piece into thirds (for a total of 6 dough pieces). Take out one piece of dough and cover all the rest with a towel.
- Working with one piece, roll it into a long snake-like rope, about 20-22 inches in length.
- Cut the rope into it 1-1/2 inch pieces
- While cutting out the dough, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Mix in baking soda (see “quick tip” below) and then add in the bites. Just a quick “bath” in the water–too long and the dough will take on a metallic flavor.
Quick Tip
Why add dough to a baking soda bath? The baking soda water enables the pretzels to develop their distinctive color and texture (crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside).
Step Five: Butter, salt, bake, and enjoy!
- Once the pretzel bites have been removed from the baking soda bath, use a pastry brush to rub melted butter on top. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and bake!
- And then….enjoy every single bite! These Pretzel Bites are at their very best served warm, right out of the oven!
We’re sharing two Pretzel Bites recipes — buttery and salted with a cheese sauce OR buttery and sprinkled in cinnamon sugar with a cream cheese glaze.
Pretzel Bites Toppings
- Brush on melted butter and sprinkle with “pretzel salt” or coarse salt. Pretzel salt is also known as coarse food grade salt — sometimes called bagel salt, kosher salt, coarse sea salt. We’re looking for coarse large-grained white salt that is uniform in size without additives. This ensures the salt will stick nicely to the pretzels, adding that classic salted topping.
- Brush on melted butter and dip in cinnamon sugar. For cinnamon sugar pretzels, bake the bites without the butter or salt. Right out of the oven, brush butter on the bites (don’t dip or dredge them!) then dredge in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Pretzel Bite Dips
- Cheese sauce. If making the buttery-salted pretzels, you’ll love them with the cheese sauce! This sauce is very mild, but you can kick it up a notch by adding in some hot sauce or cayenne pepper for a spiced cheese sauce. It’s similar to our favorite Queso Dip recipe, where we use evaporated milk which delivers the best possible results. Evaporated milk has 60% of the water removed, so it will deliver a more flavorful and creamy cheese sauce with less chance of dip separation.
- Cream cheese sauce. If making the cinnamon-sugar pretzels, nothing beats this dipping sauce! It’s reminiscent of Cream Cheese Frosting delivering a Cinnamon Roll-esque treat when paired with the cinnamon-sugar coated pretzels. Use leftover cream cheese and butter from this sauce to make the frosting that coats this Cinnamon Roll Cake.
Pretzel Bites FAQs
What goes well with Pretzel Bites?
These Pretzel Bites are great as an appetizer, treat, or snack. All you need is a good dipping sauce!
If you’re throwing a party, Pretzel Bites go well with other appetizers like Totchos, chips and Salsa, or sliders (Monte Cristo Sliders, Cuban Sliders, or Ham and Cheese Sliders).
How do you get salt to stick to pretzels?
Brush with melted butter before baking and immediately add the salt. This will ensure the salt sticks.
What makes a good pretzel?
The key to delicious pretzels is dipping the dough in a baking soda bath before baking. Without it, the pretzels turn into dense rolls that don’t taste like pretzels.
Storage
How Long Do Pretzel Bites Last?
Pretzels are definitely best the same day they’re made, and very best when they’re still warm. (As is true with most home-baked yeasted recipes.)
It’s important that the pretzels are fully cooled before being stored. Place them on a cooling rack and leave them at room temp until fully cooled. Then, you can store them together in a large airtight bag. Store at room temperature for 3 up to 5 days. (Cool air from the fridge will make them go stale quicker.)
Heads-up: Pretzel Bites lose texture and flavor the next day. Reheat in the oven, microwave, or air fryer the next day to crisp up a bit. To reheat, microwave for a few seconds or bake in a 350 degrees F oven for 5 minutes.
Use Leftover Yeast In One Of These Recipes:
- Fry Bread to make Utah Scones or Navajo Tacos
- No-Knead Bread artisan bread with minutes of prep!
- Life-Changing, No-Knead Dinner Rolls
- Focaccia no kneading required!
- Lemon Blueberry Sweet Rolls with a lemon glaze
Pretzel Bites
Equipment
- stand mixer
- large sheet pan, 15 x 21-inch
- Silicone baking mat or parchment paper
- Large pot
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 1/2 cup warm milk whole milk recommended
- 2-1/4 teaspoons instant yeast or active dry—see note 1
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 up to 4 cups bread flour plus more for dusting surface, see note 2
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 to 7 tablespoons unsalted butter divided
- Cooking spray
Baking Soda Bath
- 8 cups water
- 1/4 cup baking soda
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt or make cinnamon-sugar pretzels with cream cheese sauce—see notes 3 and 4
- Cheese sauce optional, for serving, see note 5
Instructions
- Quick Tip: It may be helpful to watch the tutorial video in this recipe post before starting!In a medium bowl, whisk the warm water, warm milk (see note 6), yeast, and honey; let sit 5–10 minutes. It should look creamy/foamy after 5 minutes (see photo). If not, your yeast didn’t work, and you’ll need to begin again. (Either the yeast is dead or the water/milk was too hot.)
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or large bowl), combine 3 cups bread flour and salt. Stir to combine, then make a well in the middle. Pour in 1 tablespoon melted and cooled butter. Use a spatula to scrape every bit of the yeast mixture on top. Attach paddle or dough hook and beat on low speed, scraping the sides as needed with a rubber spatula, until combined. Increase speed, and if needed (see note 7), add up to 3/4 cup more flour, adding 1/4 cup at a time until the dough comes together on the dough hook and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. After mixing for about 2 minutes, if the dough is still sticking to sides of the bowl instead of around hook, add the last 1/4 cup flour.
- Once dough is gathering around the hook, knead on low speed for 5 minutes or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface. Knead and shape dough into a ball. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray, turn the ball to coat in the oil, then cover the bowl with a towel and let rise in a draft-free, warm (70°F) environment for 1 hour 30 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 450°F. Line an extra-large (15x21-inch) sheet pan (or 2 smaller pans) with silicone baking mats (preferred) or parchment paper (lightly grease with cooking spray). Punch down the dough and dump onto a lightly floured surface. Cut dough into 6 equal pieces (just eyeball it). Take 1 piece, covering the other 5 pieces with a towel. Use your hands to roll the piece into an even, long rope, about 20–22 inches in length. Cut the rope into 1.5-inch pieces. Place pieces on prepared sheet pan. Repeat with remaining dough until all dough is cut into pieces.
- While cutting out the last 3 ropes, bring 8 cups water in a large pot to boil. Once boiling, add baking soda and whisk until completely dissolved. Take 8 pretzel bites at a time in both hands and gently place (at the same time) in the boiling water. Count to 10, then use a large slotted spoon to lift the pretzel bites, tapping against the pot edge to allow excess water to drip off. Place the bites back on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat until all bites have gone in the boiling water (if the water gets foamy, reduce heat). Make sure bites are well spaced out, not overlapping, but they can be relatively close together (see picture above).
- Melt 4 tablespoons butter and use a pastry brush to brush butter generously over all the pretzel bites (should use all or most of it). Sprinkle with coarse salt and bake 12–18 minutes or until golden brown on top, lightly browned on bottom, and baked through. (If you don’t bake the entire batch of pretzels at once, bake time will be quicker). Remove from oven. Optional: for extra buttery bites, melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter and brush on bites right out of the oven, adding a touch more salt if desired. Serve warm.
Video
Recipe Notes
Note 5: Optional Cheese Sauce:
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt and paprika
- 1/4 tsp pepper and garlic powder
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
- 2 cups sharp (or extra sharp) freshly shredded Cheddar cheese (6 oz. cheese)
- For more flavor/some heat: add hot sauce or ground cayenne pepper (add slowly to taste)
- Dough should gather around the paddle, not stick to the bowl sides.
- It will be slightly sticky, smooth, and tacky.
- Your finger should feel slight resistance without sticking.
- Add flour gradually to maintain dough softness.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are delicious!
Thanks so much! 🙂