This is the BEST Homemade soft pretzel bite recipe you are going to find! These soft pretzel bites are a perfect Auntie Anne’s pretzel bites copy cat recipe! These easy homemade soft pretzels are one of my kids favorite snacks. I promise you these are the BEST soft pretzels you are going to find that you can make at home!
Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites Recipe
We originally shared this amazing recipe back in 2014, however we were just getting started with our blogging adventure and learning how to use our camera so our photos were not as pretty. We have since updated the photos and added some information that covers questions people have asked about how to make homemade soft pretzels.
If you have been following us fo a long time, this is the same pretzel recipe you have loved for years. If you are new, I am telling you that you are going to LOVE this homemade pretzel recipe as it is the BEST one you are going to find!
Auntie Anne’s Pretzel Bites Copycat
My mom and I always stop at Auntie Anne’s whenever we are at the mall to split a yummy snack, which is why it was important to me to come up with an amazing homemade pretzel recipe. This soft pretzel recipe tastes just like the Auntie Anne’s Pretzel Bites!
I have tried many homemade soft pretzel bites recipes thinking that it is the homemade soft pretzel bites recipe. Come to find out the were gross so I gave up trying to use other people’s recipe and came up with one on my own instead! I promise you, this is the BEST homemade soft pretzel recipe ever!
My household including myself are picky when it comes to making any food at home. We want GREAT food and while it might have taken a long time to perfect this homemade cinnamon sugar pretzel recipe it was well worth it!
The printable directions for this homemade soft pretzel bites recipe can be found below to make your life easier.
Love Auntie Anne’s? Check out these other AMAZING Copy Cat Recipes!
Dip For homemade pretzels
I can sit and pop these homemade pretzel bites in my mouth and not dip them in anything because they are THAT good, however if you are a dipper there are lots of amazing things to dip homemade pretzels in. You have your normal dips like cheese dip, mustard, chocolate, but if you think outside of the box you may even shock your own taste buds!
When I am dipping mine I love homemade white cheddar queso. It is super easy to make and tastes amazing paired with homemade pretzels.
Looking for other amazing dips to dip your pretzels in? Check these out!
Tips for making homemade soft pretzels
Use a stand mixer! I use my KitchenAid Mixer when making these Auntie Anne’s Pretzel Bites Copycat, really I use my mixer for just about everything I do in the kitchen, if there is a use for it then I am using it! But it really does make it easier when making the pretzel dough.
This is the mixer I have and not only is it awesome for when i need to mix things, or anything I am doing they come in a large variety of colors so you can easily match your kitchen.
Use Measuring cups. I find that when warming the milk is a lot easier to do when I use my pyrex measuring cups and then pour it into the mixing bowl. I have a smaller microwave so large bowls don’t fit and since I use my KitchenAid to mix it all that bowl is metal and well it really is a bad idea to stick metal in the microwave.
Melted Butter is a MUST! I learned that a BIG part of making Auntie Anne pretzels at home is getting the butter and doing it the same way they do. When the pretzels are hot out of the oven the get a nice bath in melted butter!
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Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites Ingredients
- milk
- active dry yeast
- brown sugar
- butter
- flour
- fine salt
- baking soda
- warm water
- Coarse Salt
How to Make Homemade Pretzels
Warm up the milk in the microwave for just about one and a half minutes. I use my pyrex measuring cups to heat it in. It should be about 110º. If it’s too hot it will kill the yeast. You should be able to comfortably keep your finger in it.
Stir in the yeast and one tablespoon of the brown sugar and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
Now grab a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer and pour the mixture in it.
Add the butter and remaining sugar.
Add the flour about 1 cup at a time and the add the fine salt.
Knead for about 10 minutes with a stand mixer or by hand.
Put it in a greased bowl and cover with greased cling wrap.
Let rise for 1 hour in a moist, warm place until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 450º.
Punch down dough and divide into 12-14 lumps.
Roll each piece with your hands to form a rope as thin as you can.
Combine the warm water and baking soda in a wide bowl.
Cut the dough into 1 1/2″ pieces, then dip in the baking soda water.
Place on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt.
Bake for about 6-10 minutes or until browned.
Dip each homemade pretzel in the melted butter while hot.
Love making things homemade? Check out these other amazing recipes!
Homemade Pretzels - Auntie Anne's Pretzel Bites Copycat Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast 2 packets
- 6 tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
- 5 to 5 1/2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/3 cup baking soda
- 3 cups warm water
- Coarse salt
- 8 tablespoons butter melted
Recipe Video
Instructions
- Warm up the milk in the microwave for just about one and a half minutes. I use my pyrex measuring cups to heat it in. It should be about 110º. If it's too hot it will kill the yeast. You should be able to comfortably keep your finger in it.
- Stir in the yeast and one tablespoon of the brown sugar and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
- Now grab a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer and pour the mixture in it.
- Add the 4 tablespoons of butter and remaining brown sugar.
- Add the flour about 1 cup at a time and then add the fine salt.
- Knead for about 10 minutes with a stand mixer or by hand.
- Put it in a greased bowl and cover with greased cling wrap.
- Let rise for 1 hour in a moist, warm place until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 450º.
- Punch down dough and divide into 12-14 lumps.
- Roll each piece with your hands to form a rope as thin as you can.
- Combine the warm water and baking soda in a wide bowl.
- Cut the dough into 1 1/2" pieces, then dip in the baking soda water.
- Place on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt.
- Bake for about 6-10 minutes or until browned.
- Dip each homemade pretzel in the melted 8 tablespoons of butter while hot.
Nutrition
This homemade soft pretzel bites recipe are a great snack to have on hand when the kids get home from school or to have as a family movie night snack!
Looking for more snack recipes? Check these out!
- BBQ Bacon Lil’ Weenies
- Easy Layered Taco Dip
- Baked BBQ Chicken Wings
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Cheese Fries
- Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels
Sierra says
Should a rolling pin be used to roll out the dough?
Renee says
I rolled it between my hands
Stephanie says
No just with your hands.
Angel says
what kind of flour? Bread or all purpose?
Renee says
I used all purpose flour
Stephanie says
All purpose
Teresa says
do I use all of the butter in the dough or just the first 4 tablespoons?
Stephanie says
Just the first 4 tablespoons.
Jen says
This recipe is messed up.. I think the baking soda was left off
MidgetMomma says
the baking soda doesn’t get mixed in, it gets mixed with water that the uncooked dough is dipped in.
Susan Menard says
Baking soda and 3 cups of watermare for the dip before baking
Mikelle says
I noticed it didn’t show all of the steps on the recipe
kathy gonzales says
mine didnt puff up and I followed the directions What was wrong
MidgetMomma says
did you make sure it was not a cold area where you had them sit to rise before baking?
tami says
Was your yeast active? If your yeast is old, it won’t activate. If it doesn’t foam up in the 10 minutes its sitting in the warm milk/sugar then it’s no good.
Megan says
I’m having an issue with the dough being extremely sticky and unworkable. I have to pull lumps off the dough and just place it on the pan. What am I doing wrong?
Ariel says
Add extra flour before the rise period. Flour amounts are never concrete in doughs. You can mess with them a bit. How sticky the dough is can change based on the humidity of your home.
Nikole says
The taste was amazing after a few adjustments! I turned the oven down to 425 bc the 1st batch burned at 450. I also didn’t roll them “as thin as possible” since they didn’t rise (possibly because I had to add extra flour to keep the dough from being so sticky you couldn’t use it). We devoured them and are currently to full for dinner!
Taylor says
There is no instruction to add the 1/3 C. of Baking Soda. I’m guessing it’s when you add the salt and flour??
Tom McG says
It goes in the water that you dip the dough in before baking.
Naomi says
Have you tried freezing these after they’re cooked?
Stephanie says
They will freeze pretty well but you will want to wait to add the salt. Just pull the pretzel out of the freezer and lighty get wet with water and add the salt on top. Pop them in the microwave for 30 second at a time till they get warm. There is no replacing them fresh out of the oven though.
Shae says
My girls and I made these this afternoon and they turned out great!! We added about a 1/2 cup of extra flour before kneading because the dough was a bit sticky at 4 1/2 cups. We will be making these for an upcoming superbowl party as well. Thanks for sharing this, these pretzel bites are addicting!!
Kylene says
I had dough left over so I stuck it in the freezer. Will it be ok to use again next time? Does it freeze well?
MidgetMomma says
i havent tried it but i dont see why it wouldnt be 🙂
Katie says
What melted butter is in the dough and whislch is for dipping!!!!!!!!
Stephanie says
Just follow the ingredients in order so the 4 oz of butter is for the dough and the 8 oz of buttter is to dip:
Jamie says
These turned out pretty well. Mine turned out to be sticks instead of bites because I didnt cut them small enough (I think). Ill have to get coarse salt next time because they werent salty enough with regular salt on top! Thanks!
Rosa says
I also believe that there is some adjustments that need to made, the dough turns out way too sticky so added more flour. This is my second try. The first batch turned out so sticky. I noticed that on the list of ingredients you list one amount of dry yeast, but then the recipe called for two pkts. Hope this batch turns out if not I’m gonna try a new recipe…
Amber says
Thanks so much for sharing! This recipe was awesome!! I saw some had negative comments about stickiness of dough. I just added some extra flour when kneading it to keep it from sticking. They turned out perfect following recipe.
Emily Farrer says
Mine were perfect! But I probably ate half the batch!
Rhonda Bennett says
Compliments first ; the recipe produces pretzels that taste amazing! Criticisms second ; even after adding an additional 1/2 c. flour as suggested by another person who commented, the dough was incredibly sticky. As my comments are written after making one batch, I daresay if I use this recipe again I will need to adjust the amount of flour even more. I baked the pretzels at 425 for 10 minutes on parchment paper and they were perfect. I am a very skilled baker/cook but would suggest this recipe be prepared by two people from the point of proofing forward. The comment “roll out as thin as possible” seemed a bit ambiguous to me, as was the omission of the number of pretzels the recipe would produce. After making this recipe I now have clarity as to the previous sentence! Served with home made spicy mustard and Monterrey Jack/habanero cheese sauce.
jobobz says
Rhonda Bennett, how many pretzel bites did you get from one batch? I agree the lack of quantity in the recipe makes it difficult to know if you’ve rolled enough, too few, or too many.
Stephanie says
5-6 dozen
Renee says
I agree that this job is easier with some help. There were 3 of us in my kitchen working “stations”. The pretzel bites were delicious!!
Stephanie says
I wish I had two set of adult hands helping!
Julie says
Was an answer ever posted as to how many pretzel bites this recipe makes? I’m trying to determine how many batches I will need.
Stephanie says
5-6 dozen
Cordula says
They were perfect . I am from Bavaria /Germany ( live now in the states ) and I really love this tasty brezel bites.
Thanks for the recipe.
Kristin says
The dough never got to a semi solid state. It was very sticky and you can’t even for the pretzels. Just baked a ton of blobs.
Stephanie says
I am sorry this happened I fixed the recipe to have the additional flour to help.
Marie says
I loved them! Yes the dough was sticky coming out of the mixer, but I let it rise and am so glad I didn’t add more flour. The dough was workable after it rose and the flavor and texture is amazing!! I too have been on the hunt for the perfect soft pretzel and these hit the mark.
O says
I’m not sure why so many negative reviews…. I followed the recipe exactly, it did take 5,5 cups of flour, the dough was still a little sticky but i rubbed it with little oil and let it rise for an hour, it came out perfect! Didn’t stick at all was so easy to work with, very soft! I made mini pretzel dogs and pretzel bites with it! Everyone loved it! Thank you for sharing this recipe with us! ??
linda says
do any one have the almonds bites soft pretzels. if so please post it thank you
N.D. Leon says
Thank you so much for this recipe! It came out perfect! I forgot to add the salt in the dough before letting it sit to raise but I added it while I was rolling it and it was perfect.
I also noticed some of the comments that said that they dough is very sticky.. and it is, what I did is I added flour to the table, my hands and on the dough. I remember seeing the people at the pretzel places trowing the balls of dough in flour just to cover the top and not make it sticky. My pretzel bites where not affected.
Also, i used, i cant believe its not butter instead of regular butter and placed the left over dough in the fridge for later.
Delicious! No more spending 5 dollar per pretzel at the mall trip. 🙂 Thanks again! -NDL
Stephanie says
I’m glad you enjoyed the pretzels. Yes the trick it so make sure your work area has a lot of flour.
Katie says
The recipe for the dough itself was delicious. I am glad to see I’m not the only one that ended up with pretzel chips. I bake quite a bit, and when the recipe says to “roll flat”, I did just that. Rolled it flat as if I was going to make sugar cookies. After a few batches, my husband started rolling one of the mounds (after breaking the main dough into 12-14 mounds) into more of a snake/rope shape then cutting into bite sized pieces and went back to the recipe instruction from there. Finally! Instead of crispy flat pieces, we ended up with the puffy, bite sized pretzels we had in mind. I will make again, but instead do it correct from the get-go instead of wasting dough.
kathleen says
I did the same thing with rope and cutting in pieces. Looks more like pretzel bites.
The bottoms always get too brown. Went down to 425° as some suggested. Think I’ll go lower if I make them again.
Stephanie says
Sorry for this I now have it fixed in the recipe.
Penelope Costanzo says
I want to try this. Thank you.
vickie couturier says
i love pretzels this looks so good and im going to try to make them too
Brendisney says
The recipe was easy to follow and tasted just like Aunt Annie’s pretzel bites! I couldn’t bake them fast enough…my family devoured each batch I made before the next batch baked!
Stephanie says
Im glad your family enjoyed them so much!
Kyndol Castrilli says
I’m NOT a chef, professional baker, actually I’m a little cooking challenged at times. Lol? But I made this recipe as directed and they were PERFECT! My family devoured them! Thank you!!!???Makng them again today for the Super Bowl! Per my husband’s request .?
Stephanie says
I’m glad your husband loved them! You do not need to be a chef to have fun in the kitchen.
Meagan says
These pretzels are amazing! Huge hit at my house- planning to use this recipe at parties in the future. Thanks so much for sharing!!
Linda says
We have been making soft pretzels for many years, sometimes with friends, other times just for our family. If you spray your countertop lightly with cooking spray, the dough doesn’t stick but there is enough “grab” to make it easy to roll the dough into ropes. It’s almost like an extra set of hands! We love making the traditional twists, but I may have to try these for a snack tonight!
Stephanie says
Thanks for this great tip!
Laura says
Can you use quick active dry yeast?
Stephanie says
yes you can just follow the directions on blooming on the packaging
Trinity says
DELICIOUS!! i made these for an appetizer and got complements on them all night long. maybe even better than aunt annie’s
emma says
Delicious, i tried it for the first time today , I followed the ingredients and directions except for i used almond milk and canola oil because my daughter have dairy allergy. The dough rise well. It was so delish and soft. My kids love it. Thank you.
Stephanie says
Great to know you can make this dairy free!
Sarah C says
Wonderful recipe! I’ve tried other recipes and the pretzels came out too stiff or without that classic taste. Perfection on your part, Ma’am! Hats off to the chef! 😉 Husband is a die hard soft pretzel fan, and munched until he couldn’t munch. Lol No more buying cheap, frozen store bought pretzels! Also, we have six kids combined and this made a wonderful school night dessert! And cheap to boot. I too had the sticky dough, but simply added flour and kneaned the dough before rising. Yielded a perfect dough for rolling. Thank you so very much! – A soft pretzel stuffed family!
Stephanie says
I’m so glad your family enjoyed them.
Michelle says
Can I make the bites and leave them in refrigerator overnight, only baking them in the morning?
Erin says
This is my go to recipie for soft pretzels! I have made this recipe about 8 times now and every time I make them they are gone in seconds. A couple time I messed up but that was on my part and the yeast and not treating it right. I follow the recipe to a T and they turn out great every time ?? I actually have some dough rising right now ?
Felicity says
Can you use margarine instead of butter?
Stephanie says
yes but they will not come out as well
Mandy says
I followed the recipe exactly except I used almond milk instead! They turned out amazing. Thank you for sharing.
Briana says
Tried these today and they’re amazing! Thank you ❤️
Joanna says
This is an amazing recipie!! The bites are so doughy just like Auntie Anne’s! I used my instant pot to proof with the yogurt setting. I will say I was distracted with my kids and had it proofing for almost 2 hours so it more than doubled. But I believe the intended hour or even 45 mins in the instant pot will do. I Ended up making 2 and a half sheets of them.
Mallory says
Could you provide a little more clarification on the last step with the butter dipping? Do you drop the whole pretzel bite in or just dip the top? Seems hard to do just dip when they are hot! Thanks in advance
Stephanie says
Yes, you just drop them into the butter then get them out with a utensil.
Laura says
Hi! where I’m from, I can’t seem to find active dry yeast, only instant yeast. Can I use it instead? Thank you so much for the help!
Stephanie says
Yes
lulu says
in your you tube video you say to add brown sugar but those instructions are not on this site. Is the brown sugar instructions for the sweet pretzel?
Del says
When do you add 8 tblsp of butter.. this might be a good recipe but it’s instructions suck
Stephanie says
It the last step: Dip each homemade pretzel in the melted 8 tablespoons of butter while hot.
Gina says
As with anything concerned with baking, patience is key. The directions were very clear for me.
Denise says
This is by far the best pretzel recipe! They always turn out soft and fluffy! I love them! My whole family loves them! I pinned this recipe years ago and make them at least once a month. Thanks!
Mindy says
How do you store tre leftovers? I put them in air tight containers and the salt ones became wet and I did cinnamon as well that were wet. Otherwise love love these!!!
Stephanie says
I pop them back in the oven to warm them back up can they are great it takes away the moister.
Stephanie says
I cut the recipe in half and it was still a LOT for us. So I froze half the dough. I used it the next week and they were fantastic! So there’s that if you don’t want to make them all at once. The hard part is already done and the bites were just as delicious.
Gina says
Just made this recipe. I followed the recipe just as directed, except I lowered the temp to 425° and used parchment paper (per another reviewer’s recommendation).
Dough was not sticky at all (5 cups of flour and that’s it). Kneading is key. Even when I went to roll them out after the rise, I did not need extra flour at all – rolled easily with my hands. Also, this was A LOT of dough. I only rolled out 1/3 of it and still have plenty to freeze for a later time.
Holy moly! This is the BEST copy cat I’ve ever tasted. Thank you so much for sharing!
Rebecca Owen says
By far THE BEST pretzels I have ever made!!!! I have tried SO many recipes and they never turn out how we want them to!
I will use this over and over again, our boys just asked if we could have a pretzel night every month!!!
Love them!!!
READ the entire recipe, then make them, it makes all the difference in the world!
Rachel Thompson says
I want to make these like NOW! I’m confused about the baking soda/water part. Other recipes say to boil in baking soda/water for about 30 seconds, but your says to just “dip”?
I love the idea of just dipping if it works! And I haven’t seen ante comments that say it didn’t?
Thanks!!
Stephanie says
I’m going to take a look at the recipe in a little bit but I just put the pretzels into the baking soda mixture without boiling it.