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. I gave up trying to use other people’s recipe and came up with one on my own instead!
Homemade Pretzels
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! I never said these homemade pretzels were one of my healthy recipes but they sure are tasty! The printable directions for this homemade soft pretzel bites recipe can be found below.
These are also amazing to dip in homemade white cheddar queso , which is sooo easy to make! Serioulsy you HAVE to try it! Soooo good!!
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! 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 🙂 I have the cherry red one 🙂
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 the 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 😉
If you are a die hard Auntie Anne’s fan then you will also want to make sure you check out this Copycat Auntie Anne’s Cinnamon and Sugar pretzel bites recipe and the Auntie Anne’s Copy Cat pretzel Hot Dog too!
If you are looking for more awesome recipes that are awesome for parties check out these 23 recipes that are perfect for parties!
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How to Make Homemade Pretzels
Homemade Pretzels - Auntie Anne's Pretzel Bites Copycat Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 1 1/2 tablespoons 2 packets active dry yeast
- 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
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 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.
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!
Chicken Bacon Ranch Cheese Fries
Print the directions below for homemade soft pretzel bites recipe to make it easier when you are making them 🙂
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Should a rolling pin be used to roll out the dough?
I rolled it between my hands
No just with your hands.
what kind of flour? Bread or all purpose?
I used all purpose flour
All purpose
do I use all of the butter in the dough or just the first 4 tablespoons?
Just the first 4 tablespoons.
This recipe is messed up.. I think the baking soda was left off
the baking soda doesn’t get mixed in, it gets mixed with water that the uncooked dough is dipped in.
Baking soda and 3 cups of watermare for the dip before baking
I noticed it didn’t show all of the steps on the recipe
mine didnt puff up and I followed the directions What was wrong
did you make sure it was not a cold area where you had them sit to rise before baking?
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?
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!
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??
It goes in the water that you dip the dough in before baking.
Have you tried freezing these after they’re cooked?
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.
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!!
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?
i havent tried it but i dont see why it wouldnt be 🙂
What melted butter is in the dough and whislch is for dipping!!!!!!!!
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:
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!
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…
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.
Mine were perfect! But I probably ate half the batch!
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.
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.
5-6 dozen
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!!
I wish I had two set of adult hands helping!
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.
5-6 dozen
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.
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.
I am sorry this happened I fixed the recipe to have the additional flour to help.
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.
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! ??
do any one have the almonds bites soft pretzels. if so please post it thank you
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
I’m glad you enjoyed the pretzels. Yes the trick it so make sure your work area has a lot of flour.
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.
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.
Sorry for this I now have it fixed in the recipe.
I want to try this. Thank you.
i love pretzels this looks so good and im going to try to make them too
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!
Im glad your family enjoyed them so much!
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 .?
I’m glad your husband loved them! You do not need to be a chef to have fun in the kitchen.
These pretzels are amazing! Huge hit at my house- planning to use this recipe at parties in the future. Thanks so much for sharing!!
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!
Thanks for this great tip!
DELICIOUS!! i made these for an appetizer and got complements on them all night long. maybe even better than aunt annie’s
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.
Great to know you can make this dairy free!
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!
I’m so glad your family enjoyed them.
Can I make the bites and leave them in refrigerator overnight, only baking them in the morning?
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 ?
Can you use margarine instead of butter?
yes but they will not come out as well