Equipment Needed To Make Gluten Free Soft Pretzels
To successfully make this gluten-free soft pretzel recipe, you will need the following equipment
- Digital Kitchen Scale
- Stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, hand mixer or someone willing to knead the dough by hand
- two baking sheets, parchment paper
- A large pot or saucepan big enough to hold 12 cups of water, a slotted spoon or spatula, pastry brush, a sharp knife or razor blad
How Do I Shape The Pretzels
Once youve cut the dough into 6 equal slices, as shown in the image below, youll simply roll each slide with your hands into about a 8-10 rope. Then, take either end of the rope and form into a U shape. Next, youll take the right side of the U and cross it over to the left and repeat the process with the other side making a pretzel shape. If youd like the signature twist in the center, simply cross the dough pieces over one another once more before securing them to the base of the pretzel. You can also watch the video at the end of this post if youre more of a visual learner like me!
How To Prepare Gluten Free Soft Pretzels
Whether you have stored your pretzels at room temp, in the fridge or freezer doesnt matter too much when it comes to preparation. Due to the nature of this recipe being gluten free and grain free, the soft pretzels will harden a bit with time. Not to worry, they easily bounce back to their original freshness if you simply pop them in the microwave.
- Place pretzel in microwave for 15-20 seconds if room temp or out of the fridge, 30 seconds if frozen.
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Why You Need This Recipe For Homemade Soft Gluten Free Pretzels
I havent had an Auntie Annes pretzel in the mall in, like, 100 years. But Auntie Annes pretzels are like Cinnabon. You cant help but get something of a contact high if you set foot in a mall that sells them.
That buttery, salty goodness just lives there permanently. Just ask the tired parents waiting in line at that pretzel counter on any given Saturday in America. You cant escape it. Well, when youre gluten free, clearly you must escape it.
Boiling the pretzels in a baking soda bath, like boiling bagels, is what gives them that chewy exterior. They wrinkle up, but dont worry! They plump right up when you bake them.
Auntie Annes pretzels are thinner than I made mine, but I found that when I rolled them super super thin, they didnt hold their shape very well during boiling. Who knows what kind of black magic those Auntie Annes people do with their super skinny pretzels.
Bakery Authentic Bavarian Lightly Salted Soft Pretzel
Tired of eating the same muffins and bagels every day? Then look no further than Bakery Authentic Bavarian Soft Pretzel. They come lightly salted, with 10 of them sealed away in vacuum packaging. You can easily warm it or eat it out of the bag.
Notably, these pretzels have that homemade super softness. It would give the impression that you are eating pretzels that are freshly baked out of the oven. They also make perfect lunch break snacks, so feel free to pack these pretzels for taking it to your office or college.
Pros
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Bavarian Bakery Mini Soft Pretzel Sticks
These mini soft pretzels are not only cute but make the perfect treat for any occasion! It possesses that freshly baked homemade feel with deliciousness. Without a doubt, these pretzel sticks are a superb choice for any side dish or appetizers.
Also, the taste is accompanied by a fluffy light interior and a crunchy exterior that combines to make it perfect complimentary snacks for pubs and bars alike.
Not to mention how easy it is to prepare these pretzels to thaw away the ice. Simply place it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds or 4-6 minutes in conventional ovens at 350°F.
Pros
Baking Soda Bath And Baking
Once the gluten-free pretzels have risen, transfer them on the sheet pan to the freezer. They will be puffy looking and 50% bigger than their original size. Freezing the pretzels for 10-20 minutes, while you preheat the oven and prepare the baking soda bath prevents them from breaking apart while being boiled and ensures for them to keep their pretzel shape.
The baking soda bath gives the pretzels their signature color and distinctive soft pretzel chew. While many bakers prefer using food-grade lye, I believe baking soda will achieve the same result and is safer to work with.
While the pretzels are in the freezer, preheat your oven to 425F and arrange your oven rack in the center of the oven.
For the Baking Soda Bath, bring 8 cups of water to a boil in a large pot. Make sure it has enough space since the baking soda will foam up once you add it to the boiling water. While the water comes to a boil, line a baking pan with parchment paper and spray with non-stick spray, prepare the egg wash and your toppings of choice. For a classic soft pretzel, I like to use flaky sea salt, a very coarse sea salt or pretzel salt. Spraying the parchment paper with a non-stick spray is a must unless you want your pretzels to stick to the parchment paper after being baked.
Once the water is at a boil, carefully add the baking soda. It will foam up!
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Dutch Country Foods 3
- Boasts a deliciously fresh, homemade taste made of natural ingredients
- Includes separate salt packet for custom salting use a little or use a lot
- Gluten free recipe is inclusive of customers with restricted diets
- Pre-baked just heat and serve
- Each pretzel is approximately 3.33 oz.
Customer questions about this product
- When will my refrigerated or frozen food product be shipped?
- In order to control the amount of time in transit for these perishable items, they are only shipped on select days of the week based on which shipping method you choose and the transit time to your location.Ground: Orders ship Monday through Wednesday.Second Day: Orders ship Monday through Wednesday.Next Day: Orders ship Monday through Thursday.Orders placed on or just prior to a holiday could experience a slight delay in shipping.Frozen and refrigerated items cannot ship in a quantity that requires Common Carrier shipping, as well as cannot be shipped outside of the United States.
The Key To Pretzels: Baking Soda Bath
Pretzel dough in general is actually quite similar to bagel dough. The method is even similar in that were boiling the dough in both recipes. However, the difference is that with pretzels, we add baking soda to the water.
Boiling the pretzels gives them their chewy texture . Baking soda is what gives pretzels their classic pretzel flavor. Without it, youll have pretzel-shaped bagels .
Adding baking soda to the boiling water creates an alkaline solution, which in turn adds the distinct flavor of pretzels to our gluten free pretzels, as well as giving them their dark brown coloring.
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$3 Each Or $33 For A Dozen
Our house-made soft pretzels are gluten free, dairy free, and vegan! They arrive at your door fully baked and frozen, with a package of pretzel salt. All you need to do is add the salt and reheat them in the oven or microwave.
Ingredients: gluten free flour blend , water, beet sugar, salt, yeast, olive oil, baking soda.
Instructions: Reheat from frozen. Get the pretzel wet under the tap or with a spray bottle, then sprinkle desired amount of salt on top. For a crustier pretzel, bake in a 400º oven until heated through, about 5-10 minutes, checking to make sure the ends dont start to burn. For a softer, chewier pretzel, cook in the microwave for one minute, adding five seconds at a time until heated through.
Pick them up at our tasting room on the weekend, or get them delivered to your doorstep during the week!
How To Make Sure Your Gluten Free Pretzels Dont Fall Apart During Boiling
There are three ways to ensure that your soft pretzels dont fall apart during boiling. The first is to ensure your baking soda bath is at a full, rolling boil before you add the shaped, risen pretzels. A slow boil will do little to seal the outside of the pretzel, and will just sort of cause it to wilt.
Second, do not overproof the dough. This is a rare case of yeast bread baking in which you should only allow the shaped, raw pretzels to rise until they seem merely swelled, and not even necessarily risen to 150% of their original size.
Overproofing is not a function of just time but is rather determined by amount of rising. If the environment in your kitchen is cold and dry, yeast dough will rise more slowly. If its warm and humid, more quickly.
Finally, if you boil the pretzels for too long, you risk their beginning to dissolve in the water. Err on the side of less boiling, rather than more. The dough is enriched enough and wet enough that the pretzels will still be tender inside.
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When To Save The Extra Coarse Salt For Later
If you dont plan to serve all the pretzels immediately after baking, consider baking without the coarse salt entirely, or with a very light sprinkling of it. Salt on the top of bread draws moisture out of the bread and causes it to go stale more quickly.
The salt in the bread dough itself is essential for controlling the yeast production and, more importantly, for taste. Bread without any salt is bread for the trash bin. If you do eliminate the salt sprinkled on top of the pretzels during baking, simply brush them with more melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt before serving.
How To Make Gluten Free Soft Pretzels
Who doesnt love gluten free soft pretzels? These pretzels are soft, chewy, salty, and gluten free to boot! With our new drive through window open for our gluten free bakery, our team decided to experiment with a new recipe. We hope you enjoy these gluten free soft pretzels! Please let us know how yours come out by sharing with us online using #gorgeglutenfree
First, gather all of your ingredients and preheat your oven to 425F to get these gluten free pretzels rolling. Combine the flour, sugar, yeast, salt, xanthan gum, and baking powder. Add the water, egg, and butter and stir until it forms a firm dough. This will take about four minutes in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. If the dough seems dry, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water.
Next, knead your dough until smooth, and then transfer to a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, 45-90 minutes.
After your dough has risen, bring four quarts of water to a boil. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Gently deflate, and divide into twelve equal pieces for your gluten free pretzels. Cover the pieces. One at a time, roll them into 12 ropes. Shape the ropes into pretzels and place them on a parchment lined sheet pan.
Now, add the baking soda and sugar to the boiling water and wait for the foam to subside. One at a time, drop the gluten free pretzels into the water and boil them for about five seconds each. They should initially sink and then float back to the surface.
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What Ingredients Do I Need
As I mentioned above, the gluten-free ingredients that you need are probably familiar if youre a seasoned gluten-free baker. But if youre not- dont worry! Well go over them here!
The beauty about this recipe is that you dont need a specific gluten-free flour blend. Well be taking just two flours and blending them together for our own mix.
Heres what you need:
Note About Ovens And Oven Temperatures
All my recipes are tested and developed with a conventional oven. I always bake my baked goods on the rack placed in the MIDDLE of my oven. This way the heat coming from the bottom will not burn my baked goods.
If you are baking with convection , please adjust the recipes accordingly. Be also prepared that the convection oven can cause your baked goods to dry out quickly and still be raw inside. Be aware that it takes at least 15-20 minutes for a standard American Oven to be fully preheated. I highly recommend investing in an Oven Thermometer.
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Ingredient Gluten Free Soft Pretzels Recipe
Fresh baked soft pretzels are one of those classic American treatsbut since making the switch to a gluten free diet Ive struggled to find good gluten free soft pretzels regularly available.
So what do we do?
We make them ourselves .
This easy recipe for homemade gluten free soft pretzels only needs 5 ingredients and no yeast
Keep reading for the step by step directions and tips or use the jump to recipe button below to go straight to the printable recipe.
get valuable support from me, and gluten-free peers, in my EXCLUSIVE Facebook community Stress-Free Gluten-Free by clicking here!
The gluten-free guide below is based on personal experience and research. Always be sure to discuss any medical changes with your doctor for your personal medical needs. Additionally, this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. My full disclosure isnt that interesting, but you can find it here.
Ready to take back control of your meals and love your gluten free life? Take the 45 second quiz to get a personalized plan with the guide you need to thrive!
How To Store Homemade Gluten Free Pretzels For Later
If you dont plan to serve all of these gluten free soft pretzels right after baking, try salting only the ones you intend to serve. Then, moisten and salt the other ones right before serving.
They freeze quite well after baking and cooling. Just wrap them tightly in a freezer-safe wrap and freeze. Defrost at 50% power in the microwave and then warm in a toaster oven, then serve!
And by the way Id be remiss if I didnt tell you that Ive got 8 brands of packaged gluten free pretzels for you to try. None are soft pretzels, theyre the crunchy kind, but thankfully there are lots to choose from on the market today.
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Best Gluten Free Soft Pretzels With Buying Guide
We sorted through the top-rated gluten free soft pretzels available online, selected the top options and analyzed them to help you decide which one best fits your requirements. We created an extensive testing plan and graded each gluten free soft pretzels on how well they executed each task.
Before kicking off our analysis, we made a list of the most redeeming qualities of an gluten free soft pretzels and used those elements to formulate our test plan. We researched to evaluate the competition on different metrics. The overall top-scoring models have the best balance of these qualities.
These are the metrics we use in our research:
- Quality of the gluten free soft pretzels
- Useful features and advanced features
- Designs of every product
How To Boil Gluten Free Soft Pretzels
The most common difficulty in making any yeasted boiled bread like bagels or pretzels is making sure that the shaped, risen dough doesnt fall apart during boiling. Bagels and pretzels are boiled for similar reasons but in different water-based solutions.
Boiling bagels and soft pretzels is what gives them that hard, chewy exterior. Bagels are traditionally boiled in a bath of water and barley malt syrup. Our gluten free substitute is a molasses bath, which does a good job of mimicking the color and flavor of the barley malt bath.
Pretzels are traditionally boiled in a highly diluted solution of lye , which requires extreme caution and rubber gloves. Im all for DIY, clearly, but lets not be ridiculous. A baking soda bath does a reasonable approximation of ensuring a nice deep color on the outside of your pretzels after baking.
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Faq About Gluten Free Soft Pretzels
Can I make this recipe with my favorite gluten-free flour blend?I dont recommend using products like Bobs Red Mill, Cup4Cup, and King Arthur Measure for Measure in this recipe. These products are NOT designed to be used for recipes containing yeast. I highly recommend using the recommended gluten-free flours mentioned in my recipe for gluten-free soft pretzels.
Can I skip the baking soda bath?You can but you should not. The baking soda bath gives the pretzels their signature color and distinctive soft pretzel chew.
Can I make this recipe vegan?Please make sure to read the Ingredient Substitution Notes regarding making this recipe vegan.
My dough is very stickyDid you measure the ingredients correctly using a digital kitchen scale? Did you measure the milk correctly? Did you allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes before shaping the pretzels? This dough will be tacky but should be easy to work with. You may lighly flour your hands and work space before rolling out the pretzels which should help with the stickyness.
Can I freeze unbaked pretzels?To freeze the unbaked pretzels, I recommend freezing them after shaping and before rising. Once ready to bake, remove them from the freezer and allow for them to thaw in the fridge overnight, and proof them as directed in the recipe.
Can I skip the Psyllium Husk?I do not recommend skipping the Psyllium Husk since it is an important contributor to the structure and crumb of my recipe for Soft Gluten Free Pretzels.
