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Soft pretzels on a baking sheet, with a pot of mustard for dipping.

Best High Altitude Homemade Soft Pretzels

Heather Smoke
Homemade soft pretzels that are tender and chewy, with a mustard dipping sauce.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 16 votes
Prep Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes
Course Appetizer, Snack
Cuisine American
Servings8 large pretzels

Equipment

  • Stand Mixer with Dough Hook
  • Large Stock Pot
  • Kitchen Spider/Strainer
  • 2 Large Baking Sheets with Parchment Paper

Ingredients
 

Pretzels

  • 1 ½ cups hot water (between 110-115 degrees F)
  • 1 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
  • 1 packet instant yeast
  • 4 ½ cups bread flour, spooned and leveled
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • 10 cups water, for boiling
  • cup baking soda
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • toppings, such as pretzel salt, cheese and sliced jalapenos, cinnamon-sugar, etc.

Mustard

  • ½ cup mustard, Dijon or whole grain
  • ½ cup creamy horseradish sauce
  • 1-2 tbsp honey

Instructions
 

Pretzels

  • In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the water (1 1/2 cups), sugar, salt, yeast, bread flour and melted butter. Mix on low for 1 minute to combine, then knead on medium/low speed for 5 minutes. The dough will be thick and balled up on the dough hook.
  • Lightly spray a large bowl with non-stick spray, and scrape the dough into the bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. Inside your oven with the bread-proofing setting or just the heat from the interior light is ideal.
    It should take about 45-60 minutes to rise.
  • Preheat the oven to 450 F, and position the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • In a large stock pot, combine the 10 cups of water with the baking soda and bring to a boil.
  • Dump the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper, and dust the dough very lightly with flour, just so it isn't too sticky. Cut the dough into 8 equal portions. Now roll and stretch each portion into a rope that's about 18-20 inches long. The ropes do not need to look perfect, but they should generally be about the same thickness.
  • Shape each rope of dough into a pretzel shape. Working with one pretzel at a time, use your kitchen spider/strainer to lower the pretzels into the boiling water. Boil for 30 seconds, then lift out and set back on the parchment paper. Repeat boiling each pretzel for 30 seconds.
  • Arrange your pretzels on the baking sheets, 4 on each so they have room to spread a little. Use a pastry brush to brush the pretzels with the beaten egg.
  • Now sprinkle your pretzels with toppings. You can keep them simple with just coarse pretzel salt (I used large crystals of Himalayan pink salt), or add grated cheddar cheese and sliced jalapenos. You could even make a sweet version by sprinkling them with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
  • Bake the pretzels (you can put both baking sheets in at the same time on separate racks) for about 15-20 minutes, until the color is a deep golden brown.

Mustard

  • Stir together the mustard, horseradish sauce and honey until smooth.
  • Serve the pretzels warm, or at room temperature, with the mustard sauce.

Notes

Store leftover pretzels in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Keyword Mustard, Pretzels
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