Who doesn’t love sourdough pretzel bites?! And when they are a copycat of Auntie Anne’s recipe, they’re even better!
I am absolutely in love with Auntie Anne’s pretzels, but I don’t often buy them – partly because I never go to the mall, and partly because when I do, I’m too frugal to spend the money. Plus, I am addicted to sourdough!
Enter, copycat Auntie Anne’s sourdough pretzel bites. This easy recipe is simple to make and delicious to eat! The chewy crust and coarse salt is the perfect snack for pretzel lovers like me. Eat the warm pretzels alone, with honey mustard, or with a gooey beer cheese dip. You could even add cinnamon sugar and use this for a cinnamon pretzel bites recipe!
Any way you eat them, you’ll be glad you decided to make these easy homemade soft sourdough pretzel bites!
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How to make Sourdough Pretzel Bites:
1. Feed Your Starter
These soft sourdough pretzel nuggets don’t use any instant yeast, so you’ll begin with a bubbly and active sourdough starter. If you don’t have a sourdough starter, you’ll want to begin there. You can click here to get my free checklist and instructions on how to make your very own sourdough starter! Or, if you know someone who bakes sourdough, you can always ask if they will share some of theirs!
About 6-8 hours before you want to start mixing the dough for your pretzel bites, you’ll want to feed your sourdough starter with equal parts filtered water and unbleached flour. Stir it, then leave it on the counter to let it get good and bubbly.
After it has doubled in size, you’re ready to mix your dough! These soft pretzel bites only take a few ingredients.
2. Melt the butter and heat the milk
In a small pot on the stove, combine milk and butter. Melt the butter and heat until the mixture reaches 110 degrees. You won’t want it much hotter than that or it can kill the yeast in your dough. You don’t need a fancy thermometer. One like this is inexpensive and works great!
While that is heating, you’ll want to get the other ingredients ready.
3. Combine with other dough ingredients
In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, add flour (you can use all purpose flour or bread flour), salt, sourdough discard, and light brown sugar. Once the milk and butter mixture reaches 110 degrees, you can add it to the other ingredients and mix.
Stand mixer:
If you put the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer, you can use the dough hook attachment and turn it on low for 5 minutes to bring it all together.
By hand:
If you’re using a large bowl, just mix all the ingredients with a wooden spoon. If the flour doesn’t incorporate completely, you may need to get in there with your hands and mix it all up. You aren’t trying to knead it, it’s just a great way to get all the ingredients integrated.
At this point, you have a pretty wet and shaggy dough. That’s exactly what it’s supposed to be like! You’ll begin to develop structure in the dough during the next phase of stretch and folds. It’s basically the kneading that happens with a sourdough recipe. It’s amazing how it will change in the process.
4. Stretch and Fold the sourdough pretzel bites dough
Once you reach this point, you’ll want to cover your bowl with plastic wrap and do 4 sets of stretch and folds over the next two hours. This process follows exactly what we do on other sourdough recipes like overnight sourdough bread or sourdough rye bread with caraway seeds. It’s all the same process, just different ingredients!
Every 30 minutes or so, just stretch the dough and fold it over on itself. Turn the dough ¼ turn and do it again. You’ll keep doing this 4-8 times total. As with other stiff doughs, you may need to stretch it with both hands and fold it over and then turn it and do it again.
Can you believe how different this dough looks from the shaggy, wet dough we saw earlier?!
5. Let the dough rise
After you’ve completed the stretch and folds about every 30 minutes for two hours, let it rise in a room temperature location until it has doubled in size. I usually let mine rise overnight or all day long. In this case, I made the dough in the morning and got to this part later in the evening.
6. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
Once the dough has doubled, move the oven rack to the center of the oven and set the temperature to 450 degrees.
7. Portion out sourdough pretzel bites dough
At this point, your bubbly sourdough pretzel dough can be cut into 12 equal portions. I usually divide my dough in half, divide each of those halves in half, and then separate those 4 into 3 equal pieces. If you’re more of a perfectionist, you can weigh your dough, divide that by 12, and then portion each ball out into that amount.
Roll each of those 12 portions into a long snake, about 20″ long. You don’t need to measure it! I just wanted to give you a rough estimate.
8. Soda bath
Many recipes for soft pretzels instruct you at this point to drop the sourdough pretzel dough into a large pot of boiling water with baking soda and have you fish them out with a slotted spoon. That’s not my favorite step in the process, so we are going to dip our sourdough pretzel bites into a warm baking soda water bath. It will accomplish the same thing, without the extra steps and risk of being burned!
Mix the baking soda and warm water in a bowl and stir it. Once the baking soda is all dissolved, drop the sourdough pretzel bite snakes into the water and then set them on a cooling rack placed on top of a cooking sheet. I do this just to let them drip a little bit before I put them on the prepared baking sheet.
Using a sharp knife or a bench scraper, divide the rope in half, then each of those halves in half again. Keep doing this until you end up with 16 rectangular pieces.
Line a baking tray with a piece of parchment paper and put the pieces of dough in rows, leaving a little bit of room for them to puff up. Sprinkle with coarse pretzel salt. I had a hard time finding this locally, so I ordered it on Amazon. Here’s the link for the one I purchased.
9. Let the dough rest
At this point, some people choose to let the dough rest and get a second rise. I tried it right away and with the second rise, and I didn’t see a noticeable difference, so I’d say skip it!
10. Bake!
We are so close to being able to eat these soft sourdough pretzels! Take the cookie sheet and pop it into a 450-degree oven until the sourdough pretzel bites are golden brown. This usually takes about 9 minutes.
11. Brush sourdough pretzel bites with melted butter
This is the best part! Brush the sourdough pretzel bites with a little bit of melted butter before serving and they are pure heaven!
Timeline:
I usually feed my starter in the morning, make my dough a couple of hours before bed and let it rise all night long. Then the next day it’s ready to go!
As an alternate timetable, I feed my starter the night before, make the dough in the morning, let it rise throughout the day, and then make pretzels in the afternoon/evening.
How to store sourdough pretzel nuggets:
These are very easy to store! Place them in an airtight container or a Ziploc bag and they will last a few days at room temperature. Or, you can put them into a zip top freezer bag and put them in the freezer for later. Make sure to remove as much of the air as you can so they will last longer.
I did try to store them in a paper bag, and that worked well too! I probably would not store them that way for longer than 24 hours, or they will get dried out.
Originally, I thought they’d be better stored in a paper bag, like many people store bread. But I couldn’t taste a noticeable difference between the two storage ways when I tried them the next morning.
How to reheat sourdough pretzel bites
Oven:
Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Heat sourdough pretzel bites on a cookie sheet in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
Air Fryer:
Pop sourdough pretzel bites into cold air fryer and heat at 300 degrees for 5 minutes.
Can I make sourdough pretzel bites with sourdough discard?
Sure you can! The biggest difference with sourdough discard is that it’s been dormant for a little while in the fridge. Because of that, it may take longer to rise. However, I have made these with bubbly active starter, and with sourdough discard and this soft sourdough pretzel recipe turns out great either way! I guess I could have called them sourdough discard pretzels instead!!
Check out my other sourdough discard recipes:
Overnight sourdough chocolate chip cookies
Other variations:
Cinnamon pretzel bites:
Follow the steps outlined above but omit sprinkling with salt. When they come out of the oven, brush them with butter and shake them in a paper bag with cinnamon sugar. It’s a sweet treat you’ll love!
Sourdough pretzel sticks:
Cut each rope into quarters and score with a sharp knife, lame, or a flat razor blade before putting it into the oven. It makes the most adorable soft pretzel sticks!
Sourdough Pretzel Bites
Who doesn’t love sourdough pretzel bites?! And when they are a copycat of Auntie Anne’s recipe, they’re even better!
Ingredients
- 2c. milk
- 4T. butter
- 100g. brown sugar
- 420g. sourdough starter
- 750g. all purpose or bread flour
- 14g. salt
Baking Soda Dip
- 1/3c. baking soda
- 3c. warm water
Brush with Butter
- 6T. melted butter
Instructions
1. Feed Your Starter
These soft sourdough pretzel nuggets don’t use any instant yeast, so you’ll begin with a bubbly and active sourdough starter. If you don’t have a sourdough starter, you’ll want to begin there. Make your very own sourdough starter, or if you know someone who bakes sourdough, you can always ask if they will share some of theirs!
About 6-8 hours before you want to start mixing the dough for your pretzel bites, you’ll want to feed your sourdough starter with equal parts filtered water and unbleached flour. Stir it, then leave it on the counter to let it get good and bubbly.
After it has doubled in size, you’re ready to mix your dough! These soft pretzel bites only take a few ingredients.
2. Melt the butter and heat the milk
In a small pot on the stove, combine milk and butter. Melt the butter and heat until the mixture reaches 110 degrees. You won’t want it much hotter than that or it can kill the yeast in your dough.
While that is heating, you’ll want to get the other ingredients ready.
3. Combine with other dough ingredients
In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, add flour (you can use all purpose flour or bread flour), salt, sourdough discard, and light brown sugar. Once the milk and butter mixture reaches 110 degrees, you can add it to the other ingredients and mix.
Stand mixer:
If you put the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer, you can use the dough hook attachment and turn it on low for 5 minutes to bring it all together.
By hand:
If you’re using a large bowl, just mix all the ingredients with a wooden spoon. If the flour doesn’t incorporate completely, you may need to get in there with your hands and mix it all up. You aren’t trying to knead it, it’s just a great way to get all the ingredients integrated.
At this point, you have a pretty wet and shaggy dough. That’s exactly what it’s supposed to be like! You’ll begin to develop structure in the dough during the next phase of stretch and folds. It’s basically the kneading that happens with a sourdough recipe. It’s amazing how it will change in the process.
4. Stretch and Fold the sourdough pretzel bites dough
Once you reach this point, you’ll want to cover your bowl with plastic wrap and do 4 sets of stretch and folds over the next two hours. This process follows exactly what we do on other sourdough recipes like overnight sourdough bread or sourdough rye bread with caraway seeds. It’s all the same process, just different ingredients!
Every 30 minutes or so, just stretch the dough and fold it over on itself. Turn the dough ¼ turn and do it again. You’ll keep doing this 4-8 times total. As with other stiff doughs, you may need to stretch it with both hands and fold it over and then turn it and do it again.
5. Let the dough rise
After you’ve completed the stretch and folds about every 30 minutes for two hours, let it rise in a room temperature location until it has doubled in size. I usually let mine rise overnight or all day long. In this case, I made the dough in the morning and got to this part later in the evening.
6. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
Once the dough has doubled, move the oven rack to the center of the oven and set the temperature to 450 degrees.
7. Portion out sourdough pretzel bites dough
At this point, your bubbly sourdough pretzel dough can be cut into 12 equal portions. I usually divide my dough in half, divide each of those halves in half, and then separate those 4 into 3 equal pieces. If you’re more of a perfectionist, you can weigh your dough, divide that by 12, and then portion each ball out into that amount.
Roll each of those 12 portions into a long snake, about 20″ long. You don’t need to measure it! I just wanted to give you a rough estimate.
8. Soda bath
Mix the baking soda and warm water in a bowl and stir it. Once the baking soda is all dissolved, drop the sourdough pretzel bite snakes into the water and then set them on a cooling rack placed on top of a cooking sheet. I do this just to let them drip a little bit before I put them on the prepared baking sheet.
Using a sharp knife or a bench scraper, divide the rope in half, then each of those halves in half again. Keep doing this until you end up with 16 rectangular pieces.
Line a baking tray with a piece of parchment paper and put the pieces of dough in rows, leaving a little bit of room for them to puff up. Sprinkle with coarse pretzel salt.
9. Bake!
Take the cookie sheet and pop it into a 450-degree oven until the sourdough pretzel bites are golden brown. This usually takes about 9 minutes.
10. Brush sourdough pretzel bites with melted butter
This is the best part! Brush the sourdough pretzel bites with a little bit of melted butter before serving and they are pure heaven!
Notes
How to reheat sourdough pretzel bites
Oven:
Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Heat sourdough pretzel bites on a cookie sheet in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
Air Fryer:
Pop sourdough pretzel bites into cold air fryer and heat at 300 degrees for 5 minutes.
Other variations:
Cinnamon pretzel bites:
Follow the steps outlined above but omit sprinkling with salt. When they come out of the oven, brush them with butter and shake them in a paper bag with cinnamon sugar. It’s a sweet treat you’ll love!
Sourdough pretzel sticks:
Cut each rope into quarters and score with a sharp knife, lame, or a flat razor blade before putting it into the oven. It makes the most adorable soft pretzel sticks!
I hope you love these sourdough pretzel bites! I’m experimenting with all sorts of new recipes like sourdough bagels, sourdough crackers, and sourdough English muffins… But until I get those perfect, check out some of my other delicious recipes below!
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