We Heart Soft Pretzels

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

Every time we take a trip to the local shopping mall, my two sons beg for the pretzels at the little stand that you find there. You know, the one with the blue checkerboard logo and aromas that travel through the food court? They can spot it a mile away. They have become positively addicted to that soft doughy goodness and especially love the cinnamon sugar variety. But at almost four bucks for a little flour, yeast, water and lots of butter, and almost 500 calories (for the cinnamon sugar ones) a pop, I try to limit this to an every once in a while indulgence.

Also, we live in the Philadelphia area, the soft pretzel capital of the United States. You can find homemade “local” soft pretzels at Amish farmers markets that I think beat the pants off of the mall ones. We can find soft pretzels at every convenience store, sporting event, and lots of school functions. But the truth is my little guys adore the Auntie Anne’s pretzels you find in every mall across America and would choose them every time.

In fact, we just returned from a family vacation and my older son and I were talking about his favorite food that he had while away. Was it a chocolate covered ice cream treat or pizza cooked in a woodburning oven? No way! His answer was the pretzel we picked up while waiting for our luggage in the airport when we got back home. Of course at just four years old, he may remember this the most because it was the last food he had on our trip, but that is a true testament to his love of Auntie Anne’s.

So for Valentine’s Day, we will try to recreate these illustrious pretzels at home. But instead of the traditional twisted pretzel shape, we’ll make hearts. The procedure for making soft pretzels is fairly simple, it just involves time for the dough to rest and rise.

You can find boxed mix to make the mall pretzels and home and craft stores. We received this as a Christmas gift and tried it our to much success. Within a couple hours, we had filled the kitchen with homemade soft pretzels, cinnamon sugar letters, and pretzel wrapped hot dogs, along with delicious smells. It was a memorable (and calorie filled) afternoon.

Now my second pretzel try was sort of a fail. Being the somewhat health conscious mother I am, I tried to sneak in a little white whole-wheat flour into my normal tried and true soft pretzel recipe with the addition of the dip in the baking soda bath. But even my husband caught the difference. “These are good, but nothing like the mall pretzels you made a couple weeks ago,” he said. Glazed with melted butter, they were a little moister and more delicious. And even better with some fun dips such as warm cheese, caramel, or cinnamon cream cheese, to complement our usual plain mustard.

Next up, right here on CDKitchen you can find a copycat recipe for Auntie Anne’s Soft Pretzels, so no trips to the mall this week for us! We’ll be making these beauties for our Valentine’s Day treat. It’s so fun for little ones to roll the dough out by hand and shape it however they like into forms such as hearts, letters, or flowers.

After we try it out at home, I wonder if I’ll still hear that familiar chant, “pretzel, pretzel” every time we catch site of the mall? Happy Valentine’s Day!

Serves/Makes: 10

• 2 envelopes (1/4-ounce size) active dry yeast
• 2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees F)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 6 cups all-purpose flour (more as needed)
• 1 egg white for brushing the tops
• pretzel salt