Pretzel Bagels

These pretzel bagels are the best of both worlds — deeply browned, salty pretzel exterior with a chewy, dense bagel interior.

Hi hi hi. It's my first post from my new apartment which means these pretzel bagels are the first thing I baked in my new kitchen.

I'm so excited to be sharing this recipe with you, because getting this pretzel bagel recipe just right was not easy!

The recipe itself is extremely easy, don't worry. But figuring out how to adapt my favorite fast and easy bagel recipe to produce excellent pretzel bagels was a challenge!

But we're here. Which means I succeeded. So let's get right to it!

What is a Pretzel Bagel?

Pretzels and bagels are similar in that both go through a bathing process before they get baked. Bagels usually get boiled in water or a mixture of water and barley malt syrup (though if you've made any of easy bagel recipes, you know that plain water works just fine).

A pretzel bagel combines ingredients and techniques from both pretzel and bagel making to create a finished product that's somewhere in the middle.

Pretzels traditionally take a dip in a bath of food grade lye (a hard nope from me on that), or, in home kitchens, a mixture of water and baking soda.

Where bagels are always boiled, pretzel baths can vary by temperature and the strength of and duration of time spent in the pretzel-ing solution.

Baking Soda vs. Lye for Pretzel Bagels

Many proficient home pretzel makers advise using baked baking soda — a process which intensifies the alkaline in the baking soda and gives you a darker crust and that slightly more bitter, classic pretzel taste.

It's not quite as good as the results you'll get from food grade lye, but it's pretty darn close.

How you apply the baking soda bath for pretzel making can also vary. Some recipes use a cool water bath. Others add it to a boiling mixture. Some dip and rinse, others don't rinse at all.

In developing this recipe, I tested both pretzel dough and bagel dough, putting them through several different tests. I tried "bageling" the pretzel dough, then "pretzeling" the bagel dough. Rinsing versus not rinsing. Boiling verses dipping. Not boiling versus just dipping. Boiling with baking soda verses without baking soda. Baked baking soda versus unbaked baking soda.

It took a while, but I finally found a process that works really well. First you'll boil the pretzel bagels in plain water, then give them a quick rinse (10-15 seconds per side) in a mixture of baked baking soda and water.

You will need to bake your baking soda for this recipe, but you can easily do that while your pretzel bagel dough rises.

About This Recipe

The dough itself is a riff on my standard plain bagel recipe only I've swapped in brown sugar and added softened butter, which is more common in pretzel dough.

This added fat makes for a slightly softer, chewier bagel, similar to my homemade egg bagels.

I also futzed with the ratio of flour to water, reducing the amount of water to account for the water in the butter. It's a crucial adjustment that helps the pretzel bagels retain their characteristic density and tight crumb.

Because of the softened butter, which makes the dough stretchier and more elastic, you absolutely must stick your shaped pretzel bagels in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before you boil them.

The cold temperature of this rest in the fridge helps the butter firm up so that your bagels survive the baking soda bath. If you skip this step, your pretzel bagels will turn out flimsy and prone to collapsing, so I really, really recommend taking the time to do this.

To finish the pretzel bagels, I tried them with and without a egg wash and honestly couldn't notice a difference. They're gorgeously shiny and deeply browned even without the egg wash.

So don't waste an egg here. Just sprinkle pretzel salt right on top of the bagels after the baking soda bath. The damp, gelatinized exterior is more than enough to hold the salt in place.

How to Shape Bagels

The butter in the pretzel bagel dough makes it stretchier than the plain bagel dough you see in these gifs, so make sure your dough rounds feel really tight and smooth on top before you poke the holes through. Otherwise you'll end up with lots of air bubbles in your pretzel bagels and you don't want that!

Divide the dough into equal portions on an unfloured surface. If you're combining a few pieces together to make a portion, stack the smaller pieces on top of the bigger pieces. Tuck the edges up so the dough is smooth against the counter with a seam pinched together on top. Repeat until the dough ball feels fairly tight. Don't tear the dough, just stretch it.

Then, flip the dough over so the seam side is down against the counter. Cup your hand around the dough and slide it toward you. The dough will take on an oval shape. Rotate it 90 degrees and repeat to turn the oval into a round circle.

(Or, cup your hand around the dough with your pinkie-side flush against an unfloured counter and your thumb and forefinger making an O- or C-like shape above the dough. Move your hand in quick circles without picking your pinkie off the counter, and the dough will quickly shape itself into a nice smooth ball of dough.)

Once the dough has been shaped into balls, coat your hands in flour and stick a thumb through the bottom seam of the dough. Slide your other thumb in and gently squeeze and stretch, rotating the dough through your hands until the bagel hole is at least the same width as the sides of the bagel if not bigger.

You may want to repeat the stretching process again before boiling to keep the hole from closing up in the oven.

Practical Tips and Recipe Notes

• To quickly soften your 2 tablespoon of butter, slice it into half-inch cubes and smoosh it with the tines of a fork against a clean cutting board until it's smooth and soft. It might still be slightly chilled, but as long as its soft and malleable it's good to add to your dough.
• Start baking your baking soda right after you cover the dough to let it rise. The baking soda needs to bake for an hour and the dough needs to rise for an hour, so use the same hour to get both things done.
• Baked baking soda loses up to 30% of its weight in the baking process. The amount of baking soda listed in the recipe is for the amount you need before it's baked. If you want to, you can bake the baking soda in advance and store it in an airtight container until you're ready to make your pretzel bagels.
• I used King Arthur Baking's pretzel salt here, but any pretzel or flaky salt you like is fine. No need to egg wash, just sprinkle it right on top of the bagels before they go in the oven.
• Really make sure the baking soda is fully dissolved in the water bath before you dip the boiled bagels in it. If there are lots of clumps or the baking soda hasn't dissolved, your bagels might end up tasting soapy.
• The ratio of water to baking soda for the baking soda bath is important! Too much water and the pretzel flavor won't be prominent enough. Too little water and you might end up with soapy, metallic tasting pretzel bagels.

📖 Recipe