Pretzel Buns

Pretzel Buns

There is nothing tastier than homemade steaming hot bread! Plus it will make your house smell amazing too! We love these pretzel buns so much we have stopped buying store-bought buns altogether. These homemade pretzel buns are totally worth it, we make a double batch and freeze any leftovers so we can have delicious pretzel buns on the fly.

I’ve really enjoyed exploring the world of bread making this year. I used to be kind of intimidated by working with yeast. It sounds silly, but I’ve always had issues getting the dough to rise and if the dough doesn’t rise, well you know the rest. I’m pretty sure I was using way too hot water and killing the yeast. Warm really doesn’t need to be even that warm, think your body temperature or less. You can just dip a finger in to check if it is the right temperature. Now that I’ve been baking all sorts of kinds of breads this year I’ve overcome my difficulties using yeast and love baking bread. This pretzel bun recipe is actually really easy and a great place to start if you’re new to bread baking too.

What’s this baking soda bath?
Pretzels get their unique flavor and texture from a quick baking soda bath. It’s the alkaline in baking soda that gives a pretzel that pretzely flavor. A baking soda bath is essentially boiling the dough for a couple of minutes and this changes how the bread cooks up in the oven and makes it chewy, not crispy on the outside. In traditional pretzel-making, the dough is dipped in a lye bath, but baking soda works almost as well and is a much easier process. Now the question is who every thought about boiling dough in lye in the first place?

Pretzel Buns

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These homemade vegan pretzel buns are so delicious. Just make a simple yeast dough, let it rise for a couple of hours, dunk it in a baking soda bath, and then bake. 

• Author: Erica
• Prep Time: 2.5 hours (mostly rising time)
• Cook Time: 22 minutes
• Total Time: 3 hours
• Yield: 10 buns 1x
• Category: Bread
• Diet: Vegan

Ingredients

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• 1 and ½ cups of warm water
• 2 ¼ teaspoons of active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 3 and ¾ cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ½ tablespoon of molasses
• Splash of olive oil
• 8 cups of water
• 1/3 cup of baking soda

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Instructions

1. Add yeast, sugar and warm water to a bowl, let it sit for 5 minutes.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer add flour and salt. Gently mix flour and salt together with a spoon.
3. Add molasses to yeast mixture and stir with a spatula until sugar and yeast are mixed and dissolved. Pour the liquid mixture into the electric mixer bowl. 
4. Mix on a low setting using a dough hook until a dough bowl forms. 
5. Coat a large bowl with olive oil. Place the dough ball in the bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let the dough rest at room temperature (75°-80° is ideal, you can warm your oven if necessary) for at least 2 hours.
6. Prepare a baking pan with a silicone baking sheet. 
7. The dough should have doubled in size. Knead the dough to release any air bubbles.
8. Separate dough into 10 balls, give them a little press to flatten the top. Let the buns sit for another 10 minutes to raise again before placing them in the baking soda bath.
9. Preheat the oven to 400°.
10. Prepare the baking soda bath. Add water and baking soda to a deep saute pan (3qt.) or pasta pot. Heat on high until a boil develops.
11. Place some of the buns in the baking soda bath. Let them sit for one minute, then flip them over for another minute on the other side. Pull buns from the baking soda bath and place them on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining buns.
12. Score the tops of the buns with an X using a butter knife. Then in the oven they go!
13. Bake for 22 minutes or until pretzely golden on the top!

Notes

Pretzel buns keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. They can be frozen and keep for up to 2 months.

This recipe is adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction’s pretzel bun recipe. It has been veganized and is the low sodium version. 

Did You Give This Recipe a Whirl?

Please give it bunches of stars and send a comment to share your thoughts! What was easy? What didn’t work? Did you discover an even more delicious version? I’d love to know to keep improving each recipe.

Sharing is caring! If you love this recipe please pass it along to your peeps so we can all start eating a little healthier, one delicious meal at a time.

Cheers, Erica