No, you’re not dreaming, this is a vegan pretzel bread. Which means, pretzel French toast, pretzel grilled cheese, pretzel burger buns … You can go wild.
You’re welcome.
How it started:
While I’m sure that I’m not the first one who has made bread like this, I am proud to say that I thought of it myself. Like a big boy.
Here is how it started. Léa wanted us to make those awesome Tofu Burgers and If you know me by now, you know that I don’t buy burger buns. They are so easy to make and I like to make them myself. As I was shaping the buns I thought: Why don’t I give these babies an alkaline bath (Water + Baking soda) and then bake them. Pretzel Buns!
From there it kind of spiraled into : ‘Why don’t I just make this into an actual loaf?’
True story.
Pretzel Bread:
Pretzel are a lot of fun to make, not to mention that they taste so good and it was pretty natural for me to think of a way to extend that concept to other things I love.
The very fact, that pretzels needs to be boiled in an alkaline bath before going into the oven gives them that phenomenal texture and taste that we all love. If you don’t apply this step, you are basically just making bread and you will not end up having that signature color we all love.
With that in mind, here is the formula to make perfect pretzel bread:
Yeast: You need to proof your yeast. That basically means wait until your yeast foams up and doubles in size before you get started. Here is how you do it:
2 ¼ tsp of yeast, ½ tsp of sugar and ¼ cup of warm water.
Dough: Flour to liquid ratio should be somewhere close to 2:1 , if your dough is sticky, it means you have done a good job.
Alkaline bath: For 3 Cups of water, you use 1 Tbsp of baking soda.
Boil first, bake second.
That’s really it, as long as you respect these steps; you should end up with very soft and awesome pretzel looking things.
Sounds good ? Why don’t you pin this and make it later !
Hope this recipe will bring you as much joy as it brought Lea. She seriously kept on asking for pretzel bread ever since. I wonder if it was a mistake to introduce her to that … Ah she’ll be fine.
If you liked this recipe, please help our blog grow by sharing and signing up for our newsletter all the way on the top.
Enjoy,
Idriss
Vegan Pretzel Bread
Ingredients
- 4 Cups of All purpose white non bleached flour.
- 1/3 cup melted vegan butter. I use earth balance.
- 1 1/3 cup of warm water.
- 1 pinch of salt.
- some coarse salt to decorate.
Yeast proofing:
- 2 1/4 tsp of yeast + 1/2 tsp of sugar + 1/4 cup of warm water.
Alkaline bath:
- 6 cups of water + 2 Tbsp of baking soda.
Instructions
- Take all your yeast proofing ingredients and mix them together. Set aside until it foams and doubles in size.
In your stand mixer:
- Mix your flour and salt.
- Add the proofed yeast and melted butter.
- Set your stand mixer to low speed and add your water very slowly.
- Once you use all your water is used. Set the speed to high and let it do it's thing for 5-6 minutes.
- Take your dough out. It should be very sticky.
- Cut in 4 and shape it into 4 balls.
- Spray a baking sheet with some oil, place your 4 dough balls in there, making sure that you space them by at least 3-4 inches.
- Cover with a towel and let rise for 45 minutes or until it doubles in size.
- Prepare your alkaline bath by putting the water (6 cups) in a large pot and bringing it to a boil. Add your baking soda.
- Pre heat your oven to 375F.
- Using a very sharp knife, make a a couple of incisions in your dough balls and boil them for 1-2 minutes each ONE AT A TIME. Boiling them one a time ensures that the temperature in your bath will not drop.
- Lay some parchemin paper on a loaf pan, and put your dough balls one next the the other in the pan. I could only fit 2 in my pan. So this recipe made 2 loaves. Yaye !
- *If you don't have parchemin paper, you can just oil your loaf pan. Please note that this will make your pretzel loaf more crispy on the bottom and sides.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Recipe Notes
Cost per recipe : 2.65 $CA
This recipe makes 2 loaves. Cost per loaf: 1.32 $CA
The cost of my recipes is based on the average cost of ingredients I use. It's mostly provided as a guideline for you to understand the true savings you can make when you choose to cook at home.
Wow…. They look delicious! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome Joseyphina ! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
Hi Idriss! This looks so good 🙂 We would love to have you share this over at this week’s Dishing It and Digging It party! Please feel free to join http://www.angiethefreckledrose.com/dishing-it-digging-it-132/
I sure will ! Thank you for the invite
This bread looks so cozy and delicious! I love how few ingredients there are. It’s pure, simple goodness. The coarse salt makes such a beautiful loaf as well…lovely!
Looks delicious! Pinned it so I can try the recipe later. Thanks!
I never thought I’d say this about bread but that bread is beautiful! If I can make bread like that someday I will be one happy baker!
This looks delicious. I’m going to have to try it. I wonder if it would come out well if I subbed in some whole wheat flour. Found you at the Dishing It & Digging It Hop!
Hey Jordan ! It would work, but you might end up with a much more dense loaf. What I would suggest is doing half whole wheat, half all purpose. You can also add a Tbsp of ground flax seed to boost the fibre content.
Enjoy !
I can totally get behind this! I’m going to have to surprise my boys with this sometime soon! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome ! I hope that they will love it
Yum! That sounds so delicious right now. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
You’re welcome Lauren
Love me some pretzel bread! This looks delicious. Definitely going to have to try.
Awesome ! Let me know how it works out 😉
I started this recipe…the first part for the yeast proofing calls for 1/4 CUP water. The bottom calls for 1/4 TSP! I started from the top and now I’m lost and hoping that it turns out with 1/4 cup water.
It’s a 1/4 Cup. Thank you for letting me know I’ll fix it right away.
It’s done! Thanks again for letting me know about the typo and for trying our recipes. I will be available this morning if you have any further questions with this recipe. You can either email me directly at: idriss@brokefoodies.com or write me a comment here.
Have fun 🙂
Help! I just started this recipe and after proofing the yeast, it says to mix the flour and sugar. I’m not seeing sugar listed in the ingredients besides what’s used with the yeast. Am I missing something?
Thank you!
Hi Chelsea!
I just updated the recipe, by mistake I updated it earlier and put sugar where it supposed to say salt. I’m gonna proof read it again to make sure that there are no mistakes. So sorry for the inconvenience. Let me know if you require further assistance.
Enjoy 🙂
Hi, how would you make this without using a stand mixer? Just knead/mix it with your hands for the 5 minutes?
Thanks!
You sure can! However, you will need to work at it a little longer. Somwhere around 8 minutes, or until your dough looks smooth and feels sticky. Hope this helps 🙂
Thank you!
How would I change this recipe from a loaf to buns?
Hi Amber ! You split the dough on 8 equal parts and apply the same process to it (i.e. : Shape into a ball, then make a couple of incisions with a knife, boil in the alkaline bath, add coarse salt, then bake).
Make sure you don’t cook more than 2-3 at once or else you will drop the temperature of the water.
Hope this helps 🙂
Could I use gluten free flour for this recipe?
Could I substitute bobs red mill all purpose gluten free flour?
Hi Nicole,
I have never tried a gluten-free flour for this. But if you have ever made bread with it successfully then it should work.
I’ve attempted bread recipes in the past and have never been able to make anything that warranted repeating, but this was sooo quick and EASY! And that’s saying something when you consider I made it by hand (I can’t justify the cost of a mixer since I don’t bake). I followed your instructions exactly and it came out perfect! And the fact that the recipe yielded 2 loaves was a delightful added bonus. I could totally get on board with making this on a weekly basis; it was THAT easy. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome Lizzie! I’m glad you liked it. If you do enjoy easy bread recipes, check out our archives for more recipes (you can just type bread in the search bar). Enjoy!
Did not turn out. The bread sticks to the parchment paper, the dough was bland, and was not pretzel-like.
I tried this and sadly it just didn’t turn out! Maybe I did something wrong when it came to boiling the dough balls. Should they be punched and then boiled? Should I be submerging them with a spoon holding them under? From the looks of it i got too much water in the dough. However, for the second loaf I didn’t boil it and baked it for the 20 minutes at 375°, but it still was nowhere near cooked. I baked it for 50 Minutes total and it looks like it is turning out, but I will have to wait for it to cool before I can do anything. If you have any tips for me I would appreciate them!
Do you have any tips for high altitude? Just attempted this…turned out okay…did not so well in the bath, so I am wondering if it is something to do with altitude! Thanks so much!
The first time I made this, my balls baked separately in the same pan. They never joined. It was good but awkwardly shaped bread. Second time, I worked with what I knew from before and am so far, it’s still in the oven, getting one big loaf!!