Homemade Soft Pretzels

Awhile back, Dane surprised me with Volume 2 of the Magnolia Table cookbook. We loved experimenting with Volume 1 so much! And to be completely honest, I’m a sucker for a beautiful cookbook. I just can’t help myself.

So far, we’ve made the Mexican Party Salad, Cacio e Pepe, and Orecchiette Pancetta, and none of them disappointed. So now that the weather is cooling off, it’s the perfect time to cuddle up inside with homemade soft pretzels.

The recipe was extremely simple to follow, and most ingredients are things you’d typically already have on hand. I struggled to find the Meldon salt flakes, but already had coarse kosher salt on hand. It has a similar flaky look, so I used that instead. And I’m happy to report it worked out perfectly! For those of you who work a little more by the book, you can order it on Amazon.

To start, I’d definitely say this recipe is on a beginner’s level. The directions are very clear, and no task proved to be too difficult. If I were forced to choose, I would say the hardest part was rolling the dough out so that I could form my pretzel. There were a few moments of weakness where I was like, ‘maybe I’ll just cut these up and make a soft pretzel bites recipe instead’? Or even soft pretzel sticks? But this was 100% user error.

Growing up, when running errands with my mom, she would get a craving for a gas station pretzel. So we'd dip in, grab a pretzel for each of us, and split a Dr. Pepper. In a few weeks, we're taking a family road trip for my Dad's 60th birthday, and I can't wait to make these as a nice treat for us all to share! They're going to be a hit!