Copycat Auntie Anne's Pretzels (2024)

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Leah Maroney

A recipe developer and food photographer, Leah Maroney is an ardent home cook and food blogger who has written over 300 recipes for The Spruce Eats.

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Updated on 03/11/24

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Ingredients

For the Dough:

2 cups milk
2 ounces (4 tablespoons) salted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
5 cups (745 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt

For the Topping:

2 cups warm water
1/3 cup baking soda
2 ounces (4 tablespoons) butter, melted
Pretzel salt, to taste

Steps to Make It

Gather your ingredients.
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Scald the milk in a small pot. Do not boil; just heat the milk until it is hot all of the way through.
Add the butter and sugar to the hot milk. Stir until the butter melts and the sugar has dissolved. Set it aside and cool until just a bit warmer than room temperature. If the milk is too hot, the yeast will die; too cold, and it won't rise as quickly (around 100 F is ideal).
Add the yeast to the top of the milk mixture and allow it to soften for a few minutes.
Using the bread hook attachment on your stand mixer, add in the flour and salt and stir with the hook attachment until completely combined and a smooth ball forms.
Cover the bowl with a clean dish towel and allow the dough to rise for 1 hour or until it doubles in size. Then punch down the dough in the bowl.
Turn the ball of dough out onto a cutting board. Cut the dough into 10 equal pieces. If you are looking to make smaller pretzels, cut the dough into smaller pieces. This will give you smaller pretzels. You need a decent size piece of dough to make the large, skinny pretzels that are Auntie Anne's signature.
Preheat the oven to 450 F. Roll a piece of the dough into a long and very skinny "rope," about 36 inches long.
Loop the dough in half and then twist the ends together 2 or 3 times.
Pull the ends back over the loop to make the classic pretzel shape, pressing the ends to make them stick.
Whisk together 2 cups of warm water and the baking soda in a shallow dish. Dip the pretzels into the baking soda bath. Flip and dip the other side.
Place the dipped pretzels onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. You should be able to fit 2 or 3 onto each baking sheet.
Bake the pretzels for 7 to 8 minutes or until golden brown.
Brush the pretzels with melted butter.
Sprinkle them with coarse pretzel salt.
Dig in immediately. They are best when they are eaten hot and fresh out of the oven.

Tips

Try serving the freshly baked pretzels with beer cheese dip, chipotle pumpkin queso dip, or for a salty and sweet combo, serve with chocolate sauce or caramel sauce.

Recipe Variations

Pretzel salt looks and tastes the best in the recipe, but you can also use a regular coarse salt like kosher salt.
You can substitute the milk with water and non-dairy butter for the butter if you are looking to cut out dairy.

How to Store and Freeze

You can refrigerate the dough for up to 24 hours as it rises.
You can also freeze the dough for three months. Move to the fridge to defrost overnight and proceed with the recipe.

What Makes Auntie Anne Pretzels so Good?

Auntie Anne Pretzels are somehow more delicious than your average pretzel. A healthy dose of sugar makes for a tasty dough, and a topping of melted butter and salt makes them positively addictive. Another reason the popular pretzels are so good is they are made and served fresh and warm.

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Nutrition Facts (per serving)
359	Calories
11g	Fat
56g	Carbs
8g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 10
Amount per serving
Calories	359
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 11g	14%
Saturated Fat 7g	33%
Cholesterol 28mg	9%
Sodium 2576mg	112%
Total Carbohydrate 56g	20%
Dietary Fiber 2g	7%
Total Sugars 8g
Protein 8g
Vitamin C 0mg	1%
Calcium 78mg	6%
Iron 3mg	17%
Potassium 154mg	3%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Recipe Tags:

Pretzels
snack
american
back to school

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