Baking Bread: Pretzel Buns

I have been wanting to make pretzel buns for ages! I’m glad I finally got to, and I used a fabulous recipe from A_boleyn’s website. The dough was so easy to work with. My kids were very excited when I told them I was making pretzel buns. We have only had pretzel rolls twice from a bakery. Once from Bread and Cie in Hillcrest (San Diego area) that were wonderful, and the other time from Vons that were okay (my boys still ate them up). Josh has also made pretzel buns before. They tasted great but ended up a little flat. My pretzel buns actually ended up a little flatter than I wanted but they were still slice-able (is that a word?)

My dough after proofing for about an hour.
I loved playing with this dough! I will be making it again. 🙂
My dough balls weren’t perfect. I might have to weigh my dough balls next time so that I end up with more uniform sizes.
The hardest part was poaching the buns in the boiling water and baking soda solution. I had not floured my baking sheet very well so the buns were sticking to the surface. My buns deflated a bit on the way to the pot. I think I will make my dough balls smaller! The small buns baked up the nicest and roundest.
My buns baked a bit unevenly but they were still good. We used the buns to make ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner.

Thank you to A_boleyn for sharing her recipe with me! I am very happy with this bake. Any issues I had with it were due to my inexperience. I will know better what to do for next time!

-Lynn

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  1. A_Boleyn January 26, 2016 Reply

    I’m glad that the pretzel buns turned out tasty if a bit flat.

    I’d try to avoid adding too much flour extra to the dough when kneading. You want the buns to be light … not too heavy. They didn’t stick to my parchment paper during proofing without using any flour though the top of one of them DID stick a bit to the plastic wrap I covered them with. A light towel would probably be enough.

    Transferring the proofed dough balls to the boiling water is a delicate affair. Mine got pretty flat too even though I was really careful when I flipped them.

    Use lots of water (I’d probably add more the next time and keep the soda amount the same). You just want the outside of the buns to be poached and for the soda water to coat them so they’ll get that brown colour during baking. It was a challenge for me to slash the poached balls before baking (that white slash is a characteristic of pretzel buns/loaves).

    Good luck on your future attempts.

    1. Lynn-Marie January 26, 2016 Reply

      I think I did need to make my slashes deeper in the buns. And using more water would help me a lot too! I did love making these and plan on making them again, maybe when we want to have pulled pork! Yum!

  2. DGHDelgado January 27, 2016 Reply

    Dude! Oh how I need to try this. My kids love pretzel buns. It’s genetic. I’m from NY.

    1. Joshua January 27, 2016 Reply

      They are good, it is worth the time to make them.

      1. DGHDelgado January 27, 2016 Reply

        Making me hungry… Mustard or no?

        1. Lynn-Marie January 28, 2016 Reply

          Yes! 🙂 We used our pretzel buns to make hot ham and cheese sandwiches. Great with mustard!

          1. DGHDelgado January 28, 2016

            Ohhhhh …

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