As teenagers growing up in the suburbs of New York City, my friends and I spent many Saturday afternoons wandering through record stores and vintage clothing racks in Greenwich Village. Broke as we were, lunch often meant a soft pretzel from a pushcart.

On trips home from college, I’d meet friends at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, wandering for hours and emerging ravenous, saved by the waiting pushcarts selling hot pretzels.

Years later, I’d fly from San Francisco to New York to see my family for Christmas and race around buying presents on December 23, no time to stop for anything to eat but a soft pretzel.

To me, the soft pretzel is a New York City staple. I’ve bought hundreds in my day, and not once from a German. Let’s be honest, half the time the pushcart versions are cold and hard, or coated in way too much salt. But there is almost nothing more comforting than a fresh, warm, perfectly salty pretzel. So why the hell has it never occurred to me to make them myself?

I first made these for my Mundial Meals project during the 2022 World Cup, but the most fun was making them with Thomas, Olivia & Brianne in Sonoma.

Fresh out of the oven, in your own home, with really good mustard you can put on a plate instead of walking with a piece of wax paper flapping in the wind and inadvertently smearing bright yellow on your sleeve? Yes please.

Soft Pretzels

Ingredients

2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2.25 ounce Rapid Rise yeast
6.5 cups Bread flour
2 tablespoons coarse salt, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 cup cold butter, but into pieces
8 cups water
1/2 cup baking soda
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup beer

Instructions

Add 2 cups warm water, 2 T brown sugar, and yeast to a mixing bowl and proof for ten minutes, until foamy.
In a large bowl (or stand mixer), combine flour, 2T salt, and butter until it forms a coarse dough.
Add yeast mixture to flour and mix until water is absorbed into a rough dough.
Use a dough hook on the mixture or knead for 6 minutes.
Cover bowl with a damp cloth and set aside to rise for two hours, or overnight in the fridge.
Preheat oven to 450F
Roll out the dough roughly 12 inch square and cut into twelve 1-inch strips
Roll or stretch a strip to about 30 inch long rope. Form into a U, then cross the arms to form a pretzel shape and gently press the ends to seal. Repeat for all 12 pretzels.
Add 8 cups water, beer, baking soda, and 1/4 cup brown sugar to a large pot and bring to a boil.
Reduce pot to a simmer and boil each pretzel for 30 seconds, one at a time. Set each on a baking sheet and top with coarse salt.
Bake each tray for 5 minutes, then rotate and back another 5-8 minutes until the color is perfect.