German Pretzel Rolls (Laugenbrötchen) – Authentic Recipe
★★★★★4.7· 31 ratings · by Vanessa Pur
Delicious, simple and best pretzel rolls recipe and pretzel breadsticks recipe for classic salty bread rolls. These pretzel rolls are quick and easy to bake yourself with simple ingredients and are super soft and delicious. Traditional pretzel rolls with wheat flour, yeast, milk, butter and a bicarbonate of soda water bath.
🇩🇪🇺🇸One recipe, two kitchens — grams ⇄ cups, switch right in the card.
If you have only ever eaten pretzel rolls at an Oktoberfest tent or a German bakery, this is how you make them at home in an American kitchen. Laugenbrötchen get their mahogany crust, glossy shine and unmistakable tang from a short alkaline bath before baking — and you do not need hard-to-find ingredients to pull it off. Below you will find the authentic method plus the safe baking-soda alternative most US home bakers use. Browse more German recipes if you are building an Oktoberfest menu.
The tastiest and best pretzel rolls recipe, as well as a pretzel stick recipe for classic and savory pretzel rolls. These dark pretzel rolls are quick and easy to bake yourself. The pretzel rolls recipe contains simple ingredients such as wheat flour, yeast, milk, butter and a short bicarbonate of soda water bath for the pretzel rolls. With our light pretzel rolls recipe, the pretzel rolls are crispy and shiny on the outside and super soft, fluffy and delicious on the inside. Traditional pretzel rolls decorated with coarse salt or even with cheese as cheese sticks.
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Appetizer & Starter · by Vanessa Pur
German Pretzel Rolls (Laugenbrötchen) – Authentic Recipe
Combine the ingredients for the dough and mix until a uniform dough is formed.
Cover the dough in a glass bowl and leave to rest for at least 50 minutes. Start 50 minutes timer here
When the dough has doubled in size, knead on a work surface and divide into 10 equal pieces - then shape into round bread rolls. Alternatively, you can also form long sticks or pretzels.
Now bring 1.5 liters of water to the boil in a pan. Then add three tablespoons of baking soda to the hot water. Caution - the water foams up extremely quickly, which is why you should not use a small pan!
The pretzel rolls are now lowered into the water one by one. They sink briefly and then come back to the surface. They can stay under water for about 5-20 seconds. Then place them on a baking tray with holes and baking paper.
You can now cut into the dipped pretzel rolls with a sharp knife - either in the shape of a cross or by letting them tear open under their own steam in the oven. You can also add coarse salt and cheese, such as Gouda or Emmental, as crumbles for a cheese pretzel bread roll.
Place the prepared bread rolls in the oven preheated to 160 °C and bake for about 25 minutes. Start 25 minutes timer here
Nutrition per serving
267kcal
9 gFat
39 gCarbs
7 gProtein
1 gSugar
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Instructions for baking our pretzel rolls recipe
Combine the ingredients from our pretzel rolls recipe for the dough and mix until a uniform dough is formed. Cover the dough in a glass bowl and leave to rest for at least 50 minutes.
When the dough has doubled in size, knead it on a work surface and divide it into ten equal pieces – then shape them into round bread rolls. Alternatively, you can also form long sticks or pretzels.
Now bring 1.5 liters of water to the boil in a pan. Then add three tablespoons of baking soda to the hot water. Be careful – the water foams up extremely quickly, which is why you should not use a small pan!
The pretzel rolls are now lowered into the water one by one. They sink briefly and then rise to the surface again. They can stay under water for about 5-20 seconds. Then place them on a baking tray with holes and baking paper.
The dipped pretzel rolls can now be cut into a cross with a sharp knife or, alternatively, they can be left to tear open under their own steam in the oven. You can also add coarse salt and cheese, such as Gouda or Emmental, to the bread rolls as crumbles for a cheese pretzel roll.
Place the prepared bread rolls in a preheated oven at 160°C and bake for about 25 minutes. Leave to cool and enjoy while still fresh.
Basically, the dough for the pretzel rolls recipe is a classic bread dough with milk. Only the water bath in the lye changes the look and taste of the bread rolls. I was expecting more magic and special ingredients when I baked pretzel rolls myself for the first time and was pleasantly surprised. I always have baking soda at home because of many of my American baking recipes and it is now also used for my pretzel rolls.
The first time I consciously ate pretzel rolls, I was in Swabia. For Swabians, pretzel rolls and pretzel sticks are more normal than our classic Sunday rolls. I was immediately in love with the soft yet crunchy, slightly salty pretzel bread rolls.
When I left Baden-Württemberg, I had to take some of the fresh pretzel rolls with me on my journey home. I wasn’t sure if they had such delicious pretzel rolls in NRW. They did exist back then, but they were usually so dark that they would never have appealed to me at home. Nowadays, I prefer to make my own pretzel rolls and then just as I remember them from back then – simply heavenly.
Bake soft, dark pretzel rolls and pretzel sticks fresh and easily yourself…
How do pretzel rolls taste best?
We like pretzel rolls best with a little coarse sea salt as a topping. They taste really fresh straight from the oven and slightly cooled. However, they also taste very good if you bake them again briefly or bake them spontaneously in the morning.
We like to top the pretzel rolls with fresh Bonbel cheese and boiled eggs. In general, pretzel rolls taste great with a wide variety of cheeses and cold cuts. If you like it sweet, try combining them with a dark chocolate cream. The mixture of sweet and salty is perfect.
Simple pretzel pastries and pretzel rolls recipe
We’ve found the best pretzel pastry and pretzel rolls recipe for baking delicious dark bread rolls yourself. They are perfect at any time of day, whether as a side dish with butter or as top pretzel bread rolls. We like to enjoy the pretzel rolls and pretzel sticks as an alternative to Sunday rolls.
When storing the pretzel rolls, please bear in mind that the salt on the pretzel rolls will absorb water if you store them in a bag. It is best to freeze the finished pretzel bread rolls directly or store them in a cloth bag.
Pretzel rolls or pretzels
In Bavaria in particular, small or large pretzels are often used instead of pretzel rolls. You often come across the salty “Brezn”, which are often rather bony and hard and have little to do with our soft bread rolls. In the USA, on the other hand, you are more likely to find only the really sweet versions of pretzels.
Try our sweet chocolate brioche buns if you want to use a sweeter dough for pastries. For the evening, we recommend our fresh ciabatta bread as an alternative. If you would like to bake an oversized pretzel, you can simply use our pretzel dough and then only shape 1-3 pretzels from the dough. You often see these XXL pretzels at sporting events or especially often in the stadium at soccer matches.
These simple pretzel rolls made me extremely proud after my first successes and I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out for you. Of course, this pretzel rolls recipe is one of our favorites. You can also prepare the dough in the evening and then bathe the pretzel bread rolls in lye in the morning and bake them fresh. Have fun trying it out!
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need food-grade lye, or is baking soda enough?
Traditional Laugenbrötchen use a 3–4% food-grade lye (NaOH) solution, which gives the deepest color and the classic pretzel flavor. It works, but it is caustic and requires goggles and gloves. The home-friendly alternative is a baked baking soda bath: spread baking soda on a foil-lined tray and bake it at 250 °F (120 °C) for one hour to convert it into a stronger alkali, then dissolve it in simmering water. The color and taste get you about 90% of the way there with none of the risk.
Why do the rolls need an alkaline bath at all?
The alkaline solution raises the pH of the dough surface, which dramatically accelerates the Maillard reaction in the oven. That is what produces the dark brown, slightly glossy crust and the distinctive pretzel aroma. Skip the bath and you simply get an ordinary bread roll.
Can I freeze pretzel rolls?
Yes, and they freeze exceptionally well. Cool them completely, then freeze in an airtight bag for up to three months. Refresh straight from frozen in a 350 °F (180 °C) oven for 8–10 minutes — the crust crisps right back up. Do not microwave them, as that turns the crust leathery.
I have been baking and cooking for my family and community for years — honest recipes, all tested in my own kitchen and explained step by step so they turn out reliably for you too.
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