“homemade”
19 recipes vs 98Recipes called “homemade”: less salt (1.3% vs 1.8%).
“homemade” (19)the rest (98)middle half of all
Saltrecipes called homemade 1.3% vs the rest 1.8%
Soft Pretzels Lab
Soft Pretzels: what 173 recipes agree on
Lye or baking soda bath aside: water, fat, sugar and yeast per 100 g of flour.
173 recipes from 76 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
173
from 76 sites
Typical flour
500 g
about 4 cups
Oven
425°F
220°C · median of 149
Bake time
15 min
most 12 to 20 min
The typical batch of soft pretzels
The median of all 173 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 500 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 500 gabout 4 cups |
| WaterMost recipes use 295 to 355 g | 315 gabout 1 1/3 cups |
| ButterMost recipes use 14 to 50 g | 35 gabout 2 1/2 tbsp |
| SugarMost recipes use 6 to 22 g | 12 gabout 1 tbsp |
| SaltMost recipes use 7 to 10 g | 9 g |
| YeastMost recipes use 6 to 9 g | 7 g |
Bake425°F (220°C) for about 15 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Water
median 63% · most 59 to 71%
A fairly stiff dough holds the twisted shape; the boiling bath is counted as an extra.
Each dot is up to 5 recipes. range 40 to 84%
Butter
median 7% · most 2.8 to 10%
A little butter keeps the inside soft.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 0 to 18% · 20% use none
Sugar
median 2.4% · most 1.2 to 4.3%
Brown sugar or malt feeds the yeast and deepens the crust color.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 0 to 15% · 17% use none
Salt
median 1.7% · most 1.3 to 2%
Salt in the dough, before the coarse salt on top.
Each dot is up to 5 recipes. range 0.4 to 3%
Yeast
median 1.4% · most 1.2 to 1.7%
Instant or active dry yeast; most recipes rise once.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 0 to 3.3% · 5% use none
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Butter. The middle half of recipes use 2.8 to 10% of the flour weight in butter, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 3.6 times as much as one at the 25th.
- Sugar. The middle half of recipes use 1.2 to 4.3% of the flour weight in sugar, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 3.6 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on water and yeast: water 59 to 71%, yeast 1.2 to 1.7% for the middle half.
Around the world
160 of the recipes come in 3 languages with enough of each to compare: English 117, French 27, German 16.
- French recipes use 42% less sugar than English ones (1.5% against 2.6% of the flour weight).
- German recipes use under a third as much sugar as English ones (0.6% against 2.6% of the flour weight).
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
“sourdough”
12 recipes vs 105Recipes with “sourdough” in the title: most use no yeast (83% vs 0%); less water (56% vs 64%); more salt (2.1% vs 1.6%).
“sourdough” (12)the rest (105)middle half of all
Yeast · share using anyrecipes with sourdough in the title 16% vs the rest 100%
Waterrecipes with sourdough in the title 56% vs the rest 64%
Saltrecipes with sourdough in the title 2.1% vs the rest 1.6%
The most-reviewed recipes
26 soft pretzel recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 147, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
The most-reviewed recipes use about half as much butter as the rest (2.8% against 7.5% of the flour weight).
50+ ratings (26)the rest (147)middle half of all
Waterthe most-reviewed recipes 65% vs the rest 63%
Butterthe most-reviewed recipes 2.8% vs the rest 7.5%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 2.5% vs the rest 2.3%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.9% vs the rest 1.7%
Yeastthe most-reviewed recipes 1.4% vs the rest 1.3%
Most reviewed
- Bretzels au thermomix · cookomix.com · French5.0 from 851 ratings
- Easy Homemade Soft Pretzels · sallysbakingaddiction.com4.8 from 840 ratings
- Sourdough Soft Pretzels · baking-sense.com4.6 from 555 ratings
- Hot Buttered Soft Pretzels · kingarthurbaking.com4.8 from 490 ratings
- Easy Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites · melskitchencafe.com4.8 from 284 ratings
Oven temperature and time
149 of 173 recipes state an oven temperature, and 30% of those bake at 400°F (205°C). The middle half bake at 400 to 450°F. The other 24 do not say.
- 400°F46 recipes
- 425°F41 recipes
- 450°F38 recipes
- 350°F12 recipes
- 475°F6 recipes
- 500°F2 recipes
168 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 15 minutes and the middle half bake 12 to 20 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 450°F for 10 to 15 minutes, with 17 of the 147 recipes that state both.
≥475°F 245450°F 230425°F 220400°F 205375°F 190≤350°F 175515253545
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical batch
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Soft Pretzel Bites Recipe · crazyforcrust.comwater 64% · butter 5.7%
- Soft Pretzel Recipe · crazyforcrust.comwater 64% · butter 5.7%
- Soft Pretzels · bettycrocker.comwater 71% · butter 5.4%
- Brezeln und Obatzter · bettybossi.chwater 68% · butter 8.3%
- Homemade Soft Pretzels · savingdessert.comwater 63% · butter 10%
Most water
- Soft Pretzel Rolls aka. German Laugenbrötchen · baketotheroots.dewater 84% · butter 2.7%
- Easy Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites · melskitchencafe.comwater 84% · butter 0%
- Homemade Pretzel Dogs · houseofnasheats.comwater 84% · butter 0%
Least water
- Bretzels Thermomix : la meilleure recette · marmiton.orgwater 40% · butter 6%
- Bretzels salés · cuisine.journaldesfemmes.frwater 40% · butter 6%
- Sourdough Discard Pretzels · farmhouseonboone.comwater 42% · butter 0%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- Title WordsWhat recipes whose titles say fudgy, healthy or small batch do differently from the rest, and which words change nothing.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 12kingarthurbaking.com
- 12kirbiecravings.com
- 6bettybossi.ch
- 6chefsimon.com
- 6ptitchef.com
- 5handletheheat.com
- 5sallysbakingaddiction.com
- 5tasteofhome.com
- 4farmhouseonboone.com
- 4foodnetwork.com
- 4jamiegeller.com
- 4marcelpaa.com
In 7 languages: English 117, French 27, German 16, Italian 4, Dutch 4, Portuguese 3, Spanish 2. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 76 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
96% of the 1,185 ingredient lines got a weight. 38% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 414 were left out: 190 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (water 121, salt 27, butter 17, yeast 16, sugar 9), 158 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 53 with a title that names a different dish, 5 duplicates of other pages, 4 too many lines without an amount, 2 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, 1 a listing page, not a recipe page, and 1 made from a boxed mix.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.