Auntie Anne's Pretzels: Copycat Recipe

These smell and taste just like your favorite mall pretzels! You might need to double this recipe! Complete with delicious cheddar cheese dipping sauce. 

Is there ANYTHING better than the smell of Auntie Anne's pretzels wafting through the mall? 

 

Yes, one thing: the taste of them in your belly. 

 

Even though I rarely ever shop at the mall anymore, it's worth a trip just for these bad boys.  

 

They're just SO GOOD. So buttery and warm. So chewy and soft. So salty and delicious. But, since I'm not wasting my life there so much these days, I decided I would have to make my own. If anything, they could only be better. I mean, I hate when they hand you one that's been sitting there five hours and you just want to say, "Excuse me, my good sir, but I just spent my last few bucks on this instead of buying a pair of earrings on clearance. The least you could do is give me one that's been made this century."

Anyways, they WERE better. They were just like Auntie Anne's only you can eat them right out of the oven. So hot that you burn your fingers. 

 

Oh and did I mention these only take 1 hour to make?? Yes, we are in a new age of online shopping with the smell of mall pretzels wafting through your home. You are the mall now.

 

It all starts with some dough... 

You must roll them thin. Very thin. The more Auntie Anne-ish you want them to be, the thinner you will roll them.

 

Then dip them in some baking soda and water. That's what really makes it into a pretzel. It gives it that chewy brown crust. 

The original German pretzels were (and are) made by dipping them in lye (check out my German pretzel recipe). The trick is the high PH. Baking soda is not quite as high as the lye which means they don't get as chewy and brown as a German pretzel, but on the plus side you also aren't trying to dip pretzels in a caustic substance without burning your fingers or destroying your kitchen counters!

 

 

Someone was hungry. That's what the bowl says. And it was true. So I worked fast.

Sprinkle on some salt. The bigger the better. I had Kosher which worked marvelously.



Then the big secret is dipping them in butter at the end. Now you know they must be as good as I'm making them out to be.

Like seriously good. And if you want cinnamon sugar ones, just mix together a little cinnamon and sugar and dip the pretzels in in right after you dip them in the butter. If you want something to dip them in, I just used the extra dipping butter and mixed it with a handful of powdered sugar and a splash of milk to make a little icing. Waste not want not.



Then serve them on your really cute Target plate as seen above. 

 

Now if you liked these, you'll love these pretzel buns which sprouted from the same recipe!