Gluten free soft pretzels without yeast
Xanthan gum free, egg free, nut free, dairy free/vegan optionMakes 10-12 medium/large pretzels*Recipe uses Australian tablespoons. Use ml for international accuracy. 1 Australian tablespoon = 20ml, whereas most other tablespoons are 15ml. For 2 Australian tablespoons, use 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons if you live in a 15ml tablespoon country.
Ingredients
For the soft pretzel dough:
- 450 g fine white rice flour
- 200 g tapioca flour
- 30 g gluten free baking powder
- 10 g fine salt
- 40 g psyllium husk powder see notes
- 150 g plain thick yoghurt I have tested Greek yoghurt and coconut yoghurt
- 20 ml (1 tablespoon)* oil of choice
- 40 ml (2 tablespoons)* maple syrup or liquid sweetener of choice
- 500-600 g water I use 550g, see notes
To finish:
- 1 – 1 ½ tablespoons* baking soda
- 1 egg whisked, for egg wash (or a dairy free egg wash alternative for a vegan option)
- Plenty of sea salt flakes or kosher salt for sprinkling
Instructions
To make and shape the pretzels:
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Line two large baking trays.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and whisk well to combine. Quite quickly, the dough should thicken up from quite a wet mixture.
- Get your hand into the dough and squelch it through your fingers to incorporate all the flour. The dough should be soft, juicy and feel like it has a bit of elasticity to it. There should be air bubbles from the baking powder. You should be able to pick the dough up in your hand easily, but it should feel a little bit tacky.
- Allow the dough to sit for a few minutes and the tackiness should resolve as the psyllium husk powder absorbs the liquid.
- If your dough has dry spots or feels more crumbly than cohesive, add a bit more water. If you squish a piece of dough in your hand, it should feel like snaky dough rather than crumbly dough. If your dough is still tacky, wait another five minutes. If it is still too tacky (it shouldn’t be) you can use a bit of tapioca flour to course correct as you roll out the dough.
- Use your hands to divide the dough into 10-12 balls. Sprinkle a very scant amount of tapioca flour on a clean, dry bench.
- Take the first piece of dough and roll it into a smooth ball. From here, begin rolling it out evenly into a long, thin snake. The length depends on how many pretzels you are making and your pretzel preferences, but roughly 30-40cm in length and 2cm or less in width is a good place to start.
- Take the length of dough and form it into a horse shoe shape. Dab a bit of water on the tops of both the ends of the dough to help them stick.
- Twist the ends of the dough over each other twice, leaving a bit of length right at the end. Dab some water on the top of the horseshoe. Lift the twisted ends up and fold them back onto the top of the horsehoe, using the water to secure the pieces. See the notes for a link to a visual demonstration – it is so much easier than it sounds.
To boil and bake the pretzels:
- Bring a medium pot ¾ filled with water to the boil. Medium and deeper as opposed to larger is better as it enables you to full submerge each pretzel.
- Once the water is boiling, add the baking soda. The water should bubble briefly and then the reaction will dissipate. Stand back either way.
- Add the first pretzel gently to the boiling water mixture. Use a steel spatula to gently encourage it off the bottom of the pot as they sink to begin with and can get stuck on the bottom. Once the pretzel floats to the surface, use the spatula to flip it and boil for another 15 seconds on the other side.
- Retrieve from the water using the spatula and shake off the excess liquid before placing it on the lined baking tray. Be sure to use a spatula large enough to support both ‘wings’ of the pretzel as they can break if not supported prior to baking. Be careful also not to leave a pretzel in the water too long as it will excessively gelatinise the flour.
- Repeat with the first 5-6 pretzels. I prefer to bake my pretzels in batches as I have a small oven. If you don’t, you can bake them all at once.
- Once you have the pretzels on a tray, brush them with egg wash or egg wash alternative. Sprinkle them with plenty of flaky salt right before you put them in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until deeply golden brown.
- If you are baking them all together, swap the trays from top to bottom at the 10 minute mark. You may also need to bake them a little longer to achieve a glossy brown colour.
- If you are baking them in batches, repeat the process of boiling, egg washing and baking with the second 5-6 pretzels.
- Allow the cooked bagels to cool on the tray for about 15 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool. You might need to peel them off the baking paper first.
- I find the pretzels are at their chewy best on the first day of baking. However, they also make delicious leftovers. I recommend gently reheating them to soften the crumb before eating. Store in an airtight container.
Notes
- I grind my own psyllium husk powder in a spice grinder. I find store bought powder is too fine.
- Hydration is hugely dependent on where you live, the humidity, how thirsty your flours are, how thick your yoghurt is, etc. What works for me might not work for you and you have to use your intuition when adding liquid. Add it gradually and according to how the dough is described in the recipe and in the body of post (under hydration notes).
- See the body of the post for substitution options (hint: there aren't many).
- To make these pretzels vegan, use coconut thick plain yoghurt and a vegan egg wash. This article is super comprehensive in choosing the best vegan egg wash.
- To make the pretzels egg free, use the aforementioned link to choose a good vegan egg wash or use a recipe you prefer. Most recipes online specified a ratio of 1 tablespoon maple syrup to 2 tablespoons of soy milk.
- Here is a quick video guide to shaping your pretzels. Super easy, I promise.
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