Sourdough Pretzel Bites

ByNatalya Syanova
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This is a very easy, same day sourdough pretzel bites recipe that you should absolutely try. Pretzels are loved by so many people, and what is not to love? They have an incredible texture, as well as great taste and flavor.

Ingredients 

Sweet Stiff Sourdough Starter 

  • 10 g sourdough starter
  • 35 g water
  • 70 g bread flour
  • 10 g sugar

Main dough 

  • 100 g sweet stiff starter(37%)
  • 150 g warm water (58%)
  • 270 g bread flour (100%)
  • 27 g sugar (10%)
  • 5 g salt (2%)
  • 2 g malt (could be replaced by 6 g of honey)
  • 27 g soft butter (10%)

Garnish

  • Sea salt (optional)
  • Melted butter for brushing baked pretzels (optional)

Boiling 

  • Wide pot 
  • 1 gallon of water
  • 3 tbs baking soda

Directions

Starter

  • 10 pm dissolve sugar in the water, add starter(100g) and whisk together, add flour, mix well, form a ball, place in a jar, cover and let it sit at room temp 74-78F until it increases in volume in 2 or more times.
  • Stiff sweet starter will have lower hydration then regular liquid starter and will help us to lower the acidity of final product (learn how to make sourdough starter from scratch here).

Dough 

  • Add all the ingredients, except butter, into a mixing bowl, knead for 5-10 minutes until well incorporated, at the end of mixing add soft butter, continue to mix for a couple more minutes, until gluten is developed.
  • Cover and let it rise until dough becomes lighter and bigger with bubbles on the surface for about  3-4 hours, perform a couple of folds during this time.

Shaping 

  • Prepare baking tray with parchment paper generously oiled.
  • Place the dough onto a non-floured surface. Flatten the dough into a rectangle and divide it into 4 equal pieces, about 110-115 grams each, prereshape them as cylinders, then roll into 20cm long ropes.
  • Set the pretzel ropes on a prepared baking tray. Cover and let them proof for about 1 hour (until they become puffy).
  • When proofing is done, move the pretzel ropes into the fridge for 30 minutes (it will help to transfer them into boiling water later).

Boiling 

  • While the dough chills in the fridge boil the water. Add baking soda and whisk well to have it dissolved. 
  • Preheat your oven to 425F (220C).
  • Remove the pretzel ropes from the fridge, put 2 of them into the pot with boiling water and wait for them to float on the surface (10 seconds or less). Cook for 20-30 seconds on each side for a thin crust. Using a slotted spoon, remove your pretzel ropes from the boiling water, and place them on a well oiled parchment paper, let them cool for about 1 minute. 
  • Use scissors to cut the ropes into bite size pieces (about 1 inch thick).
  • Ensure that pretzel bites remain on an oiled parchment paper.
  • Sprinkle them with sea salt (optional).

Baking 

  • Bake pretzels for about 14-16 minutes until they turn nice and brown.
  • Brush them with melted butter, while still hot for more flavor.

Enjoy your sourdough pretzel bites 🥨

Sourdough Pretzel Bites

Sourdough Pretzel Bites

476kcal
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Prep 45 minutes
Cook 15 minutes
Total 15 hours
This recipe delivers exceptionally chewy, golden-brown, and authentic ballpark-style pretzel bites right at home. By leveraging a stiff, low-hydration sourdough starter, the dough retains excellent structural snap and density. A quick dip in a boiling baking soda bath gelatinizes the exterior starches, ensuring that signature deep mahogany crust and unmistakable pretzel flavor.
Servings 4 servings
Cuisine American

Ingredients

Sweet Stiff Sourdough Starter (Night Before)
  • 10 g Sourdough starter culture
  • 35 g Water
  • 70 g Bread flour
The Stiff Pretzel Dough
  • 315 g Bread flour (100%)
  • 135 g Warm water (42.8%)
  • 100 g Active sweet stiff starter (31.7% – From the stage above)
  • 25 g Brown sugar or barley malt syrup (8%)
  • 30 g Unsalted butter, softened (9.5%)
  • 7 g Salt (2.2%)
The Alkaline Boiling Bath
  • 6 cups Water
  • 1/4 cup Baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate)
The Topping
  • 1 Large egg + Water (Whisked for the egg wash)
  • Coarse pretzel salt or coarse sea salt
  • 30 g Butter (Melted, for brushing post-bake)

Equipment

Method

Night Before – Sweet Stiff Starter Build
  1. 10:00 PM – Stiff Starter Initialization: In a small glass jar, combine your 10g of starter culture with 35g of water and whisk cleanly. Stir in 70g of bread flour. Knead the mixture with your hands for 1 to 2 minutes to form a tight, stiff dough ball. Cover loosely and let it ferment at room temperature 74–78°F (23–26°C) overnight for 8 to 10 hours until it completely doubles in size and feels puffy.
Day 2 – Heavy Dough Mixing and Bulk Rise
  1. 8:00 AM – The Core Mix: In your stand mixer bowl fitted with a dough hook, combine 135g of warm water, 25g of brown sugar (or barley malt syrup), 7g of salt, and all 100g of your active overnight sweet stiff starter. Whisk briefly to break up the dense starter mass, then add all 315g of bread flour.
  2. The Mechanical Knead: Mix on low speed for 3 to 4 minutes until a tight, cohesive, and dry dough forms. Drop in the 30g of softened unsalted butter piece by piece. Increase the mixer to medium speed and knead continuously for 6 to 8 minutes until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough turns satin-smooth and clear of the bowl sides.
  3. Primary Bulk Proof: Shape the stiff dough into a neat ball, place it into a lightly greased bowl, cover tightly, and let it ferment at a warm room temperature of 75–80°F (24–27°C) for roughly 4 hours. Because this is a low-hydration stiff dough, it will not expand drastically like a loose artisan loaf, but it should look visibly puffy and lighter.
Day 2 – Rope Rolling, Alkaline Bath, and the Bake
  1. 12:00 PM – Cutting and Shaping: Tip the dough out onto a clean, completely un-floured work surface. (Note: Do not use flour; the dough needs friction against the counter to roll smoothly). Divide the dough ball cleanly into 4 to 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece under your palms outward into a long, uniform rope roughly 1/2-inch thick. Using a bench scraper or a sharp knife, cut the ropes into 1-inch bite-sized pieces.
  2. Setting up the Bath: In a large, wide stockpot, bring 6 cups of water to a rolling boil over high heat. Once boiling, gradually and carefully pour in the 1/4 cup of baking soda. (Caution: The water will foam up violently the moment the soda hits, so introduce it slowly). Preheat your oven to 425°F (218°C) and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  3. The Alkaline Dip: Working in small batches of 10 to 15 pieces at a time, drop the dough bites directly into the boiling baking soda water. Let them boil for exactly 20 seconds. Use a slotted spoon or spider strainer to scoop them out swiftly, letting excess water drain off completely, and transfer them onto your prepared parchment-lined baking sheets. Space the bites roughly 1/2-inch apart.
  4. Topping and Baking: Brush the top of each boiled bite lightly with your prepared egg wash mixture, then immediately sprinkle a layer of coarse pretzel salt over the damp surfaces. Slide the baking sheets onto the middle racks of your preheated oven. Bake at 425°F (218°C) for 12 to 15 minutes until the exterior turns a uniform, deep mahogany brown color.
  5. Finishing Touch: Remove the sheets from the oven. While the pretzel bites are piping hot, immediately brush their crowns generously with melted butter. Allow them to cool for 5 minutes before serving warm alongside warm cheese sauce or honey mustard dip!

Nutrition

Calories476kcalCarbohydrates83gProtein14gFat9gSaturated Fat5gPolyunsaturated Fat1gMonounsaturated Fat2gTrans Fat0.3gCholesterol60mgSodium2270mgPotassium151mgFiber2gSugar10gVitamin A251IUVitamin C0.1mgCalcium58mgIron1mg

Notes

  • Why an Un-Floured Surface is Mandatory for Rolling: When rolling your proofed dough pieces into long ropes (Step 5), avoid dusting your counter with raw flour. Stiff pretzel dough requires a high amount of physical friction against the work surface to stretch smoothly under your palms. If the counter is slippery with flour, the dough will simply slide around under your hands instead of rolling out into uniform cylinders.
  • The Physics of the 20-Second Baking Soda Bath: The alkaline environment created by boiling baking soda drastically alters the starch molecules on the exterior surface of the dough, a process known as starch gelatinization. This chemical reaction restricts the dough’s expansion in the oven, locking in a dense, signature chewy bite while allowing the crust to brown rapidly into a deep, classic pretzel color. Do not leave the bites in the boiling water for longer than 30 seconds, or they can develop an unpleasantly metallic, soapy aftertaste.
  • Securing the Perfect Salt Adherence: Standard table salt or fine sea salt will instantly dissolve into the damp skin of the pretzel bites after the boiling bath, leaving you with an overly salty crust devoid of texture. To secure those classic, beautiful white crystals, always source authentic coarse pretzel salt or heavy rock salt. The compressed structures of these specialized crystals resist moisture, ensuring they stay perfectly intact through the high-heat bake cycle.

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36 Comments

  1. Hi! These look delicious and can’t wait to try making these. Two questions-
    1) did you use sourdough discard or fresh fed starter
    2) in the directions for the starter it says to add 100g of starter, but under the ingredients it lists 20g of starter. Could you please clarify the amount?

    Reply

  2. Thanks for sharing, I will definitely try this recipe, as I have tried many others from your journal. I have a question… To prepare the stuff sweet starter, we should add 20 g to the water + sugar, right?
    Thanks!

    Reply

      1. Hi there! So you say at 10pm to mix the sweet stuff starter with the flour and water and let rise at 74 degrees. Is that an overnight rise?

      2. Yes, starter has to rise overnight, or you can change the ratio and let it rise faster.

  3. Hi, I can’t wait to try this. Do we’re making a levain first (stiff sweet starter- the night before), letting it rise to about 100 grams before we can make the dough the next day, right? Thank you!

    Reply

  4. Hi! You have start the stiff starter at 10 pm. Does this mean you do that (the stiff starter) the night before and the rest of it the next day “same day.” Or start all of it at 10 AM including the stiff starter?

    Also, you have 10 g start listed in ingredient list but 100g starter in recipe description. Which is correct?

    Thanks so much! Can’t wait to try thi.

    Reply

    2. I too am confused .. the stiff starter recipe only needs 10g of of starter to make the stiff sweet starter and then you only need 100g of the stiff starter for the actual dough recipe?
      So we ignore th night before directions when you say to add “100g” of starter to the water and sugar mix?

      Reply

      1. Hi!
        You need 10g if active starter to create stiff starter for the dough(who will be used next day)

  5. excellent recipe.. I’ll definitely be making this again. just curious what is the purpose of the baking soda in the boiling water?

    Reply

  7. Hi Natasha,

    Thank you for the recipe, it turned out great. This is the second time I make these, definitely will be doing more later.

    Reply

  8. I made this today. They are currently in the oven. I made 4 pretzels instead of pretzel bites and I am so very excited to eat them. They are browning so beautifully and smell quite yummy. Thanks for making such easy to follow instructions. You and Randy (my sourdough starter) came in strong for the win today!! 🙂

    Reply

  9. Hi,
    Thank you for the recipe!

    Just to clarify, when making the Sweet Stiff Sourdough starter, you only use 10 g of sourdough starter?

    Reply

  10. So instead to bites, can I go ahead and shape it like regular pretzels and follow the same process?

    Reply

    1. Hi!
      I’ve never done it!
      But I think you can bake it 3/4 way through and then freeze, then bake again before eating

      Reply

  12. A sourdough newbie here – go make the sweet stiff starter, does the 10 grams of original starter have to be active/at its peak or can it be straight from the fridge? Thank you

    Reply

  14. Hi, I am not familiar with sourdough starter, so please can you give more info what it is and if I cannot fine to buy it is there any substitute? Can you send a photo as well? Thank you in advance.

    Reply

  15. So….make sure when you proof the dough ropes that you cover them with something that won’t stick to the dough. Even though I used a damp cheesecloth…they stuck.

    Reply

  18. All your recipes are so amazing. I would like to use this recipe to wrap a hotdog or sausage link – “pigs in a blanket” style. Do you think it would work?

    Reply

  19. I thought there was a typo in your sweet starter directions. So I added a 100 g instead of the 10 AM is this just a loss now? I just woke up and read the comments..

    Reply

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