This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast. These cheesy pretzel twists are a snacktime sensation from their hot, buttery, golden exterior to all that glorious coarse salt and the moment you break it apart or take that huge giant bite… I think you know where I’m going with this… ALL THAT CHEESE! The best of surprises. Have you ever made my recipe for regular homemade soft pretzels? It was one of the first recipes I ever published, only to be republished with step-by-step photos a few years later. It’s become one of the most reader-loved recipes on this website because the pretzels are delicious, relatively quick, and extremely easy. I even turned this dough into soft pretzel knots, soft pretzel bites, jalapeño cheddar soft pretzels, and soft pretzel rolls. Lots of ways to shape this wonderful dough, including twisted around cheese! The dough is a basic and straightforward recipe. You’ll only need 6 ingredients to get things going. Start with warm water + yeast. I always use Platinum Yeast from Red Star in my bread recipes and the reason I always recommend it is because it’s a premium instant yeast with a difference that not only you can taste, you can see as well. Your pretzels, your rolls, your breads, your pizza dough—will puff up more. It makes working with yeast easy and your finished product absolutely fabulous. You can use a stand mixer to make and knead the dough, or you can use a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon and knead the dough by hand. If doing so by hand, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial will be a helpful resource. Once the dough is made, pull a little apart at a time, roll it into a log, then coil around a long piece of cheese. I usually use Sargento brand cheddar cheese sticks. String cheese works too, but you might need a little more dough because they’re a little fatter. You can make the pretzels as large or as small as you want—they’ll be the size of the cheese inside. So if you’re not using pre-cut cheese sticks or string cheese, you can slice the cheese however large you want. Keep in mind, though, the more cheese inside, the more likely the cheese will seep out in the oven. The baking soda/alkaline bath is next. The difference between pretzel-shaped (or knot-shaped) bread and soft pretzels/soft pretzel knots is this baking soda bath. This is when shaped soft pretzel dough takes a dip in boiling water and baking soda, a surprisingly easy step that provides the iconic chewy pretzel texture and adds a deeper, richer color to the baked pretzels. The boiling water also locks in the shape so pretzels (or today’s pretzel twists) don’t over-puff in the oven. Without the baking soda bath, you lose texture, that deep brown color, and flavor. So, basically, you will have bread instead of a pretzel. Another reason behind those crisp, shiny, chewy, golden brown pretzel exteriors? Add an egg wash. Just a simple brush of beaten egg after the baking soda bath and before baking will really make a difference. (Feel free to skip if desired.) And OK, since we’re already breaking the diet rules today, let’s brush a little melted butter on the pretzels after they come out of the oven. The melted butter will seep inside the hot cheesy pretzels. Try my other favorite cheesy breads, like asiago-crusted skillet bread, homemade cheese bread, and cheddar biscuits!
