Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels

Make cinnamon pretzels with a soft crumb and a crackly crust coated with cinnamon flavored sugar. These homemade German pretzels recipe in a sweet version is delicious and perfect to share with your family during the holidays.

If you already know the traditional recipe for German pretzels, these small salted buns, very popular during the holidays, then you won't be able to resist this sweet and easy cinnamon sugar pretzels recipe.

homemade soft pretzels are brioche buns in the original shape of knots with a unique and tasty taste and a delicious soft crumb with a nice brown and crispy crust.

They are usually covered with sea salt, but here in these sweet cinnamon sugar soft pretzels, they are coated with a mixture of sugar flavored with cinnamon.

These sugar soft pretzels look very intimidating, but in reality, they are very easy to make at home. These little buns are delicious eaten a little warm with chocolate and hazelnut spread.

>> See all the recipes of buns and breads of the blog

Compotison and substitutions

Brioche dough :

• Yeast: I use instant dry baker's yeast, you can rehydrate it in warm milk or mix it directly into the flour. Replace with a 20 g cube of fresh baker's yeast.
• Milk: Use warm cow's milk at 86°F / 30°C which you can replace with water or vegetable milk.
• Sugar: Use flavored sugar such as brown sugar, cane sugar or simply granulated sugar.
• Flour: White wheat flour or bread flour.
• Salt: A pinch of salt is essential for the pretzel dough to bring out the flavors;
• Butter: Use unsalted butter instead of salted butter to control the amount of added salt, it should be softened or melted and cooled.
• Baking soda: To make the boiling water bath, an essential step to having this pretty brown crust very tasty.

Cinnamon sugar coating :

• Sugar: Use white granulated sugar preferably, which you can also replace with flavored sugar like brown sugar.
• Cinnamon: Add cinnamon ground to flavor the sugar, and you can add a pinch of pumpkin pie spice for even more flavor.

⚠️ You will find the quantities of ingredients and complete instructions in the recipe card at the end of the paste.

How to make Cinnamon sugar Pretzel recipe

1 - Rehydrate the yeast

1. In a small bowl, place the dry baker's yeast with the brown sugar, then add the warm milk.
2. Stir with a tablespoon, then let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until the mixture begins to form small bubbles.

Tip: Dissolving the dry yeast in a warm liquid with the addition of sugar will allow it to activate more quickly and give a well-risen brioche dough.

2 - Kneading the dough

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, first, place the flour and salt and mix on medium-low speed.
2. While the mixer is running, add the yeast, milk, and sugar mixture.
3. Then add the melted butter and increase the speed to medium-high and knead for 5 to 7 minutes until you get a homogeneous, soft, and slightly sticky dough.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 1h30 to 2 hours at room temperature until it doubles in volume.

Tips: Make cinnamon sugar pretzels ahead of time, by making the dough the day before and letting it rise overnight in the refrigerator, it will be better and easier to handle. You can also let the dough rise in the oven at 113°F / 45-50°C to reduce the time.

3 - Shaping

1. After the first rising, remove the dough to a floured work surface and degas with the palm of your hands.
2. Cut the dough into 10 pieces and form small balls of dough (cover them with a cloth to prevent them from forming a crust).
3. Take a ball of dough and roll it out with your hands on the work surface until you get a long roll of dough about 20 inches / 50 cm long.
4. Form a U shape, cross the top ends twice, then fold them over.
5. Let the pretzels grow for 30 minutes under a cloth.

4- Baking soda bath (Lye solution)

1. Heat a large saucepan of water with the baking soda.
2. Using a skimmer, dip the pretzels one by one and leave them for 10 seconds on each side.
3. Then drain them and place them on a large baking sheet covered with parchment paper and space them at least 2 inches / 5 cm apart.

Tip: Be careful not to leave them too long in the water bath to avoid a bitter and metallic taste.

5 - Baking

1. Preheat oven to 428°F / 220°C and bake pretzels for 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown on top.
2. Let the pretzels cool slightly on the baking sheet before moving them to a plate or cooling rack.

Tip: Pay attention to the cooking time to avoid having overcooked and dry buns.

6 - Cinnamon sugar mixture

1. Place on a large plate with sugar and ground cinnamon and mix with a tablespoon.
2. Heat butter in the microwave and apply a layer of butter to a pretzel with a pastry brush.
3. Immediately dip the baking pretzels brushed with butter into the cinnamon and sugar coating.
4. Serve your cinnamon sugar pretzels with a little chocolate hazelnut spread.

Tip: You can replace the homemade cinnamon sugar with chocolate by dipping half the pretzels in melted chocolate.

Storage and freezing

At room temperature: Sweet pretzels can be stored at room temperature, and placed in an airtight container.

In the freezer: You can keep them for up to 3 months in the freezer, placed in a preservation bag or in a box. Let it thaw gently at room temperature.

More recipes brioches recipes

• Homemade bagels
• Chocolate sweet roll with chocolate sauce
• Chocolate Star bread
• Austrian sweet buns
• Chocolate babka
• Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese
• Chocolate cinnamon rolls

More cinnamon recipes

• Snickerdoodle cinnamon cookies
• Kanelbullar - Swedish cinnamon buns
• Cinnamon pie

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