I ate the 6th pretzel from this photo. Sorry. These are crazy good, doughy, salty soft pretzels. They’re made with Cassava Flour (I used Otto’s Cassava Flour) aka yuca, a root vegetable, which means they’re grain-free, gluten-free, nut-free and dairy-free.

Cassava is probably the closest (healthy) alternative flour to wheat in terms of taste and texture, so it can replace crappy enriched wheat flour in many classic recipes.

Note: these are still basically pure carbs though, so don’t overdue it just because they’re made from vegetables… haha 🙂

Grain-Free Soft Pretzels

Servings 6 medium pretzels

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 20-25 minutes

Ingredients

Pretzel Dough:

• 1/3 cup warm water
• 2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
• 3 Tbsp extra virgin organic coconut oil, melted
• 1 organic egg
• 2.5 tsp dry active yeast (mostly for taste here)
• 1 cup Otto's Cassava Flour
• 1/2 tsp Himalayan or Celtic sea salt

Pretzel Bath:

• 1 Litre water
• 3 Tbsp baking soda

Egg Wash:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp water
• Course Sea Salt for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F and grease a baking sheet with a bit of coconut oil.
2. Prepare the pretzel dough; in a mixing bowl, combine the water with the maple syrup, oil, egg, and yeast. Whisk together and let sit a minute.
3. After a minute, stir in the cassava flour and salt well to make a smooth dough.
4. Form the dough into 6 roughly equal balls. Using wet hands, roll one of the dough balls out into a ⅓" thick rope. Carefully tie it into a knotted pretzel shape. Repeat with the remaining dough balls. Set pretzels aside on a plate.
5. Now it's time to bathe the pretzels in a pretzel bath! Bring the water and baking soda to a simmer in a medium-sized saucepan. Drop in one of the pretzel twists and let simmer for 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pretzel twists.
6. Egg wash and salting time - this will leave a shiny finish on the pretzels. Whisk the egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of water. Lightly brush* the pretzel twists with this mixture and sprinkle with course salt.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, removing when golden brown*.

Recipe Notes

*Learn from my mistakes: I definitely went a little crazy and brushed way too much egg-wash onto these and then maybe left them in the oven a few minutes too long (25 minutes). Go easier on the egg wash than I did (do not drown them, brush a light coat) and remove them when they're golden brown (a little lighter than they are in my photos).