How Handmade Soft Pretzels Are Made at Eric’s Pretzels
A finished soft pretzel looks simple: the familiar twist, a browned surface, and a snack ready to warm and enjoy. What you do not see is the sequence of decisions and hands-on work that brought it there.
When I started Eric’s Pretzels in an apartment, I mixed dough by hand on a countertop. I had no practical pretzel-making or professional baking experience, and a YouTube video helped me learn the process. Those first batches taught me that a good pretzel is not one dramatic step. It is a series of small steps done with care.
We now work in a commercial bakery inside Dot’s Market in Centerville, Ohio. Our team makes pretzels for local customers, retail partners, restaurants, and people ordering from farther away. The setting and scale have changed, but the work is still rooted in people making pretzels.
Here is a look at the journey from a batch of dough to a pretzel ready to take home.
The Work Begins Before the Dough
A production day starts with knowing what needs to be made. A bakery cannot make an arbitrary pile of pretzels and hope the right ones end up in the right places.
Some pretzels are intended for retail shelves. Others are headed to customers, restaurants, or shipped orders. Each destination affects how the team organizes the day. A handmade product needs a reliable plan as much as it needs skilled hands.
That planning includes reviewing orders and quantities and thinking ahead to the steps after baking: finishing, packaging, sorting, and delivery.
When I was working from my apartment, I could keep much of that plan in my head. As Eric’s Pretzels grew, that stopped being enough. We needed systems that helped us make more without losing track of what each customer or partner had ordered.
Mixing Dough Is the Starting Point
The first visible production step is dough. Early on, I did not own a commercial mixer, so I mixed it by hand. That gave me a direct education in how dough feels as it comes together.
The dough has to be workable enough for dividing, rolling, twisting, and proofing. Its feel matters because a small change at the beginning can make shaping easier or harder later.
We do not need to publish a formula to explain that point. The exact ingredients and timing of Eric’s Pretzels are not the subject of this article. The important idea is that dough is not just a set of ingredients in a bowl. It is the foundation for the pretzels the team will shape.
One small home batch and a commercial production day have different demands. That is why the systems around the work have grown along with the bakery.
Dividing Creates a Repeatable Starting Point
Once a batch is ready for shaping, it has to be divided into portions. This stage may not look as exciting as a pretzel coming out of the oven, but it affects everything that follows.
A portion that is too different from the others will be harder to shape consistently. It may also bake differently. Keeping the starting pieces reasonably consistent helps the team make pretzels that feel like they belong together in the same batch.
Consistency does not mean pretending a handmade pretzel came off an assembly line. It means creating a dependable starting point so the hands-on work can do its job. The goal is a product with the character people expect and the reliability a customer or retailer needs.
Rolling and Twisting Are Hands-On Skills
This is the part people usually picture: dough rolled into a rope and shaped into a pretzel. It is also a skill that improves through repetition.
In my first batches, I had to learn how the dough should feel and how to roll and twist it consistently. You can watch a demonstration once, but your hands learn by doing it again and again. A rope that varies too much in thickness will not behave exactly like one that is more even.
At Eric’s Pretzels, the dough is shaped by hand. That is not merely a phrase for a label. It is a real stage of production that takes time and coordination.
The classic shape creates different experiences within one pretzel. The thinner arms and thicker center do not have identical proportions of crust to soft interior. For the stories behind the twist, read Why Are Pretzels Twisted? The Story Behind the Shape: https://ericspretzels.com/blogs/news/why-are-pretzels-twisted.
Proofing Gives the Shaped Dough Time
After shaping, the dough needs time to proof before baking. Proofing is part of developing the pretzel’s final texture. It calls for attention, not simply a timer that can be ignored.
A production team has to account for the fact that not every tray reaches the same stage at the same instant. The rhythm of mixing, dividing, shaping, proofing, and baking has to work together. If one part of the day moves too far ahead of another, the workflow becomes harder to manage.
That balance became more important as the bakery grew. Early batches gave me room to experiment. A commercial bakery has to turn those lessons into habits the team can repeat while still paying attention to the dough in front of them.
Baking Brings the Pretzel Into Focus
A shaped piece of dough becomes unmistakably pretzel-like in the oven. The surface develops color, the shape sets, and the center becomes ready to eat.
Baking is not only about reaching the end of a timer. The team has to look at the pretzels and make sure the finished product is the one we want to send out. Small differences in size or position can affect how a batch looks.
For customers, this stage is often the entire story: warm pretzel, first bite, happy moment. For our team, it is a turning point in a longer process. Trays still have to move, pretzels have to be handled, and the next stage has to be ready.
Finishing and Packaging Carry the Work Forward
A pretzel is not finished for the customer the moment it leaves the oven. Depending on the product and order, there may be a finishing step. Then the pretzels need to be packaged and sorted for their destination.
The order plan from the beginning of the day becomes especially important here. A beautiful pretzel in the wrong package or the wrong order does not solve the customer’s problem.
Packaging is also part of the experience for someone who will not visit the bakery in person. A customer buying at a retailer or opening a shipped order sees the package before tasting the pretzel. Clear handling and labeling help that person know what they received and what to do next.
Sorting and Delivery Are Part of the Product
I learned quickly that making a good pretzel and running a dependable pretzel business are related but different skills.
Our retail partners make room for Eric’s Pretzels on their shelves. Restaurants and other customers plan around what they order. That means sorting, preparing orders, and getting them where they belong matter just as much as the first part of production.
Today, Eric’s Pretzels is carried in dozens of retail locations. We intentionally narrowed some smaller accounts so we could better serve partners that fit our business. Growth is not simply about adding more stops. It is about building a system that supports the quality of the pretzels and the people counting on us.
If you are shopping locally, use our official store locator to find current retail partners: https://ericspretzels.com/pages/store-locator.
What Changed From the Apartment Days—and What Did Not
When I began, I mixed by hand, tried things, adjusted them, and learned from each batch. I shared that journey on Facebook, including imperfect moments. Customers watched the idea grow and helped it become a business.
The commercial bakery has more people, more equipment, more orders, and more moving parts. One surprisingly valuable improvement was having enough sheet pans and racks to hold a full day’s production. Capacity is not always about the biggest machine; sometimes it is about removing a simple bottleneck.
What has not changed is the value of hands-on work. People still shape the dough. The team still has to pay attention. And I still believe the best improvements come from watching the real process and asking what would make it better.
Read the full founder story in From an Apartment Kitchen to a Commercial Soft Pretzel Bakery: https://ericspretzels.com/blogs/news/from-apartment-kitchen-to-commercial-pretzel-bakery.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Eric’s Pretzels shaped by hand?
Yes. Our team shapes the dough by hand as part of the bakery’s production process.
Where are Eric’s Pretzels made?
Our commercial bakery is inside Dot’s Market in Centerville, Ohio. We also have an Eric’s Pretzels café there.
Does every pretzel go directly from the bakery to a customer?
No. Some are destined for retail partners or restaurants, while others are for customers ordering through different channels. Orders have to be packaged and sorted for the right destination.
How did Eric learn to make pretzels?
I began without practical pretzel-making or professional baking experience and taught myself the pretzel process after watching a YouTube video. Repeated batches and adjustments helped me improve.
Can I find Eric’s Pretzels outside Centerville?
Yes. Use our store locator to find participating retailers, or browse our online shop for available products and nationwide shipping options.
How should I enjoy pretzels after bringing them home?
Read the product’s storage instructions. We recommend freezing pretzels as soon as possible and definitely no later than the freeze-by date. For warming guidance, see How to Reheat Soft Pretzels Without Drying Them Out: https://ericspretzels.com/blogs/news/how-to-reheat-soft-pretzels.
More Than a Twist
A handmade soft pretzel is the result of a whole day’s work: planning, mixing, dividing, rolling, twisting, proofing, baking, finishing, packaging, and getting the right order to the right place.
No single step tells the whole story. Each one matters because a customer is waiting at the end of it.
Explore the Eric’s Pretzels Best Sellers collection at https://ericspretzels.com/collections/best-sellers. And if you are nearby, use our store locator to find Eric’s Pretzels at a participating retailer: https://ericspretzels.com/pages/store-locator.