Ready-to-bake pretzels are a good choice for a family meal if you want to serve several warm at a set time and have enough room in the oven. If you need to buy something at short notice and don’t want to prepare it at home, you can choose a pretzel from a bakery counter, but check what your local branch has available. For versions with butter or seeds, check the ingredients and allergens too, to make sure they’re suitable for your guests.
If you want to serve several warm pretzels at the same time, you can plan ready-to-bake ones around your meal. Make sure the thawing and baking times, as well as the space on your baking tray, suit the number you need. EDEKA and REWE provide preparation instructions for their frozen products.
If you’d rather not bake at home, you can choose a ready-to-eat pretzel from a bakery counter or specialist shop. Ditsch sells freshly baked pretzels, while ALDI SÜD and Lidl say they regularly bake bakery products fresh in store. What’s available will depend on the branch you visit.
If any guests need to avoid certain ingredients or allergens, check the information for the specific product rather than relying on what you’d normally expect a pretzel to contain. The Ditsch, EDEKA and REWE products described here list wheat or cereals containing gluten; other ingredients and possible traces vary by recipe.
A good choice if: You know when you’ll be serving them and have an oven available.
The trade-off: You can time the preparation to suit your meal, but it takes up oven space and requires some preparation time.
A good choice if: You want to buy the pretzels at short notice and serve them soon afterwards.
The trade-off: You won’t need to bake them at home, but the choice and timing of fresh baking depend on the branch.
| What matters to you | What to check when buying | Who it matters to |
|---|---|---|
| Serving everything warm at the same time | How many pretzels you need, how much oven space you have, and the thawing and baking times on the pack you choose. | I want to serve all the pretzels with the meal at the same time. For around 33 % of consumers, this is the top priority. |
| Minimal preparation | Whether the pretzel you want is available at your local branch and how much time you have before the meal. | If the meal is happening at short notice, I don’t want to have to use the oven at home first. Around 27 % of consumers prioritise a straightforward shopping trip. |
| Ingredients and allergens | The ingredients list, declared allergens and trace information for the specific product; for loose products, check what allergen information is available. | I need to be able to check that the ingredients are suitable for all my guests before buying. For around 27 % of consumers, this check comes first. |
| A particular variety | Whether it contains butter or seeds, and the nutritional information for that particular variety. | I’m looking for a pretzel with butter or seeds for the meal, and will take the other ingredients into account too. Around 13 % of consumers prioritise a particular variety. |
The products described contain wheat or cereals containing gluten. Depending on the recipe, they may also contain other allergens or carry trace warnings; a butter pretzel also contains milk.
Check the ingredients and allergen information for each variety you choose. If you’re buying loose products, ask what information is available before choosing them for your guests.
With ready-to-bake pretzels, you may also need to allow time for preheating and thawing. The REWE product, for example, needs around ten minutes to thaw, followed by around 15 to 16 minutes in the oven.
Plan when to serve them according to the instructions on the pack you buy, and check in advance how many pretzels will fit on a baking tray at once.
Added ingredients affect the product’s ingredients and nutritional values. According to its product information, the La-Nouvelle butter pretzel listed by REWE contains 11 % salted butter; Ditsch sells a variety with sunflower seeds.
Compare the specific ingredients, allergens and nutritional information with your guests’ preferences instead of assuming that a product is suitable based on its name.
EDEKA notes that availability may vary between stores for the product described. The selection at bakery counters also depends on the individual branch.
Check that your local branch has the product you want before you shop. If you’ve planned to serve pretzels with your meal, you could also buy them elsewhere or choose a ready-to-bake option.
Ditsch sells a classic pretzel as well as a variety with sunflower seeds.
The frozen pretzels described come in a pack of eight, with a separate sachet of pretzel salt for you to add before baking.
EDEKA describes a frozen pretzel that’s ready to bake at home.
ALDI SÜD includes pretzels in its bakery counter range.
Lidl describes Unser Brot as a bakery counter range, with products freshly baked several times a day.
Check the information for the specific pretzel before choosing it. The classic Ditsch pretzels described here, as well as the ready-to-bake products from EDEKA and REWE, contain wheat or cereals containing gluten. If you’re buying loose products, ask what allergen information is available.
The REWE product described here needs around ten minutes to thaw and around 15 to 16 minutes to bake, plus time for the oven to preheat. Follow the instructions on your pack and check how many pretzels will fit in your oven at once.
With the REWE and EDEKA ready-to-bake products described here, you can adjust how much of the supplied or optional pretzel salt you add. Bear in mind that the pretzel itself already contains salt, according to the ingredients and nutritional information.
When shopping online, look for the required product information. If you’re buying loose products, ask for the allergen information for the specific pretzel. The European Commission explains that the required labelling information also applies to food sold online, and that allergen information must be available for loose products.