“I wake up every morning in a bed that’s too small, drive my daughter to a school that’s too expensive, and then I go to work to a job for which I get paid too little, but on Pretzel Day? Well, I like Pretzel Day.”
– Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker) on “The Office”

When I saw that April is National Soft Pretzel Month, I instantly knew what pairing I had to do to celebrate.

Don’t worry, I’m going savory for this one so you don’t have an intense sugar rush followed by a sugar coma like Michael Scott (Steve Carell) experiences in the Pretzel Day-themed episode (season 3, episode 5: “Initiation”).

This vegan, gluten-free recipe makes approximately 8 pretzels or “servings.”

Ingredients
1 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 packet yeast
2.5 cups 1-to-1 gluten-free flour
1 tablespoon melted vegan butter (plus extra softened butter for greasing your rising bowl and more optional melted butter to brush on your baked pretzels)
0.25 cups baking soda
salt crystals (optional)

Instructions
Drop the sugar and yeast into the water and let it sit until it gets foamy, about 10 minutes.

Melt your butter.

Mix the flour, melted butter and yeast mixture together.

Once a rough dough has formed, dump your dough onto a floured surface and knead it into a ball.

Place the ball into a bowl greased with butter. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for an hour.

Bring a large pot of water (you will need to fit approximately 4 cups of water and 1 pretzel) to a simmer.

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Punch the dough down and break it up into 8 pieces.

Roll a piece out into a 15-17″ strand and form it into a pretzel. Set aside. Repeat with the remaining 7 pieces.

Once the water comes to a simmer, stir in the baking soda.

Dip the formed pretzels into the baking soda bath, one at a time.

The good news is if any of your pretzels fall apart, they will make perfectly acceptable pretzel bites!

Carefully pull the pretzels out of the bath after just 5 seconds each and place them on your parchment-lined baking sheets.

Before baking them, you can brush them with more melted butter and add salt crystals. While I don’t always love the globs of salt that come on store-bought pretzels, I do like a little. That’s why I made the salt crystals optional, and when you make them at home, you can add as many or as little as you want.

Bake your pretzels (with or without the salt) at 400°F for 12-15 minutes or until the pretzels are golden brown.

Let them cool for 10 minutes.

Eat and enjoy with an episode or a season of “The Office!” I enjoyed mine with some vegan nacho cheese.

The Easy Route
You can buy pre-made dough to make this a bit easier.

If you know of a brand, restaurant or bakery that makes vegan, gluten-free soft pretzels, please share those details in the comments.

The Pairing
I have watched every episode of “The Office” at least twice at this point, and I’ve just started watching some of the superfan extended cut versions on Peacock.

The American version of this documentary-style fictional comedy follows the employees of Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, for nine seasons filled with memorable moments.

Watching Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, Ed Helms and the rest of this incredible ensemble come together to make comedy magic happen episode after episode is a lot of fun.

All that being said, there are some big pulling-at-your-heartstrings moments as well, especially in the storyline following the will-they-or-won’t-they relationship between Pam (Fischer) and Jim (Krasinski).

This show has launched a lot of careers, too. Without “The Office,” we wouldn’t have “A Quiet Place,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Mindy Project” and a lot of other memorable shows and movies from the last couple decades.

I rewatched the Pretzel Day episode recently and was reminded just how excellent this ensemble is. Even the actors who only get a scene or a line bring their A-game, and that keeps you watching episode after episode and season after season.

If you decide to make soft pretzels and/or watch “The Office,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, threads, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes