Thursday, January 5, 2012

Soft Pretzel Bites


OK, there are those rare occasions where you need to take the time and some baking the old fashioned way and these little bites are that occasion. Worth the time and work, and it's not even that time consuming.
The only thing I would do differently next time? Double the recipe! My kids and husband
gobbled them up so quickly!
We made some covered in cinnamon and sugar. And some with sea salt on them WOW! Delicious!!!
Ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups warm water
* 2 Tbsp. light brown sugar
* 1 package active dry yeast
* 3 ounces unsalted butter, melted
* 2 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
* 4 1/2 cups flour
* vegetable oil
* 3 quarts water
* 3/4 cup baking soda
* 1 egg beaten with 1 Tbls. cold water
* Coarse sea salt
Combine water, yeast, brown sugar and butter in
the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until combined. Let stand for 5 minutes for
the yeast to proof.
Add the salt and flour and mix on low speed
until combined. Mix on medium speed for about 5 minutes until the dough is
smooth pulls away from the sides of the bowl. About 3 - 4 minutes. Remove the
dough from the bowl and kneed into a ball.
Oil a bowl with vegetable oil. Add the dough
and turn to coat. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let sit until double
in size. About an hour.
Preheat the over to 425 degrees.
Remove the dough and place on a flat surface.
Divide it into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a snake about 22 inches
long. We had a hard time doing this for some reason. It wouldn't stretch
necessarily and it was supper slippery on the rolling mat. Heck, we're
amateurs. So we just tried to roll it out but them ripped off small pieces and
rolled them into a ball (or cut them with scissors into pieces.)
In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add
baking soda.
Boil the pretzel pieces in the boiling water
mixture for about 30 seconds.
Place on a cookie sheet (sprayed with cooking
spray.) Brush with egg mixture and sprinkle with salt.
If you are going to make cinnamon and sugar
covered pretzel bites (and of course we did!) then don't add the salt.
The directions said to bake them for 15 minutes
but that was way too long for our bites. We ended up cooking them for about 9 -
10 minutes only.

For cinnamon and sugar pretzel bites, dip each pretzel bite in melted butter and
then roll in cinnamon and sugar. And then try to not eat them all!Remove onto a cooling rack and let cool a little
before eating. They are amazing warm!!!
If you like to dip your pretzels in sauce (and
who doesn't) here's a great cheese dip recipe!
* 1/2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
* 1/2 Tbsp. flour
* 1/2 cup milk
* 8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese, grated
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium
heat. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk and cook until
slightly thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the cheddar cheese until all
the cheese is smooth and melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy!

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