Monday, August 22, 2011

soft pretzel bites


The first blog assigned to me for the secret recipe club was Katie's blog betcha can't eat just one .  Katie is a mom that lives in Canada and not only takes care of her children but, also runs a daycare.  How she finds time to make the amazing food on her blog is beyond me.  I can barely get a meal on the table with my two kids!  I was immediately sucked in once I discovered Katie's blog and loved how so many of her recipes were geared toward family fare and allowing the kids to get involved.  I have always wanted to make pretzels and once I saw Katie's plump soft pretzels I knew I had to give them a try.  After I had the dough made I set it up at the kitchen table for the kids to help.  I was thinking fun this will be just like play-dough but, we will produce amazing looking and tasting pretzels.  Boy was I wrong.  The dough was getting squeezed and pulled by the kids but, noting was resembling a pretzel.  I gave up and just let them play will a ball of dough and at that point I opted for bites rather then a pretzel shape.  I was in survival mode and needed to save as much dough as possible from the grips of my kids.  I did half of the bites with salt and half with cinnamon and sugar.  The kids hands down liked the cinnamon and sugar version better.  I however, loved the salted version dipped in spicy mustard.  The outside was golden and the inside was soft and chewy.  They were delicious and I know this is a recipe and a blog I will come back to over and over.


soft pretzel bites

  • 1 1/2 cups warm water
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast (or 1 pkg)
  • 3 1/2 -4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • 10 cups water
  • 2/3 cup baking soda
  • 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp water
  • Coarse salt and/or cinnamon and sugar for topping pretzels. 
Mix the warm water, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment.  Mix for 102 minutes to incorporate.

Add 3 1/2 cups of the flour, salt and melted butter.  Begin to knead the mixture, adding flour until the dough is soft and smooth.  Continue to knead with dough hook for 4-5 minutes.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let rise, covered in a draft free area until doubled in bulk.  Usually about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and line baking pans with parchment paper or silpat. 

Bring water and baking soda to a boil in a large pot on the stove.  Be sure to use the full amount of baking soda, it really helps achieve the chewy texture!
Gently deflate the dough and divide it into 8 portions.
Roll each portion of dough into a rope roughly 18″ long.  Cut into 1" pieces.

Once pretzels bites are formed, place 5-10 at a time in the pot of boiling water and baking soda for about 30 seconds.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pretzels to your prepared baking sheet.

Brush each pretzel with the water/egg yolk mixture and sprinkle with salt or cinnamon and sugar.

Bake pretzels for 15-20 minutes, rotating pans half way through the baking time.  Remove from the oven when the pretzels turn a deep golden brown.

29 comments:

TinaRBK said...

Pretzel bites are one of my favorite appetizers and yours look so deliciously toasty. Great pick for SLC. Thanks for sharing.

Kitchen Belleicious said...

DELISH! Wow, girl I am loving these little bites and I know my son would too! I would have to pull them away from him! Great recipe and post and pictures!

Anonymous said...

The part about the kids made me laugh so much! My kids typically don't create anything but long pretzel snakes and letter O's but in the meantime I twist together as many as I can manage :) I love the idea of the bites, they'd be great to serve with appies!

Katie

Jo-Anna@APrettyLife said...

Mmm! Soft & Pretzel in the same title - makes my mouth water! Lovely photos!
Jo-Anna

Erin said...

What a great choice! They look wonderful! I think my kids would like the cinnamon and sugar ones best too but I'd go for the salty ones. Win win!!!

MaryBeth said...

I would snarf all of these down with a big bowl of melted cheese...YUMM-O

Heather said...

oh dear, we love pretzels at our house! Will have to try these out! We've made pretzel buns at our house numerous times and you'll have to check out my easy pretzel recipes too! http://itsyummytomytummy.blogspot.com

Heather said...

oh I forgot my secret blogger even featued the one pretzel recipe of mine too, check her out too! http://pennypinchingprovisions.blogspot.com/2011/08/secret-recipe-club-pretzel-rolls-and.html

Taryn said...

YUM, these look delicious! I've never made pretzel bites before but I don't know why because they're totally up my alley... soft, chewy and delicious carbs. Nothing wrong with that!

Lisa~~ said...

Welcome to the SRC, it's so much fun! Your pretzel bites look wonderful, great choice. If you haven't already, I'd love for you to check out my Group 'A" ~ SRC recipe this month: Cilantro Lime Chicken

Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook

Laura said...

My kids will go insane for these!

Trisha said...

They look lovely. I think I'd like both versions!

amanda @ fake ginger said...

My husband has been begging me to make pretzels so I think I'm going to give your cinnamon sugar version a try. Your pictures are drool worthy!

Tina @ MOMS CRAZY COOKING said...

Great Job sticking to it with the kids, believe me this time will soon be gone! (I have twin daughters who are SENIORS this year and I have no idea where all the years went)!

Thanks again for being a part of SRC and being a part of my first group, I enjoyed being your host! Now, I get to visit everyone’s blog, THIS IS THE FUN PART!

If you haven’t already, come check out my Secret Recipe Club Post: Cucumber Salad http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/2011/08/cucumber-salad-secret-recipe-club.html

or my second post for the SRC Raspberry and Nutella Pizza
http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/2011/08/raspberry-nutella-pizza-secret-recipe.html

Lady Behind The Curtain said...

YUM! These look amazing!

Amy said...

I bet my son would have fun making these. We'd probably make them in to little nuggets too. So cute!

Amy @ A Little Nosh

Vivian Thiele said...

Yum! I love soft pretzels.

Desi said...

I love the mall pretzels, I really need to learn how to make the homemade mini bite version. So cute! I bet they taste better than the mall version :) Stopping by from SRC!

blackbookkitchendiaries said...

adorable!! i love how pretty they look. thank you for sharing them.

Anonymous said...

I love making pretzels and yours look sooo good!!!!

That Girl said...

How perfect that the kids got to help.

Angie A said...

mmmm, these look perfect :) bite sized things always seem so much better than their full sized counterparts!

Unknown said...

Those pretzel bites look awesome!

Rhonda said...

What a fun little food! I'm visiting you through SRC, lovely blog!

Mary said...

These look awesome. Great choice for the SRC. My boys would love this.

Anonymous said...

I'd make these, but I think I would sit around all day dipping them into nutella. :-) Great job!

Chelle B said...

Salted with the spicy mustard please. I like that you made bites instead. These look so delicious and perfectly browned. Great SRC pick. I know my toddler would prefer the cinnamon sugar bites as well. Your photos make these crave worhty. I will need to save this recipe for the next girls night. Perfect appetizer.

Amy said...

Looks great! I had so much fun reading through your blog for something to chose! I'm just getting to everyone else's posts after returning from a vacation this week. I definitely added you to my google reader and look forward to many more recipes!

Kimberly said...

Stopping by from SRC Group C!

These look delicious ... can't wait to give this recipe a try!

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