So I made these for the Super Bowl (Does that show you how behind I am on blogging?) but these babies are good for anytime! I thought they actually weren’t that hard as long as you can get the yeast to rise. My family is known for not being able to get yeast to rise (My family has been known to fail every year at Christmas with our Bubble Bread…it’s not so bubbly, instead we tend to call it “Rock Bread”) So I made Benjamin help me out!

Soft Pretzel Bites (Slightly Altered from Annie’s Eats)

Ingredients for Basic Pretzel Dough:

1½ cups warm water (110-115° F)
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. kosher salt
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
22 oz. all-purpose flour (about 4½ cups)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for greasing the bowl

To Finish:

10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp. water
Pretzel (or kosher) salt

Directions for Basic Pretzel Dough:

• To make the basic pretzel dough, start by preparing the yeast: Dissolve yeast, salt and sugar in the warm water (110-115° F). The mixture should begin bubbling within 5 minutes.
• Put the yeast mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add in the flour and melted butter and mix just until the dough comes together.
• Switch to the dough hook and knead on medium speed until the dough is smooth and clears the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. (Note: I then took the dough out and put a little flour on the counter top and kneaded the dough a little further just to make sure there weren’t any lumps in the dough.)
• Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly greased with vegetable oil, turning once to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, about 50-55 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Directions for Soft Pretzel Bites:

• Once the dough has doubled, preheat the oven to 450° F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray.
• Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large saucepan or stockpot.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate it.  Divide it up into approximately 6 equal portions.
• Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough out into a long rope about 1-inch in diameter.  Use a pizza cutter to cut the row into small segments, no longer than 1-inch each.  Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Place the pretzel bites into the boiling water in batches so that they aren’t overcrowded.  Boil each batch for about 30 seconds, stirring once or twice to submerge all surfaces in the water.
• Remove from the water with a slotted skimmer and spread out on the prepared baking sheets.
• Once all the pretzels have been boiled, brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with salt.
• Bake in the preheated oven until dark golden brown, about 9-11 minutes.
• Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.
• Annie’s Eats has recipes for dips but Ben & I just went and bought a cheese dip! (It ended up being a queso dip, so be careful what you buy!)