If Jett can make pretzel bites, so can you!

Time to play in the kitchen again! I am not a newbie to homemade soft pretzels. My favorite bread machine cookbook Bread Machine Magic has a recipe for Special Ed-ible Pretzels on page 158, which I have been making since my kids were in elementary school!

I had never made pretzel bites until I stumbled onto this post at Two Peas and their Pod. I made the recipe, but the pretzels didn’t taste as good as I was used to, so I got out my old Special Ed-ible Pretzels recipe and combined the best of both, to get these. My family, and some of my son’s friends, ate both batches. Both were good, but they liked the collaboration batch the best 🙂 

The changes I made to the Two Peas recipe were: amount of baking soda in the water (down from ¾ cup to 2½ tablespoons), using 2 teaspoons white sugar instead of 1 tablespoon brown sugar, replacing the egg wash with a brush of butter, doubling the yeast, and halving the recipe.

Polly Notes: This recipe can be successfully doubled, since I successfully halved it! Dips would be good to serve, but I haven’t made any yet. Two Peas has a recipe for a cheddar cheese dip, but I didn’t test it. A pizza dip or a marinara dip are classics with pretzel bites. And since we are in Oktoberfest season, mustard might be good but, there is nothing wrong with eating these plain in their basic buttery, salty goodness, which is what I prefer 🙂

Pretzel bites should be eaten warm, as they don’t keep well at all.

Soft Pretzel Bites

INGREDIENTS

¾ cup warm tap water—110°-115°
2 teaspoons white sugar
4 teaspoons vegetable oil OR melted butter
2 teaspoons yeast
2 cups flour
1½ teaspoons Kosher salt OR ¾ tsp table salt)
10 cups boiling water
2½ tablespoons baking soda
1 tablespoon melted butter
Kosher salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine water, sugar, yeast and oil in a bowl, stir to combine, then let sit for 5 minutes. 
2. Add the flour and the salt to the bowl of an electric mixer. 
3. Pour the yeast mixture in with the flour and salt, stir to combine then beat with a dough hook for 3-5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If your dough seems a bit wet, add additional flour , 1 tablespoon at a time. 
4. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set in warm place to rise for about 60 minutes, or until dough has doubled in volume. 
5. Preheat oven to 425°. 
6. Bring the water and the baking soda to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer.
7. Meanwhile, divide dough into 4 equal sized pieces. 
8. Roll each piece into a rope, about 12 inches long. 
9. Cut dough into 1″ slices, and rest slices on a rack over a baking sheet.  You should have about 48 pretzel bites.
10. Boil the pretzels bits in the simmering water, adding 10-12 bites to the water at a time. 
11. Boil each batch for 30 seconds, stirring gently. 
12. With a slotted spoon, remove boiled bites to rack to dry slightly. 
13. Sprinkle each bite generously with Kosher salt then place on a well greased cookie sheet. 
14. Bake in 425° oven for approximately 15 minutes or until lightly browned. 
15. Brush baked bites with melted butter, and add a bit more salt, if desired.

Wait five minutes, then your bites are ready to be devoured! Have some fun, invite some kids over and play in the kitchen! I’d be interested in hearing what sort of dip, if any, you served these with.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today!