Hey all, its me lol. Been a few weeks so I decided to post about something “yeasty” and yummy, in Ava’s words “yummy in my tum tummy” lol. These homemade variety pack soft pretzels will have you saying that exact thing. Then add the sriracha cheddar/pepper jack dipping sauce and it takes it up a whold bunch of notches. I mean who doesn’t love cheese, and yummy bread-like snacks? I know I sure do, and I’ve been trying to cut back on bread and white starch. Needless to say, I had a craving for some pretzels.
I made this on a day that I had plans to go see the recent Acrimony movie with my friends. No judging but I shamelessly took a pretzel and dipping sauce with me as a snack lol. I mean c’mon, pretzels cost an arm and leg at the theater, plus I think mine was better haha. Now cut me some slack, especially since I rarely ever eat popcorn. Also in my defense I made a couple of different types, whereas I’m pretty sure most theaters only offer one single type and literally a crap load of different toppings to dounce it with. Anyhow, check out below some of the awesomeness…
Variety Pack 🙂
In keeping it real, pretzels are pretty hard to resist. Just think about how when you go to the mall and the Auntie Ann’s is being voraciously pumped at you through the vents. As someone heavily opposed to fast food it even makes my senses go wild. Actually, my favorite place to get a soft pretzel is at the Wetzel’s Pretzel in Ann Arbor’s Briarwood Mall. Their dough is always soft and buttery with really great flavor. I usually get the cheese pretzel without marinara–gotta save on some calories lol. But as much as I love getting a pretzel from the mall, I feel it’s always better to make food at home. Let’s be honest, doing it the good ol’ fashin DIY-way allows you to avoid completely or at least limit the preservatives, as well as add whatever ingredients your heart desires. With just a hand full of ingredients you can create your own pretzels that your friends and/or family will be impressed with, and for a lot less in cost.
Michael’s favorite pretzel was this cinnamon sugar one…. (Him and Ava have really bad “sweet toothes”…must be a July thing haha)
So this recipe takes a little more than 2 hours to be ready to eat. The dipping sauce is made with just a small hand full of ingredients, which includes: butter, flour, milk, cheese and srirach. This in contrast tomost dipping sauces served at the mall in the little peel-away containters with a whole bunch of who-knows-what ingredients all meant to prolong the life of the product, is actually not all that bad for you. I’m phrasing it like that because it still contains a good deal of fat and chlosterol after all…that cannot be avoided here haha. But no, this sauce is simple, slightly spicy, cheesy, smoky, and takes about just 10 minutes to come together. The pretzels keep well for 2-3 days in a sealed container that’s unrefrigerated. Just heat up slightly the next day and you are good to go! Now you will want to keep the dipping sauce in the fridge, as it will go bad on you if left out. As you may tell, I was pretty excited about this one. It is so simple that I can confidently say so that nearly anyone can make this recipe. So again, I thought I would share with you all… check it out!
-This African
| Prep Time | 35 hour + min |
| Cook Time | 15 min |
| Passive Time | 1.40 hours |
| Servings |
Pretzels
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- 4 cups all purpose flour king arthur flour
- 1 cup warm water
- 1/2 cup 2% milk
- 4 tbsp melted butter
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp Rapid yeast
- 4 tbsp Baking sida
- 2.5 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp butter Unsalted
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1.5 cups milk
- 1 cup Shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup Shredded pepper jack cheese
- 1/2 cup mozzerella
- 1 tsp Sriracha
Ingredients
pretzels
dipping sauce
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- In a mixing bowl add 1/2 cup of warm water and yeast, let sit for 15 minutes. Mix remaining water and milk together with sugar, salt and melted butter, make sure liquid is warm, set aside.
- After 15 minutes add flour to yeast mixture, attach dough hook and start kneading on low. At this point add milk mixture. Knead about 7 minutes, or until smooth.
- Remove and place dough in large greased bowl, cover with cling wrap and let rise in a warm spot for 1-1.5 hours or until doubled in size. If you have an oven with a bread proof setting, place in for 1 hour.
- Once dough is done rising, place on a on floured surface and cut into 8 pieces.
- Roll and stretch, take both ends and form a circle, twist togther into a knot and fold over top of pretzel to the opposite side to form a regular pretzel loop, see pic.
- Place top size up on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Let rise again 10 minutes. Tip: I made nine pretzels, but i think 8 is a better number. So you could make two of each type.
- Preheat oven to 425. Bring a medium size pan filled with water to a boil, add baking soda, 1 tbsp at a time, place prezels one at a time in water for a bout 30 seconds, remove and place back on cookie sheet.
- Brush top with egg wash, then melted butter, top with topping of choice.
- Add mozzerella cheese and jalapenos.
- Add some with sesame seeds, some with sea salt, leave some plain for cinnamon sugar that would be after baing (cinnamon sugar:mix of sugar and ground cinnamon) . Tip: you can add pepperoni, or any other topping of choice.
- Bake for 15 minutes, brush with more melted butter when done.
- To Make sauce heat a small sauce pan on medium heat. Melt butter, then add flour, whisk until combined, add milk and bring to a boil. Turn heat down, let milk slightly thicken while whisking, add cheddar, sriracha and pepper jack, melt and quickly remove from heat, add 1/2 of shredded mozzerella, ad some salt if needed.
- Remove prezels when done and brush with butter, sprinkle cinnamon sugar on ones that need them. cool and enjoy, happy dipping. Tip: you can deep the cheesy once in marinara. Comment pls. Thank you, Thisafrican
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