Mini Pretzel Bites

Combine water, sugar, yeast, and butter in a stand mixer with the dough hook. It may seem odd but this way you only use the dough hook the entire time. Let it sit for 5 minutes to let the yeast bloom.

While the yeast blooms, oil a medium sized bowl with a bit of vegetable oil and set aside.

Add salt and flour into the yeast mixture and combine at low speed until incorporated. Increase speed to medium to continue kneading until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl (about 3-5 minutes). If the dough still looks too wet, add a tablespoon of flour at at time.

Remove dough from the bowl and knead into a ball on a floured surface. Put the dough ball into the oiled bowl and pat some oil on top of the ball. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about an hour until the dough doubles in size.

Preheat oven to 425 F. Oil baking sheets.

Bring the quarts of water to a boil in a large pan or pot (you don’t need it deep, you need it wide) and add the baking soda. Be careful here! Hot water plus baking soda equals lots and lots of hot bubbly action.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a floured surface. Divide into 8 pieces and roll each piece into a long skinny rope about 22 inches long. At this point, you can chill it after dividing it into 8 pieces, to allow for easier rolling. Cut the ropes into 1″ long bites (or how ever big you want them—note that they will puff up).

Boil the bites in the baking soda bath for about 30 seconds. Make sure you don’t crowd them in the pot or they will stick together. They puff up in the baking soda solution. Remove bites with a slotted spoon and let them dry out a little bit before placing them on the oiled baking sheets. Make sure they do not touch. Repeat cooking the rest of the bites.

Combine egg and water in a small bowl. Brush the bites with the egg wash and sprinkle liberally with salt.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes. The source says 15-18, but ours were on the burnt side of toasty at the 15-minute mark. Keep an eye on them and pull them out if you think they’re getting too brown.

Make the cheese sauce while the bites cool. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour and cook for a minute. Slowly stir in milk and let it warm until slightly thickened. (Our milk mixture didn’t thicken but we let it go until it simmered.) Remove from heat and mix in the cheese until the sauce is smooth and the cheese is all melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste if desired.

Serve warm mini pretzel bites and cheese sauce!

Source: Two Peas and their Pod.