soft pretzel bites with dipping sauce trio

I woke up this morning to learn that my dear Russell Westbrook has to undergo knee surgery. This was is very upsetting. I thought to myself: how am I going to bounce back from this? Hours and hours later, I'm still not sure. But to keep my mind off the fact that my favorite NBA player will not be continuing for the remainder of the playoffs, I went straight to the kitchen.

In my attempt to turn my Friday into a happy one, I decided that it was only appropriate to celebrate National Pretzel Day today. I was passing through one of my favorite blogs, and came across a soft pretzel bite recipe I just had to try. So, I did.. And also made a trio of dips to go with them. If you don't already have Two Peas & Their Pod on your Google Reader, Feedly, whatever.. get it on there immediately!

Soft Pretzel Bites
Recipe by Two Peas & Their Pod
Yields: Too many to count, about 5-6 dozen

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 Tbsp light brown sugar
2 1/4 tsp (1 package) active dry yeast
6 Tbsp (3oz) unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour (4 1/2 cups was perfect for me)
vegetable oil (I used canola)
3 quarts water
3/4 cup baking soda
1 whole egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp cold water
coarse sea salt

DIRECTIONS
1. Combine warm water, light brown sugar, yeast, and butter into bowl of a stand mixer. Mix with dough hook, then allow to sit for about 5 minutes until yeast has bloomed.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Pour dry mixture to wet mixture and incorporate on low speed. Increase speed to medium for 3-4 minutes until dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl. If the dough appears wet, add 1 Tbsp of flour at a time. Remove dough from bowl and place on unfloured surface. Knead the dough into a ball with your hands.
3. Lightly grease a bowl with vegetable/canola oil. Place dough ball into greased bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to proof for about 1 hour in a warm spot. Dough should double in size before using.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
5. Remove dough from bowl and place onto a flat surface. Divide the dough ball into 8 relatively equal pieces. The best way to do this is to cut it like a pie-- in half, then in quarters, then in eighths. Roll each piece into a long rope and cut into about 1-in pieces. It isn't important to be exact.
6. Boil the 3 quarts of water in a large pot. Once boiling, add baking soda. Please make sure you are using a large enough pot because water will vigorously boil and foam up once baking soda is added.
7. Add cut dough pieces to boiling water solution. Boil for about 30 seconds, and then remove with a large slotted spoon. Place all boiled pretzel bites onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You will have a lot of pretzel bites, so I needed to bake them all in 2 batches. 
8. On another parchment-lined baking sheet, place as many pretzel bites as you can without them touching. Brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes until golden brown. Repeat this process with the remaining pretzel bites that could not fit on the 1st tray.
9. Allow baked pretzel bites to cool on a baking rack (or directly on the baking sheet is fine).
10. Serve with your favorite dips.

 

With all these pretzel bites, it's great to have dip choices..

Here's a trio that will hopefully satisfy your sweet, savory, or spicy cravings. Enjoy!

Ginger Honey Mustard Dip

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup whole grain dijon mustard

1/4 cup honey

1/2 tsp ground ginger

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix all ingredients together and serve! Duh.

 

Sriracha Ketchup Dip

INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp ketchup

1/2 tsp siracha

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine ingredients. If you prefer more spice, add more sriracha. But this was a good balance for me.

Nutella and Peanut Butter Dip

INGREDIENTS

Nutella 

Peanut Butter

DIRECTIONS

1. This is the easiest dip of all. Just scoop out some Nutella. Then, drizzle some peanut butter directly on top. I use natural peanut butter (where peanuts are the only ingredient), which tends to be a little more liquid-like, so it works well for this.

cheddar jalapeno bagels w/sun-dried tomato + herb cream cheese spread

I'm not sure what planet I've been on lately. Perhaps one where I'm too busy spending all my money and forgetting I have a blog to tend to or something. My bad.

But to make it up to you (by you I mean whatever loyal, occasional, or drive-by followers I may have), I will share this recipe. Bagels. Wait, let me rephrase that. Cheddar jalapeno bagels. Wait wait, there's more. Sun-dried tomato and herb cream cheese. Oh yes, this is next level Sunday Brunch. Whip up a mimosa with this and you're good to go. Okay, allow me to introduce you to a flavor explosion..

Cheddar Jalapeno Bagels
Yields 8 Bagels

INGREDIENTS
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp white granulated sugar
2 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
1/4 cup room temp water
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup diced jalapenos (I eliminated the ribs and seeds of the jalapeno to keep the bagel itself pretty mild)
1 egg, lightly beaten
topping: extra shredded cheddar cheese, jalapeno slices (for the slices I cut straight down into the ribs and seeds which will add a spicy kick to the top)

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together bread flour and salt. Set aside.
2. In a liquid measuring cup with lukewarm water, dissolve sugar. Then add yeast. Do not stir. Allow yeast to bloom-- this will take about 5-7 minutes.
3. Once yeast has bloomed, make a well in the dry ingredient mixing bowl. Gradually add water and yeast mixture into the well. Use a fork to incorporate the dry with the wet. At this point, it will look kind of shaggy and super dry. 
4. Turn out the dough onto a flat surface. Begin kneading the dough. Add some of the reserved room temp water to help moisten the dough if necessary. I ended up using about 1/4 cup, but add more or less as needed. Knead for about 7-8 minutes until the dough is relatively smooth and elastic. If you punch your finger into it, the dough should spring back. At this point, slightly flatten the dough, add diced jalapenos and shredded cheddar cheese to center. Fold the dough over and knead everything together for a couple more minutes until it looks like the jalapeno pieces and cheese are distributed well.
5. Dust out any leftover dry that may have stuck to the sides of your medium mixing bowl. Lightly grease that same bowl with olive oil. In order to avoid over-greasing, I pour just a little bit onto my fingertips, then spread into the bowl.
6. Place the dough back into the greased bowl and allow to rise for about 1 hour in a warm spot. It's ready when it looks like it has doubled in size.

7. Dust a little bread flour onto your flat surface. Flip the dough out of the bowl. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. The best way to do this is to cut it like a pie.

8. Shape each section into a round ball. Use your finger to make a hole in the middle. Then set aside onto a large parchment-lined baking sheet. Allow the shaped bagels to rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes. 

9. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
10. In a large pot of boiling water, boil the bagels--about 45 seconds to 1 minute on each side. You can boil the bagels in batches depending on the size of your pot. I was able to fit about 3 or 4 at a time. Remove the bagels from the boiling water and set back onto the parchment-lined baking sheet.

11. Brush an egg wash (the light beaten egg) onto the tops/sides of all the bagels. Add extra shredded cheddar and sliced jalapenos to the tops (I might have also added a little Parmesan also because I was low on cheddar.)

12. Bake for 20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Sun-Dried Tomato and Herb Cream Cheese Spread

INGREDIENTS
8oz. regular cream cheese spread (full fat, low fat, whatever you deal with)
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp roughly chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp roughly chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp + 2 tsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes, drained

DIRECTIONS
1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together well with a spatula.
2. Once all the ingredients are evenly combined, use the spatula to transfer the cream cheese mixture to a nice dipping bowl. Or do as I do-- throw it all back into the cream cheese container. Top with extra chopped herbs and/or sun-dried tomato if you like.
3. Done! Put the lid back on the cream cheese container and refrigerate any leftover.

 I really need to start hosting Sunday Brunch..

.. because, seriously, this platter is so share-worthy.
I had brunch by myself but that's okay. It was still scrumptious. Totally hit the spot. Nom.

 

(p.s. do you see that melted cheddar in the middle?! ^^ YUM.)