Week Three Tailgate Recipe: Pretzel Bites

I am really excited to tell you about this week’s tailgate recipe. It gives you the option of both sweet and savory. The bite-sized morsels will be perfect to take with you to Saturday’s football game.

Pretzel bites that are baked, not fried!

These pretzel bites are made from frozen dough that you can find in the freezer section. It is one of my favorite ingredients to use. It’s nice to skip the big step of making dough, but still getting the same home-made taste. By the way, you can make the most amazing cinnamon rolls with this cheating way, too.

I already had a package of the frozen loaves in my freezer, so I set out two loaf in bread pans that I sprayed with non-stick spray. Cover that with plastic wrap and let it rise for about 12 hours. 

When the dough has risen, remove from pans and roll out onto a sheet of floured parchment paper. Roll out the dough until it’s about ½ inch deep.

Next, take a pastry or pizza cutter and slice into 1 inch squares, like this.

You’ll see that mine aren’t perfect at all. They don’t need to be. But, I’ll blame this on MD. He did the cutting in this batch.

NOTE:

I am making these again this Saturday. I am going to try to cut them in more uniform squares and roll them into balls. I am also going to try using the frozen rolls instead of the frozen loaves. I’ll let you know how it goes.

After all the dough has been cut, let the bites rise for about 30 minutes. They will double in size.

Once the dough is ready, bring a pot of warm water to a gentle boil. Begin dropping in ten pieces of the dough at a time. Boil for one minute and remove to a paper towel. Repeat until all dough has been boiled.

They will puff up a little like this:

Place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until the tops just start to get crispy.

Let them cool for about 5 minutes.

Bring them together and baste with butter.

I divided mine in half to coat half of the pretzel bites in a sweet cinnamon sugar and the remaining half in a savory garlic Parmesan.

Sprinkle the soon-to-be savory bites with kosher salt. Next, toss them in a bowl with shredded parmesan and garlic powder until fully coated. Set aside to cool on parchment paper.

Take the other half of your buttered pretzel bites and toss them in a bowl with cinnamon sugar until fully coated.


Since we've coated these in butter, store them in the refrigerator if you don't eat them right away. Give 'em a quick re-heat in the oven before serving. If you're bringing them to a tailgate party, they are just as scrumptious served room temperature. I'd probably make these the morning of though. 

Share with other football fans around you and enjoy!

Cheers!

Christi

WPS

Shout out: I got these cute bowls from The Container Store. I think I will live there.

Ingredients:

2 loaves Rhodes frozen dough or 12 Rhodes roll dough, thawed and cut into 1 inch squares

4 tablespoons butter, more if needed

Kosher salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 cup grated Parmesan

About a half cup cinnamon and sugar mix

Recipe adapted from: http://www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com