Home-made pretzel bites

Another fun project that I did with my girls was to make soft pretzel bites.  I have made pretzels before but they came out not really looking like a pretzel so this time I opted for bite size pieces.  I basically followed Alton Brown's recipe for a soft pretzel, but cut them to bite size pieces before cooking them.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• Vegetable oil, for pan
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
• Pretzel salt

I followed the directions and let the dough proof for about 2 hours, which got it to about double its size.  After that I rolled them into equal dough balls about 4.5 oz.  Not really a requirement just made them easier to deal with.   Each ball I then rolled out to a long rope and used a pizza cutter to make bite size pieces as shown below. 

Now with the oven preheated to 450, I setup a saucepan with the 10 cups of water and the 2/3 cups of baking soda for a the pretzels to have a boiling baking soda wash before the egg wash and salting.  You only need to put them in the wash for about 30 seconds.    After that add the egg wash  and salt and drop them in the oven for about 13 minutes or until they look great.

Just look at them sitting on the cooling rack, they were mighty tasty and I know that some of the neighbors thought they were great.  Sorry for the rest of them who did not get to try them, maybe next time.