Fall is almost here, and as I mentioned before I’m looking forward to a whole bunch of fall-related things. In no particular order, I am excited for: fluffy sweaters, apple picking, camp fires, crisp mornings/evenings, all things s’mores-related, root vegetables, apple pie, red/gold leaves, crunchy leaf piles, hot apple cider, Halloween, camping/hiking (we do this in other seasons too, but it’s always nicest in the fall), pumpkin pie, fuzzy socks, Thanksgiving (my parents are inviting themselves to Dan’s parents’ house this year to experience “American” Thanksgiving for the first time!), and thick blankets/comforters.
Dan, on the other hand? Per usual, his list of exciting-fall-things consists only of football. In particular, the New England Patriots and Touchdown Tommy, but since he actually joined a fantasy league this year and has a vested interest in non-Patriots players doing well, he cares about other teams now too. Lucky me!
‘Cuz this means, of course, that our Sundays (and some Mondays/Thursdays, I guess?) are now dedicated to football watching, regardless of who’s playing. So those long, crisp hikes in the woods with swirling red/gold leaves and travel mugs of apple cider I was dreaming about earlier? Only possible on Saturdays! And lazy, late-Sunday morning brunches with friends? Only if we’re back in time for football…unless we go somewhere that has TVs with the game on, in which case we should definitely plan to linger over our meal.
You could ask why he doesn’t just DVR the games for later, but apparently that defeats the purpose of football watching. Because he will certainly have been getting ESPN SportsCenter updates on his phone all day, and so will already know all the things that happened in the game without watching it. Yes, modern technology has ruined the whole sports-watching experience.
To be fair, this is pretty much the only time of year that Dan insists on having control of the TV/remote (usually we watch an endless cycle of my favorites – Castle, Parks & Recs, Big Bang Theory, Bones, Top Chef, etc.), so I can’t really begrudge him his football watching. Plus, I happen to like sports bars and game day foods, and I’ve grudgingly learned to appreciate the Patriots (go Gronk!), so it’s easier to think of this is whole football watching business as just our new “thing” for fall.
In the spring/summer, we spend our weekends wine tasting and being outdoorsy; in the fall we watch football, stuff our faces with junky snacks, and drink beer…in the winter, we bunker down at home with the cats and pray that we don’t freeze to death as soon as we step outside.
This past weekend, our friends Brad/Amy invited us over to their house to watch the Patriots-Vikings game with them. Given that I’m always looking for an excuse to make/eat junky snacks, I decided that pretzel bites and beer-cheese dip would be a great addition to Amy’s fabulous lunch spread of do-it-yourself tacos (warm corn tortillas, slow cooked ground beef, savory black beans, sour cream, lettuce, cheese, and salsa…mmm). I’d never made pretzels from scratch before, but how hard could it be?
As it turns out, if you are an idiot like me, pretzels-making can be a wild, messy ride. The dough was easy, and the baking was easy, but the step in the middle where you boil the dough in baking soda-water? Ugh. FYI, dumping a bunch of baking soda into a pot of boiling water is a really bad idea. Doing that caused all the water in my pot to immediately and violently erupt up/outwards, extinguish my stove fire, and leave my tiny kitchen looking like it’d been hit by a tornado. I had to dry and clean literally everything before I could try again. We were late for the game.
Luckily, all the trouble was worth it. The pretzels were soft and airy on the inside, but with that nice firm chew that makes soft pretzels so awesome (esp when you get a bite with a nice sea salty crunch). The cheese chip had a tendency to thicken into almost spread-like consistency when it cooled, but was tangy and savory and cheesy and onion-y and hoppy and spicy and basically just super delicious alone or with the pretzel bites. On the whole, this was the perfect game day food, and I will definitely be making it again soon…hopefully without flooding the kitchen.
- 1-½ cups warm water
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 2-½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 4-¾ cups all-purpose flour
- Vegetable oil or cooking spray
- 10 cups water + 1 tbsp (separate)
- ⅔ cup baking soda
- 1 egg, beaten
- Sea salt
- 1-1/2 to 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- ½ cup light-medium beer
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp ground pepper
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup green onions chopped, extra for garnish
- Combine the water, sugar, yeast, and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. Stir, then let everything sit for 5 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, mix together your flour and salt.
- Dump your dry ingredients into the bowl of your mixer with the wet ingredients and mix on low-speed until combined.
- Increase the speed to medium until the dough is smooth and pulling away from the sides of the bowl, about 3 minutes.
- Remove dough from the bowl and knead on a lightly floured flat surface for an additional minute.
- Grease the inside of a large bowl with vegetable oil or cooking spray, and return the dough to the bowl, turning until the surface is coated with oil. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm, dry place for an hour.
- In a small bowl, whisk together your egg + 1 tbsp water. Set aside (this is your egg wash).
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- Combine your baking soda and 10 cups water in a large pot, and bring it to a rolling boil.
- While your water is heating, take your dough out of the bowl and divide it into 8 equal pieces.
- One at a time, on a lightly floured, flat surface, roll each piece into a long thin rope, about 22 inches. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces.
- Working in batches, drop your pretzel bites into your boiling water and boil them for 30-45 seconds. Use a strainer to remove the bites from the water, drain them, and then place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet (make sure they aren’t touching). Repeat until all pretzel bites have been boiled.
- Brush the tops of your pretzel bites with the egg wash and sprinkle everything liberally with sea salt.
- Bake for 12-13 minutes, until pretzel bites are golden brown (Be careful not to over bake, or the bottoms will start to burn).
- Remove from oven and let cool on a baking rack.
- While you are waiting for the pretzel bites to cool, make your spicy beer-cheese dip. Combine beer, cheeses, chile powder, cayenne, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a sauce pan or pot over medium-high heat. Melt down the cheese mixture and stir until it is smooth, about 5 minutes. Stir in green onions half way through the cheese melting. Once mixture is smooth and velvety, remove it from the heat and pour it into a serving bowl.
- Enjoy pretzel bites and hot cheese dip together, immediately.
(Pretzel bites slightly adapted from Snixy Kitchen; Beer-cheese dip slightly adapted from Wright Kitchen)
Leslie says
I loved the story behind this recipe!
justputzing says
<3
Sarah @ SnixyKitchen says
Bahahaha! OH NO! I totally didn’t have that problem with my baking soda/water, but I’ll put a note in my recipe to make sure no one else does the same thing!
justputzing says
It was a mess! But I will say that after I wiped it up my stove was squeaky clean…baking soda is a good cleaning agent, I guess?
Nancy says
I am so happy to have recently discovered your blog, and more so to have found a person who enjoys food as much as I! Awesome story you shared about your pretzel making experience. Love all the Fall activities and “looking forward to” thoughts as well. Out here in Sunny CA, there is no sign of Fall just yet, but eagerly awaiting that chilly night breeze that allows me to throw on an extra cover. Cheers to you!
justputzing says
I’m glad you stumbled across my blog too! Thanks for reading 🙂 Fall out here is nice, but I could probably be persuaded to trade it for your gorgeous CA weather!
dina says
what a great snack! i love soft pretzels.
justputzing says
Me too!
Karen @ The Food Charlatan says
I love that you used the word “hoppy” to describe this cheese dip. I’m totally in. (Hi I’m Karen, btw–Sarah told me about your blog today and it is beautiful!!)
justputzing says
Haha thanks! 99.9% of the reason my blog looks nice is b/c of Sarah and her web design skills
Annie says
that first paragraph could also be known as ‘there are a few of my favorite things..’ I need to find out if there’s apple picking around her – dear sarah, 😉 these look positively yummy!
justputzing says
Haha you should definitely drag Sarah apple picking! Or you can both come out East and I’ll take you 🙂
Cate @ Chez CateyLou says
These pretzels look great, and that beer cheese dip sounds incredible! I could eat that whole plate full! Great tip about the baking soda…I totally would have done that too. What a mess!
justputzing says
Thanks! The baking soda fiasco WAS a huge mess…but after I wiped it all up my stove was the cleanest I’ve seen it in a while! 😉
Kayley | The Kitchen McCabe says
I think I am going to make these for an afternoon snack today. Maybe I’ll even share some with my kids. They look seriously yummy!
justputzing says
Sharing??? Nooo…. 😉 Hope you like them!
Ashley says
Can these be made ahead and frozen?
justputzing says
I haven’t tried it myself, but I think they would probably freeze/thaw well.