Although I have baked sourdough breads, rolls and even english muffins for around the house, it’s the pretzel bites that get the most requests to make. Here’s my recipe and quick directions to making them.
Ingredients
Dough:
- (298g) Unbleached bread or all purpose flour (or a mixture of both)
- (6g) Salt
- (4g) Sugar
- (7g) Instant yeast
- (20g) Chia seeds
- (210g) Warm water
Pre-Soak
- (227g or 1 cup) Boiling water
- (14g or 1 tablespoon) Baking soda
Post-Bake Topping
- (43g or 3 tablespoons) Unsalted butter
- Coarse pretzel salt or sea salt
Instructions
- Mix together all of the ingredients for the dough either by hand or in a mixer. You want to mix until all of the dough is pulling off of the sides of the bowl and the dough is slightly sticky. Add a little more flour or water until you get a good consistency. With a mixer, look for a mixture where the dough falls off the hook with little or no issues. Cover the bowl and set aside for 30 min.
2. Preheat the oven to 475 F. Combine the ingredients for the pre-soak into a wide bowl or glass pan. Mix thoroughly with a spoon.
3. After the 30 minute rest, stretch out the dough and roll into a ball. Divide the ball in half, then in half again, and then one more time in half. (yes, I know, that’s called eighths). For each of the smaller pieces, roll out the dough into a long, thin rope. Start with your hands in the middle and pull outward as you are rolling out the rope.
4. Cut the rope into 4-6 pieces and place in the pre-soak, splashing the water over the tops of each piece.
5. Place the pieces onto a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie tray. Repeat the process of rolling, cutting, soaking and placing the bites. If I try hard, I can get all of the bites for a full batch onto a 12″ x 16″ sheet of parchment paper.
6. Put the tray into the oven and bake for 6 minutes and then roll all of the pretzel bites. Here’s the trick to easily flipping the bites – grab the long edge of the parchment paper (with protection on your hands of course) and flip the entire sheet of paper over. Bake for another 6 minutes.
7. While the pretzel bites are finishing up, melt the butter in a small bowl. Pull the bites after the second 6 minute timer is up and roll the parchment back right-side up. Butter the bites and then sprinkle with coarse salt to taste.
8. Bending the parchment paper, peel the pretzel bites off of the paper and put on a cooling rack, plate or directly into your mouth.
The whole process takes about an hour and I’ve never seen a batch last longer than 90 seconds on a plate with dinner guests.
Since a single batch makes about 1 tray of bites, doubling it to make 2 trays is as simple as doubling the ingredients for the dough and repeating the ingredients and steps to make the pre-soak and topping for each batch.
If you want to see the whole process in action, feel free to watch my video with riveting commentary.