Pretzel Bites with Chipotle Beer Cheddar
Want to know a secret? Making pretzels isn’t difficult at all when you use Tiseo’s frozen pizza dough! In fact, I challenge you to make these this week and send me a pic!
INGREDIENTS
1 ball frozen Tiseo’s dough (or any store-bought pizza dough)
1 egg lightly beaten
¼ cup everything seasoning
For the Chipotle Beer Cheese:
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup your favorite beer (I like a lighter wheat beer)
2 chipotle peppers in adobo, diced
1 Tbsp adobo sauce from the can of chipotles
16 ounces freshly grated white cheddar cheese
DIRECTIONS
Before you go to bed or super early in the morning, take the Tiseo’s dough out of your freezer and place on the counter. Let thaw and rise a bit for 6-7 hours until it’s puffy.
Gently take the dough out of its plastic wrap and divide into 4 pieces with a knife or pastry cutter. Be sure to be as gentle as possible to keep that dough as puffy as you can.
Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
Roll each piece of dough into a rope using your hands, you want the rope to be about 1 inch in thickness. Use a sharp knife to then cut 1 inch pieces from the rope, creating little dough nuggets.
Place the dough nuggets on the baking sheet. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large saucepan, bring 2 quarts of water to a low boil. Add the baking soda and lower the heat to a simmer. Put the pretzel nuggets into the water - I like to use a slotted spoon for this.. Boil for 30 seconds then carefully turn the nuggets over in the liquid. Repeat for another 30 seconds then remove with a slotted spoon to the prepared sheet pans. Repeat with all the dough.
With a pastry brush, brush each piece of pretzel with the lightly beaten egg, making sure to coat all sides completely. Then sprinkle the everything seasoning all over the nuggets, coating them all over - or using as much or as little as you’d like!
Bake the bites for 30 minutes. Remove them and dip in the chipotle cheddar sauce!
For the Chipotle Beer Cheddar:
Heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once sizzling, whisk in the flour and stir for 1 to 2 minutes until golden and fragrant and bubbly to create a roux. Stir in the beer, whisking well to combine.
Reduce the heat to low and add the cheese in small handfuls, stirring until totally melted and smooth. Whisk in the chipotle peppers and adobo sauce. Serve immediately with the pretzels.