Easy Soft Pretzels with Cajun Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

The smell of rain in the desert, making snowmen, antique shops, super red lipstick, giant soft pretzels fresh out of the oven...these are a few of my favorite things.  I honestly think I have a bonafide addiction to pretzels. Big pretzels, little pretzels, hard pretzels, honey wheat pretzels, pretzel crusted French toast, I could go on forever but my absolute favorite are those huge soft pretzels you can get at malls and concession stands all over the place. I've been known to make a special trip to the mall just to grab one. If you knew me you would know how big a deal that really is since I absolutely avoid the mall at all costs normally but when you have a hankering for something pillowy and hot and buttery and salty you do what you have to do.

I have quite a few pretzel recipes I use but I thought I'd share my easy small batch recipe this time. It only makes 6 pretzels and takes about an hour and a half start to finish (20ish mins prep, 1 hour proof, and 10 minutes baking time) so it's something you can throw together fairly quickly. Another reason I live this recipe is that you will most likely have everything you need on hand already.  The only thing that this recipe doesn't achieve is the even chewy exterior of other pretzels.  This doesn't mean they aren't still super delicious but if you are looking for that chewy textured outside, keep tuned I'll be adding a recipe for that but it is a bit more involved as a recipe go so I totally recommend this recipe to get you started on your pretzel making adventure!!

There are a bazillion different dips perfect for pretzels out there. Everything from sweet to savory, but since I'm a bit of a spicehead I came up with a Cajun twist to a honey mustard dip which goes perfectly with these pretzels.

Enough gabbing...onto the recipes!

Easy Soft Pretzels

 Yield: 6 pretzels

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Prep: 20 minutes

Proof: 1 hour

Bake: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup milk

1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

3 TBSP brown sugar, packed

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 TBSP unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 tsp Kosher salt

1/3 cup baking soda

2 TBSP coarse sea salt

Directions

Warm the milk in microwave for about a minute until around 110 degrees, it will feel just a little warmer than your body temperature when tested with your finger. Pour milk into the bowl of your stand mixer. 

Add the yeast and a pinch of the brown sugar (be sure not to add the salt yet as it will kill the yeast) and give it a quick stir. Allow the yeast to proof for about 5 minutes. 

When the yeast looks bubbly and frothy add the rest of the brown sugar and about a cup of the flour. Mix slowly with the dough hook attachment until flour is fully incorporated. 

Add the cubed butter and mix again until the butter is incorporated. Add the rest of the flour and the kosher salt and knead the dough with the dough hook for at least 5 minutes on a medium speed. Your dough has been kneaded enough when you can slowly stretch a small piece without it tearing (see picture). 

Your dough will be sticky, this is a good thing. Lightly oil a bowl and add your dough to the bowl, cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm spot to allow the dough to proof, about an hour. 

*Time to go to sleep little dough ball* Nite Nite termite! 🌜

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment, silpat or ligtly spray with cookng spray. 

In a shallow dish, mix 3 cups hot water with 1/3 cup baking soda. When your dough has doubled in size, punch down (conjure up any leftover angst from your teen years 💀) and turn out onto an un-floured surface and divide into 6 pieces. To keep the dough balls from denying out, cover with the damp towel you used to cover the proofing bowl. 

Slowly roll the pieces into long snakes approximately 30 inches long (I use a 10 inch chopstick to help me measure how long my snakes are). When all the pieces have been rolled out quickly dip the snakes in the baking soda solution. 

Place on baking sheet and form into desired shape. Sprinkle the coarse salt onto the pretzels. 

Bake until golden, 10-12 minutes. 

Cajun Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

1 TBSP mayonnaise 

1 TBSP horseradish mustard

1/2 TBSP yellow mustard

1 TBSP honey

1 tsp Cajun seasoning (like Tony Chachere’s)

1 scant pinch Kosher salt

Directions

In a small bowl combine all ingredients, mixing well. Adjust heat level by adding more Cajun seasoning until desired heat level is reached. 

**A few wee tips:

~ In the picture of the finished pretzels, the darker ones had a few second bath in the baking soda solution while the lighter ones were more of a  "dip your toe in the pool, find out its freezing and you yank it out and run to bundle up next to the fire pit" kinda dip.  I know some people don't care for dark pretzels so now you too can indulge in some pretzel-y goodness too!

~ If your pretzel knotting skills are not up to snuff or if it really bothers you to see things in knots (hey I'm not judging...remind me to tell you about my utility-cover-thingys on sidewalk issue one of these days) or if you just have one that turned out ridiculously ugly then I have a fix for that too!  Just roll them into a snake and take a pastry cutter or a knife and chop them into a bite size nuggets.  Continue with the rest of the steps and voila...poppable nugs of pretzels!  Now you know my secret as to why I have nuggets in some of my pictures...Picasso would probably have been super proud of my effort but that one pretzel was pretty much too scary to eat.

~ Obviously the best pretzels are the ones that come straight out of the oven.  Now I'm well aware that sometimes the universe conspires against us and you are unable to indulge on lava dough and you have to settle for pretzels that have been stored in a baggie  Never fear!  Super Kat is here to help (that's me btw) not that I have any semblance of an ego or anything.  The best results will come from the oven method; take a piece of foil and put your knot o' goodness on it.  Curl the edges around the pretzel to keep it in place but leave the top uncovered.  Spread a little butter (who are we kidding, slather that puppy up!) and if you wish sprinkle a few sprinkles of coarse salt on top (I've found that the original salt from the first bake has a tendency to melt both in the storage baggie and in the oven for the second bake) and pop in the hotbox at 350 degrees.  If you had the foresight to turn the oven on and let it preheat (I rarely have said foresight) it will take about 8 minutes to heat through if the pretzel was at room temperature, if you did't preheat the oven, it will take 10-12 minutes to heat through.  Then its yummy in my tummy time!  Err yummy in your tummy time...unless your're gonna share, need I remind you of how nice it is to share with your friends?  :D