Get the Recipe: Soft Pretzels and Beer Cheese
Homemade soft pretzels, served with a warm Beer Cheese dip. A classic combination and both the pretzels and beer cheese freeze well!
Ingredients
For pretzel dough:
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) lukewarm water, warmed to 105F
- 1 Tablespoon white granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons coarse Kosher salt, use less if using fine salt and a bit less if using salted butter
- 1/4 cup (67 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm
- 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled, plus more as needed
For boiling:
- 10 cups (2500 ml) water
- 2/3 cup (170 ml) baking soda
For brushing before baking:
- 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 Tablespoon water
For topping:
- Coarse Kosher or Pretzel salt
Beer Cheese:
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) beer, lager recommended but ale will work, too
- 1 cup (250 ml) milk, at least 2%
- 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 - 2 1/2 cups (500-675 ml) cheddar cheese, freshly grated (not pre-grated)
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) old white cheddar cheese, freshly grated, or other cheese or just more orange cheddar
Instructions
- Tip! Use a kitchen scale to weigh out the flour for best accuracy. If you don't have a kitchen scale, be sure to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level off to avoid using too much flour.
- To make the pretzel dough: In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a kneading hook, combine the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast. Let stand for 5-10 minutes. Add the salt, cooled melted butter and 3 cups of flour (375g). Mix on Speed 2 on the mixer until well combined. Add the last 1 cup of flour (125g) a bit at a time, kneading in between additions. If the dough is still sticky after adding the last cup of flour, begin adding more flour a Tablespoon at a time and kneading in between additions until you have a soft, moist dough that wraps the kneading hook and cleans the bowl. (*Your dough may not need any more flour or it may not even need all of the last cup of flour to reach this point.) Once the dough reaches that point, allow it to knead at Speed 2 on the mixer for 4-5 minutes.
- Remove the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly, adding a bit more flour only if the dough is sticking to your hands or the work surface. Form the dough into a ball and place it into a greased bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, usually about 45-60 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450F. (regular bake setting/not fan assisted). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large pot, bring the 10 cups of water to a rolling boil. *I like to start this step early and keep the water just under the boil. That way it is ready to go when the pretzels are ready to be boiled.
- When the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. (I like to use a scale to weight the dough and then divide by 8 to get the weight for each piece.) Form each piece of dough into a ball and let stand 5 minutes, covered with a clean tea towel.
- Start with just 4 of the balls of dough, leaving the remaining balls covered with the tea towel. Working on an un-floured surface, take a ball of dough and stretch it slightly into an oblong shape. Using the palms of both hands, begin rolling in the centre of the dough, then slowly spread your palms apart, rolling out towards the end of the dough rope. Repeat rolling, starting from the centre and rolling outward or if your rope is getting thin in the middle, move your palms over the thicker area and roll from there. Keep rolling until your rope is 24-inches long. Don't worry if your rope of dough isn't perfectly even. Somehow, the boiling/baking process seems to sort it all out.
- Tip! You can refer to the step-by-step photos above this Recipe Card for a visual of the process for shaping the pretzels.
- Form the rope of dough into a pretzel by first shaping it into a "U" shape, with the opening of the U at the top. Cross the two strands of dough over each other, forming an "X" in the middle. Take the tips of the dough and fold down to extend past the bottom of the "U" by about an inch and pinch into the bottom of the "U" where they cross. Stretch the loops on the sides a bit to exaggerate the holes a bit and place them onto the parchment-lined half-sheet pan.
- Add the baking soda to the boiling water and stir in. Stretch out the loops of the pretzels once more to open up the holes a little bit more, then place 2 of the pretzels into the boiling water, knotted side down. Boil for 30 seconds then flip them over and boil for about 10 seconds more. Use a large spatula to remove them from the water and return them to the parchment-lined baking pan. Brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the kosher salt. Bake until dark golden brown in colour, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.
- While the first 4 pretzels are baking, shape and boil the last 4 pretzels and place them onto a sheet of parchment paper. Brush with the egg yolk mixture and sprinkle with salt. When the first batch comes out of the oven, slide the last 4 pretzels on top of the parchment paper onto the baking sheet. Bake 11-13 minutes (*the second batch will bake a bit more quickly due to the hot baking sheet) until deep golden in colour. Remove immediately to a cooling rack to cool. Enjoy warm or cooled with beer cheese sauce. Store in an airtight container for a couple of days or freeze up to 3 months for longer storage. You can reheat the pretzels in the microwave or wrap them in foil and place in a 350F oven for 6-8 minutes.
- Tip! For a perfectly smooth and never grainy beer cheese sauce, start with freshly grated cheese (not pre-grated) and add the cheese off-heat, letting it stand in the warm sauce and only stirring 2 or 3 times.
- To make the beer cheese: In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minutes. Slowly add the beer and stir well until smooth. Add the milk, mustard, Worcestershire, garlic powder, salt, pepper and cayenne. Cook, stirring, until mixture thickens, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in grated cheese, then let stand 1 minute. Stir again, until all the cheese is melted into the sauce. Taste the sauce and add more salt, pepper and/or mustard as needed. Enjoy warm with pretzels. *Can be made ahead and refrigerated up to 3 days or freeze for longer storage.
Notes
Tips!
- I like to start the water for boiling the pretzels before baking well ahead, setting it on low to start. When I’m close to boiling, there’s no waiting for it to boil and hold up the process.
- Before boiling the pretzels, I like to re-stretch the pretzel a bit, to make sure that the holes are big enough that they don't close in during boiling.
- I don’t like to crowd the baking pan by trying to bake all 8 pretzels at the same time, and I’m never happy with the uneven results when I bake two pans on two different racks and swapping them around. For these, I shape and boil the first 4, then pop them in the oven. While they are baking, I shape and boil the last 4, placing them on a separate sheet of parchment paper. When the first batch is done, simply slide the last 4 on the parchment onto the baking sheet and into the oven.
- Note that your second batch of pretzels will cook slightly more quickly than your first batch, due to the heat from the baking sheet. Set the timer a few minutes earlier and watch, so you can pop them out when dark enough. In my oven, my first batch took 12 minutes, while my second was ready at about 11 minutes.
- Be sure to taste and adjust the seasoning of the beer cheese to taste, adding more mustard and or salt and pepper, as needed. A generous salting really brings together all the flavours.
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 377kcal, Carbohydrates: 59g, Protein: 9g, Fat: 11g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Cholesterol: 28mg, Sodium: 3538mg, Potassium: 130mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 380IU, Calcium: 61mg, Iron: 3.4mg
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