Eggless Whole Wheat Stuffed Pretzels!
Going to the mall is a very rare occurrence in our household. When we do go, what my kids are interested in are – playing around the fountain, rides, eating a pastry at the bakery or grabbing a pretzel and lemonade!
They’d been asking me to make pretzels for a while now and if you know me, i am usually trying to find ways to make my foods healthy and fun.
The kids were involved in making it and helped me during the whole process.
What you’ll need:
- Whole Milk – 2 cups
- Active Dry Yeast – 1 1/2 Tbsp (2 packets)
- Sugar – 2 Tbsp
- Butter at Room Temperature – 4 Tbsp
- All-purpose whole wheat flour – 4 1/2 cups, plus an additional 1/2 cup as needed
- Salt – 2 Tsp
- Baking Soda – 1/3 cup
- Warm Water – 3 cups
- Butter Melted – 4 Tbsp
- Sea Salt
- Chocolate Chips
- Cheddar Cheese – Small cubes
- Jalapeno Sliced
Method:
1. Warm the milk to 110 deg either in the microware (about 2 mins of high) or stove top. Add the yeast and stir/whisk until the yeast dissolves.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar, salt and butter. Add 1 cup flour and the milk mixture. Mix everything together (I used a hand mixer with dough attachment).
3. Add the remaining 3 1/2 cups flour and mix till the dough becomes elastic. Use the additional 1/2 cup flour and mix until the dough separates from the sides.
4. Cover the bowl and let it sit in a warm corner until it raises to double the size – about 1 1/2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 450 deg. Grease two baking sheets (or line with parchment paper).
6. In a large pan, bring the water and baking soda to a soft boil. Turn down the heat to lowest setting.
7. Punch the dough to release air. Divide into 12 equal parts. Roll on a dry surface. Arrange the rolls in pretzel shape.
6. For the stuffed pretzels, flatten the rolls a bit and stuff with chocolate chips or cheddar cheese. Press the dough together. Arrange the rolls in pretzel shape.
7. For the Jalapeno and Cheese bites, stuff with pretzels and cut into bite size. Make sure to press the dough together on sides.
7. Drop the pretzels into the baking soda water for about 30 seconds. Take out and let all the water drip off. Place on the baking sheets and adjust shape if needed.
8. Sprinkle sea salt on the plain (not stuffed) pretzels.
9. Place in the oven and bake for about 11 minutes or until golden brown. Take out and brush the melted butter over the pretzels. Serve warm.
10. Enjoy!
Pretzel bites just disappeared!! They would make great appetizers for a party.
We ate some of the left over pretzels for dinner with chole… yumm!!
