Tailgate Pretzel Bites

So we meet again on a Sunday night!  Hope your weekend was great and you’re getting ready to face another week.  I know I am.  It’s going to be a busy one, and I already can’t wait until Friday…

I had one of those weekends that’s jam packed with fun activities, but doesn’t leave anytime for relaxing…it was GO-GO-GO!

Saturday was the big UNH vs. UMASS football game at Gillette Stadium!  A big group of my friends from college got together for some tailgating and football!

I don’t tailgate much, and was having the hardest time thinking of something fun and different to make that didn’t involve needing to be heated up.

In the end I went with something I’ve had one my mind for a while now: homemade soft pretzels!

I saw this recipe online and decided to make the regular salted ones, AND the cinnamon sugar ones :)

Friday night I whipped up the dough.  The recipe called for it to rise for 1 hour, but at this point I just really needed to get to bed.  So I covered the dough with plastic wrap in the oiled bowl, and put it in the refrigerator.  Refrigerating it allowed the dough to rise much slower for a longer period of time. 

The next morning the dough had risen, and I just let it sit out to bring it back to room temp for about an hour.  I prepped some other ingredients while I waited. 

Then I got to rolling out the dough into ropes!

I used a pizza cutter to cut each rope into 1” pieces.

This was one of those recipes where it was crucial to have everything measured out and ready to go!

This was my first time making pretzels, and therefore working with a pot of boiling water + baking soda!  Just so you know, the boiling water will bubble up some when you add the baking soda!

In went the first batch

On to the pans

This is when I had Brian help by given them an egg wash while I continued boiling the dough bites

Then once they were all boiled, and egg washed, we salted one pan and cinnamon-sugared the other!

Baked each for 14-15 minutes, and voila!

Per the suggestions given in the recipe, I made the cheese sauce for the salted ones and a cream cheese frosting type sauce for the cinnamon-sugar bites.

The cheese sauce was the same one in the recipe, except I doubled it and added a pinch of garlic powder.

For the  sweet ones, I used roughly:

• 3oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 – 1 cup powdered sugar (start with 1/2 cup, then add more as needed)
• 2-3 T skim milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

I ended up needing to use a hand mixer as I was having difficulty getting the cream cheese to incorporate thoroughly just using my hand.  I made mine a much thinner consistency than a regular cream cheese frosting…more like a glaze which is better for dipping.

I love how they came out!!  Soft, doughy, and perfect size to pop in your mouth.

My only issue was that the cheese sauce sort of solidifies as it sits out at room temp.  We ended up heating it up over the mini charcoal grill.

It was a gorgeous day for some tailgating

Beer

   
(possibly some jello shots…hello college!)

And fun (and shenanigans…of course…)

UNH won!!  Obviously ;)

Fun times!  I wish I saw some of my friends more often!!  I hate how time just slips and months go by to fast these days :(

Anyways…  on the other end of the spectrum, Brian and I had another fun and very important day today :)  We are now the godparents to this little cutie…

Another fabulous food filled day!  Although I carbo-loaded enough to run a race tomorrow haha…maybe I’m trying to tell myself something ;)

So many other things to share, so little time. 

For future reference, what are some great tailgating recipes???