Ham and cheese pretzel bites

Whenever we make soup the main entree at work, it is pretty much mandatory for us to include a starch for the side dish or people will complain that the soup wasn't enough. Since today was a healthy vegetarian lentil soup, I decided to make ham and cheese pretzel bites - gotta have that meat! 

Ham and Cheese pretzel bites

Recipe from http://www.pipandebby.com/pip-ebby/2012/2/27/ham-cheese-pretzel-bites.html

Cooking time: 3 hours

Yield: 48 pretzel bites

Ingredients

2 tbsp packed brown sugar

1 cup warm milk (110-115 degrees Fahrenheit)

2 1/2 to 3 cups ap flour

1 package (1/4 oz) instant dry yeast

1/2 cup finely chopped ham

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

6 cups water

4 tsp baking soda

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1-2 tbsp coarse kosher salt

Directions

1. In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar and warm milk until dissolved. In a large bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups flour, the milk mixture and the yeast. Stir until a soft dough forms. Add the remaining flour as needed. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead a few times, forming a smooth ball.
2. Brush the inside of a large clean bowl with olive oil. Transfer the dough to the bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rise in a warm, draft-free area for about 2 hours, until dough has doubled in size and bubbles appear on the surface.
3. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 4 equal pieces. Lightly dust hands and rolling pin with flour. Roll one of the four sections into a 12x4 inch rectangle. With the long side facing you, gently press 1/4 of the ham and cheese into the bottom third of the dough, and roll as tightly as possible, starting with the end that has the filling. Cut into 12 1 inch pieces and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with remaining 3 portions of dough.
4. Let rest, uncovered, at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Add the baking soda and reduce heat to a gently simmer. Boil pretzels in batches, cooking about 20 seconds each, turning once. They should be slightly puffed. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them back to the baking sheets. Bake until puffed and golden-brown, about 15 minutes. Brush warm pretzel bites with melted butter and sprinkle with salt. Serve warm. 

Nutritional Analysis:
1 pretzel bite: 53.6 calories, 2.0g fat (1.0g saturated, 0.1g polyunsaturated, 0.6g monounsaturated), 6.8g carbohydrates, 0.7g fiber, 2.4g protein.

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

Whenever you are making bread and are using dry active yeast, it is important to activate it before you mix it in with the flour and other ingredients. Since this recipe uses instant yeast, you can forgo the activating process; however, I was using dry active so I added the yeast to the warm milk and sugar and let it sit for 10 minutes. Your mixture should appear foamy on top; that is how you know the yeast has been activated.

An easy way to tell how much your dough has risen is to draw a circle on the plastic wrap covering the bowl that imitates the shape of the dough. 

I used cheddar cheese for my pretzel bites but mozzarella would have been good too. 

Keep the seam side down when you are proofing them for the second time so they will stay closed.

When you are ready to dunk the pretzels in the water, make sure the water is not at a rapid boil. Also, don't let your pretzels stay in the water too long or else the cheese seeps out and the pretzels open up. I found that they all stayed closed except for the one that I accidentally left in a few seconds too long.

Make sure you use line your baking sheets with parchment paper, not just any type of paper! The pretzels will stick to an ungreased pan so go out and buy some parchment if you don't have any! 
Unfortunately, I was expecting to get 144 if I multiplied the recipe by 3, but I made them bigger than one inch so only ended up with about 90. We had to limit everyone to only 2 pretzel bites, which they were all disappointed about. But disappointment can only mean that they are worth having more of so that's always a good sign! Buttery, salty, and cheesy...what can be better than that?