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Copycat Auntie Anne's Pretzel Bites
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Copycat Auntie Anne's Pretzel Bites

There are very few things in this world that can beat Auntie Anne's Pretzel Bites. Making them at home is surprisingly simple and they really do taste like the real deal! Add some of your favorite homemade sauces for dipping and you've got yourself the most incredible snack that's perfect for an afternoon treat or your next game day watch party!
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Prep Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Cook Time 8 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 48 minutes
Course: Appetizer, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

For the Dough
  • ½ cup warm whole milk 125mL
  • ½ cup warm water 117mL
  • 2 ¼ tsp dry rapid/instant yeast 7g
  • 1 tsp graunulated sugar 4g
  • 3 cups bread flour 426g
  • ⅓ cup dark brown sugar (lightly packed) 61g
  • ½ tsp fine salt 3g
  • ½ tsp baking powder 2g
  • 2 tbsp unsalted partially melted butter 29g
For the Water Bath
  • 2 cups warm water 473mL
  • 2 tbsp baking soda 35g
For the Toppings
  • 5 tbsp melted unsalted butter 70mL
  • cinnamon sugar to taste (this is just a combination of granulated sugar and ground cinnamon to taste)
  • coarse sea salt or pretzel salt to taste
For the Cheese Dip
  • 1 ½ tbsp unsalted butter 23g
  • 2 tbsp all-purpose flour 16g
  • 1 cup + 1 tbsp whole milk 254mL
  • 2 cups freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese 154g
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder 1g
  • ¼ tsp smoked paprika 1g
  • ½ tsp fine salt 3g
  • ¼ tsp (OPTIONAL) ground black pepper 1g
For the Cream Cheese Frosting Dip
  • 4 oz softened cream cheese 114g
  • 2 cups sifted powdered sugar 242g
  • ¼ cup heavy cream 60mL

Method
 

For the Dough & Baking
  1. In a small microwave-safe bowl, warm the milk and water for about 45 seconds.
  2. Add the granulated sugar and instant yeast to the warm milk/water. Give it a quick mix and set that aside for ~5-8 minutes or until the yeast blooms (you will know that it's ready when it's bubbling and foaming on top!)
  3. In the bowl of your stand mixer (or just a large mixing bowl), combine all of the other dough ingredients using a whisk (bread flour, dark brown sugar, salt, baking powder, and partially melted butter).
  4. Place the dough hook on your stand mixer (or continue mixing by hand). Add the bloomed yeast to the dry ingredients and begin mixing the dough on low speed until a dough ball begins to form.
  5. Sprinkle bread flour on a clean and dry counter and then place the dough ball on top of the counter.
  6. Continue kneading the dough by hand for about 3 minutes until it's just slightly sticky and soft.
  7. Form the dough in a tight ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl.
  8. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a warm kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise for 45 minutes - 1 hour or until it has doubled in size. This rising time will greatly depend on the temperature of the room (a warmer room will allow the dough to rise faster!)
  9. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 400℉.
  10. After the first rise, place the dough back onto a lightly floured counter and gently roll it out using a rolling pin.
  11. Cut the dough into 6 equal strips and then roll each strip out to about 22" long.
  12. Cut 1" pieces from those dough strips.
  13. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the warm water and baking soda for the water bath.
  14. Dunk all of the dough pieces into the water bath for just a few seconds before taking them out, straining the excess water, and placing them on your baking sheet.
  15. Bake at 400℉ on the center rack for 8-9 minutes until the tops are just slightly golden and the bottoms are a deeper brown. As always, the baking time will vary depending on your oven so keep an eye on them as they bake!
  16. Allow the pretzel bites to cool off before tossing in butter, salt, and/or cinnamon sugar.
For the Toppings
  1. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt 5 tbsp of butter (you can use more or less depending on your personal preference)
  2. If you would like to make both the salted pretzels as well as the cinnamon sugar pretzels, divide the pretzel bites in half between two separate mixing bowls.
  3. Add the melted butter to the pretzel bites and then add the coarse salt or cinnamon sugar mixture (this is just granulated sugar mixed with ground cinnamon to taste).
  4. Toss the pretzels to incorporate the melted butter and toppings. This ensures that each pretzel bite is properly coated with all of the yummy goodness!
For the Cheese Dip
  1. **If you would like all of your pretzel bites to be salted, I would recommend making 1 batch of the cheese dip as listed in the ingredients. If you are like me and would like to split the pretzel bites between salted and cinnamon sugar, I would recommend only making a 1/2 batch of the cheese dip as it does make a lot!
  2. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.
  3. Whisk in the all-purpose flour and continue whisking it until it's well incorporated and you don't have any flour lumps (Please do not burn the flour! Keep mixing it the entire time! This should take about 1 minute)
  4. Next, slowly pour the milk into the saucepan as you gently whisk. Do not stop whisking as you don't want that flour to settle to the bottom and burn.
  5. Once the milk mixture thickens, take the saucepan off the heat.
  6. Add in the freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese as well as all of the seasonings.
  7. Begin to gently fold in the cheese and allow the residual heat from the milk mixture to melt the cheese.
  8. Continue mixing until you have a smooth consistency and be sure to serve the cheese sauce while it's warm (you can re-heat it if you need to!)
For the Cream Cheese Frosting Dip
  1. **If you would like all of your pretzel bites to be cinnamon sugar, I would recommend making 1 batch of the frosting dip as listed in the ingredients. If you would like to split the pretzel bites between salted and cinnamon sugar, I would recommend only making a 1/2 batch of the frosting dip as it does make a lot!
  2. In a small bowl, combine all of the cream cheese frosting ingredients and mix very well using a rubber spatula until smooth.