A few weeks ago, I met up with a friend for happy hour downtown at a local pub chain. I had just come off night shift, so the idea of "breakfast" beers and snacks was extra appealing. On a whim, we ordered a pretzel and cheese sauce appetizer...and then promptly ordered another. They were so amazing, and I knew I had to attempt to recreate it at home (especially for $12 a plate!) as soon as possible.
I had made pretzels once before this...when I was seven years old in Grade 2. We had a school wide project making giant soft pretzels with the proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald Foundation. The cafeteria was briefly converted into a pretzel-making factory with dozens of tiny children hands making pretzels to sell to our parents and neighbours. It was super fun, though looking back I can't say Adult-Amanda would purchase handmade pretzels from tiny, germy, children-hands.
This time around, I learned that homemade pretzels are definitely a labour of love. I can see myself making them again, but likely for when company comes over or some type of carb-y special occasion. The beer cheese sauce I made was a bit heavier than the restaurant one, and was delicious in its own way. There was a noticeable texture difference once the sauce cooled - more thick, almost like cream cheese, which I preferred over the soupy fresh sauce. A little touch of smoked paprika sent this over the top, as smoked paprika does with most things.
Pretzels & Beer Cheese Sauce
Author: adapted from Joy of Cooking and Willams-Sonoma
Difficulty: moderate
Serves: 12 pretzels
Ingredients
Pretzels
- 3/4 cup warm water + 1/2 cup warm water, divided
- 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3/4 cup ale or darker beer
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire
- hot sauce, to taste
- 12 ounces grated sharp Cheddar cheese
- salt and pepper, to taste
- sprinkle smoked paprika (optional)
Directions
Pretzels: Combine 3/4 cup warm water and yeast in a mixing bowl and let stand until yeast is dissolved, about five minutes. Add flour, melted butter, sugar, and salt. Mix in a stand mixer at low speed, slowly adding an additional 1/2 cup water as needed to make a moist but not sticky dough. Knead for about 10 minutes with dough hook at a medium-low speed until dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl and turn to coat. Loosely cover with plastic wrap or lid and let rise until doubled in volume - about 1-1.5 hours. Punch the dough down and divide into 12 equal pieces, and roll up into 12 small balls. Oil the balls, and let rest covered in plastic wrap for about 10 minutes. Roll each ball into an 18 inch long rope, and form the pretzels. Place pretzels on baking sheets with parchment paper, cover, and let rise until doubled in volume in a warm place for about 35 minutes. Preheat oven to 400F and bring a medium pot of water to a boil with baking soda. Maintaining a simmer, slide pretzels into the water and simmer for 30 seconds on each side. Return pretzels to baking sheets, sprinkle with Kosher salt, and baking until golden brown, about 15 mins.
Beer Cheese Sauce: Melt butter in a small pot over medium-low heat. Add flour and combine well to make a roux. Add milk and beer to mixture, and combine well with a whisk. Whisk in mustard, Worcestershire, and cheese a handful at a time. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a sprinkle of smoked paprika.
Step-by-Step Photos
Dissolve one package of yeast into 3/4 cup of warm water. After five minutes, it should be all frothy like this.
Add the salt, sugar, melted butter, and three cups of flour.
Mix on low on a stand mixer until well combined. Slowly add an additional 1/2 cup of warm water to make the moist-but-not-sticky dough. I ended up using just a couple of teaspoons more than 1/2 cup of water. The elevation and general dryness here makes for some adjustments with baking (I learned mostly through trial and error).
Mix on medium-low with a dough hook for approximately 10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic.
Transfer dough to a large, greased mixing bowl, and turn the dough to coat. I turned my oven on for 5 minutes to let it warm up, and covered the dough and let it rise in the oven for about an hour, until it looked like this and was doubled in size.
Punch the dough down, separate into 12 equal pieces, and allow to rest 10 minutes with some greased plastic wrap. If I could go back in time, I would really ensure each of those little balls is greased well. Mine missed a couple spots and ended up cracking, which made some of the final pretzels much less pretty.
Roll each ball into an 18 inch tube of dough.
Form pretzels by looping the ends of dough around each other and pressing the ends into roughly 4 o'clock and 6 o'clock places along the dough. Place pretzels on a greased/parchment paper'd baking sheet, cover, and allow to rise again for about 35 minutes in a warm place.
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil with baking soda added. Reduce to a simmer. You can see here where my pretzels "cracked" and became ugly. :(
Simmer each pretzel in the baking soda water bath for 30 seconds on each side. They will puff up as they simmer. Remove from the pot and place back on the baking sheet when finished. Sprinkle with Kosher salt.
Bake in a preheated 400F oven for approximately 15 minutes, until golden brown.
While the pretzels are baking, melt two tablespoons of butter in a small pot over medium-low heat. Add three tablespoons of flour.
Whisk together.
I like to have my liquids measured and ready to go.
Slowly add beer and milk to the butter and flour, whisking well to combine.
Once mixture is well whisked, add mustard, Worcestershire, and hot sauce.
Add shredded cheese one handful at a time, whisking in between. Ensure the cheese is fully melted before adding more to prevent a lumpy sauce. Do not allow to boil, rather, just heat until cheese is melted through and well incorporated. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve! Sprinkle some smoked paprika on the cheese sauce if desired. Gorge on your well earned carbs until kingdom come. The pretzels are best served fresh, but will keep for a couple of days if necessary.
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