Stuffed Pretzels
Everything's better with chipotle and cheese
Ingredients
1 packet dry yeast
250g bread flour (Type 550)
250g all purpose flour (Type 405)
300ml lukewarm water (or 50/50 water/milk)
2 tsp. salt
30g softened unsalted butter
50g baking soda / natron
1 tsp. honey
Coarse salt
Directions
Sprinkle / whisk the yeast into about half the water and let it stand for about 10 minutes until the yeast activates and becomes foamy.
Combine flour, salt, honey and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Once the yeast mixture is ready, add that along with the remaining water and mix on low with a dough hook for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for a few more minutes, then return the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until roughly doubled in size.
Punch down the dough and turn back out onto a lightly floured surface, then knead again until the dough is elastic again. Separate the dough into 6-8 even pieces and form as desired.
At this point you can either leave them as normal pretzels or you can use your fingers to stretch out a trough lengthwise in each dough piece and then fill it with whatever you feel like. I like a mixture of finely chopped chipotles and freshly shredded smoked or aged gouda, but this decision is up to you!
After filling the dough, fold the side up and pinch together, then roll once or twice to make sure the dough is sealed.
Bring the water to a boil, then once it's boiling remove it from heat. Pour in the baking soda - careful, it foams! You're going to bathe the formed dough, so transfer the mixture to a suitably sized bowl or baking dish, then carefully place each pretzel into the back and let it soak for about 15 seconds then flip and let the other side soak for another 15 seconds before very carefully removing to a well greased or silicon lined baking sheet. Don't use parchment paper - it will stick and be very difficult to remove after baking.
The baking soda bath is quite acidic! Use disposable gloves and/or be careful not to get any on you. it won't kill you, but your skin will appreciate your caution.
As soon as the dough comes out of the bath, sprinkle coarse salt over the top. Let the dough rise after its bath for another ~20mins before baking in a preheated oven at 220C / 425F for about 10-15mins or until golden brown.
The dough can be frozen after its bath...just let it rise then carefully place in the freezer. Once it's mostly frozen it can be put in a plastic bag and kept in the freezer for a couple weeks.
To finish baking it, just place the frozen dough directly into a preheated oven at 220F and bake normally until golden brown.
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