Cheddar Cheese Pretzel Bread Food

CHEESY PRETZELS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400°F. Grease cookie sheet. Mix all ingredients except egg and coarse salt in medium bowl with fork until soft dough forms. Smooth dough gently into ball on floured board. Knead 10 times. Divide dough in half.
• Roll half of dough into 12x8-inch rectangle. Cut rectangle lengthwise into eight 1-inch strips. Fold each strip lengthwise in half into 12x1/2-inch strip; pinch edges to seal. Twist each strip into pretzel shape. Place seam down on cookie sheet.
• Beat egg in small bowl with fork until blended. Brush pretzels with egg. Sprinkle lightly with coarse salt.
• Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Repeat with remaining half of dough.

PRETZEL BITES WITH QUICK CHEDDAR DIP

Steps:

• Make Pretzel Dough:
• Stir together warm water and yeast in a large bowl and let stand until a creamy beige foam develops on the surface, about 10 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, start over with new yeast.)
• Meanwhile, in a smaller bowl, stir together flour, salt, and light brown sugar.
• Add flour mixture and butter to yeast mixture, and stir together first with a wooden spoon and then with your hands, until it forms a dough. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough until it is smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes, dusting with more flour as needed if dough sticks to work surface.
• Transfer dough to a lightly oiled large bowl and turn over to coat with oil. Cover with a kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let rise in a draft-free place at room temperature until doubled, 2 to 3 hours.
• Alternatively, after kneading, let dough rest at room temperature for 15 minutes, then transfer to oiled bowl as above, and let rise in the refrigerator overnight (12 hours or up to 2 days).
• Punch down dough and divide into quarters. Form each quarter into 4 balls. Roll each ball into a 12-inch-long rope. Cut each rope into six (2-inch) pieces, and transfer to wax paper-lined rimmed baking sheets.
• Bake Pretzels:
• Heat oven to 450°F with racks in upper and lower third. Well oil 2 large baking sheets (about 17- by 12- inches).
• In a 4- to 5-quart saucepan, bring water and baking soda to a boil (mixture will be foamy at first, but foam will dissipate). Add 12 pretzel bites and cook 30 seconds (they will rise to the surface almost immediately), then transfer with a slotted spoon to baking sheets. Quickly sprinkle pretzel bites lightly on both sides with pretzel salt before they dry (so salt sticks). Repeat with remaining pretzel bites, returning water to a boil between batches.
• Bake pretzel bites in oven, switching sheets between racks and rotating sheets halfway through baking, until deep chestnut brown, 8 to 10 minutes (watch closely toward end of baking; bites brown quickly in last few minutes). Immediately transfer pretzel bites to wire racks to cool.
• Make Cheddar Dip:
• Purée cheese with 6 tablespoons wine or water in a food processor fitted with knife blade, stopping and scraping down sides with a spatula occasionally, until mixture is creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Thin to desired consistency with additional wine or water, adding it 1 tablespoon at a time. Serve immediately, or chill, covered, and return to room temperature before serving.

CHEDDAR CHEESE PRETZEL BREAD

Steps:

• In a small skillet cook onion in butter til tender but not brown, 7 minutes. Cool.
• Mix together warm water yeast, 1 tbsp sugar, set aside to proof, about 10 minutes.
• In a food processer mix together flour, cooled onion, egg, cheese italian seasoning and 1/2 tsp salt.
• Add yeast and water mixture. Mix until forms a soft dough.
• Turn dough onto floured surface, knead 6-8 minutes.
• Shape into ball place in lightly greased bowl turn once to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm place for 1 1/4 hours.
• Punch down Turn out onto lightly floured surface and let rest for 10 minutes. This step is important. It makes the rope easier to work with.
• Lightly grease Baking sheet. Roll dough into a 48 inch long rope.
• On the baking sheet form the rope into a large pretzel shape by crossing one end over the other to form a circle, overlapping about 12 inches from each end.
• Take one end in each hand and twist once at the point where the dough overlaps.
• Lift each end across to the edge of the circle opposite.
• Moisten the ends and tuck underneath. press to seal.
• Cover and let rise in a warm place 45 minutes.
• Stir together egg white and 1 tbsp water, brush onto bread sprinkle with coarse salt.
• Bake in 375 oven for 20 minutes, then loosely cover with foil and continue baking another 20-25 minutes.
• Remove from oven cool on wire rack.
• I serve this bread with a packaged cheese sauce, for dipping or spreading.