Auntie Anne's Pretzel Bites- Copy Cat Recipe

July 13, 2017

Auntie Anne's Pretzel Bites- Copy Cat Recipe

The girls and I did some baking last week on a rainy summer day (last Thursday). Baking on a rainy day just seems right somehow. It's not like my kids spend copious amounts of time outside such that a rainy day requires finding something to do inside; for me it's the knowledge that you can't really spend time outside (regardless of whether you would have or not had it not been raining). Actually, Jacob did spend some time outside in the rain. He had soccer training (until some thunder was heard) Thursday morning in the rain.

Alyssa wanted to make peanut butter chocolate no bake bars so we were going to do that. Then I realized that I'd used all of my powered sugar on icing for Bev's birthday cake. One cannot make peanut butter chocolate no bake bars without powered sugar so that option was gone.

I suggested that we make pretzel bites- ones alleged to taste like the pretzel bites from Auntie Anne's. Alyssa was excited at the prospect of experiencing the taste of Auntie Anne's while I was secretly worried that the pretzel bites wouldn't turn out and/ or wouldn't taste like Auntie Anne's. Happy to report that my fears were for naught- the bites that came out of our oven were not an ersatz treat; these were spot on Auntie Anne's. If we closed our eyes as we took a bite, we would be transported to the spot in our local mall that houses Auntie Anne's. Or transported to the Auntie Anne's at Kings Island which is the last place that we had pretzel bites. But we had the privilege to be eating these bites in the comfort of our flour dusted kitchen (truly the only negative about making this recipe, or any recipe with flour/ kneading/ shaping of dough is the mess that you'll have to contend with upon completion of the baking).

For the most part, I used one recipe that I found online but I read a couple of other ones. I made a couple of modifications to the main recipe that I used, that, in my opinion, turned these into exact Auntie Anne's pretzel bites.

Here is the site for the main recipe that I used:

http://www.midgetmomma.com/homemade-pretzels/

I also incorporated some of this recipe into it:

http://www.thegunnysack.com/auntie-annes-inspired-soft-pretzel/

I also consulted the website of a company that contains the best baking information/ recipes/ whathaveyou pertaining to baking- King Arthur Flour

Here is the recipe that I used (adapted slightly from the Midget Momma blog)

For the pretzel bites:

2 cups milk
1 1/2 tablespoons (2 packets) active dry yeast
6 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
5 to 5 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt

For the baking soda "bath" the bites will go into prior to being baked:

1/4 cup baking soda
2 cups warm water

For after the baking soda bath and prior to being baked:

salt (coarse salt)

For after the pretzel bites are baked and out of the oven:

6 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

Warm up the milk in the microwave for just about one and a half minutes to get the milk to appr. 110 degrees.
Stir in the yeast and one tablespoon of the brown sugar and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a large bowl.
Add the butter and remaining sugar.
Add the flour about 1 cup at a time and the add the salt.
Knead for about 10 minutes with a stand mixer or by hand.
Put the dough in a greased bowl and cover.
Let rise for 1 hour in a moist, warm place until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 425º.
Punch down dough and divide into 12-14 lumps.
Roll each piece with your hands to form a thin rope.
Combine the warm water and baking soda in a wide bowl.
Cut the dough into 1 1/2″ pieces, then dip in the baking soda water. Keep the dough pieces in the baking soda water for about 10 minutes.
Place on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt.
Bake for about 6-10 minutes or until browned.
Brush (I used a pastry brush) each homemade pretzel in the melted butter while hot.

The recipes that I read mentioned specific types of salt to use. I just used regular salt for the dough. I used sea salt as the coarse salt in the step right before the bites are put into the oven just because it's the only salt I had on hand that was different than regular table salt.

Both recipes that I read indicated that the baked bites should be dipped into butter. I like butter as much as the next person, but dipping the bites into butter seemed a bit much for me. I found that brushing the bites with butter worked (and tasted) fine. I used less butter than the original recipe called since I didn't melt each bite into butter.

The biggest deviation that I made was to soak the bites in the baking soda water (the bites' "bath" if you will) for close to ten minutes rather than just dipping the bites into the baking soda water as both of the recipes for bites that I read said to do. For the first batch that went into the oven, I did just dip the bites into the baking soda water and then placed the bites onto the baking pan. As soon as the first batch was in the oven, I placed about a dozen dough bites into the baking soda water. Those dough bites (the second batch) stayed in the baking soda water until the first batch came out of the oven and I'd removed them from the baking sheet. When the first batch came out of the oven, the bites tasted good and pretty close to Auntie Anne's bites. However, the second batch, the one where the bites stayed in the baking soda water for close to ten minutes, tasted much more like Auntie Anne's. The only difference between the two batches was the amount of time the dough was immersed in the baking soda water. For each subsequent batch, I immersed the dough bites into the baking soda water for around ten minutes and each batch tasted very much like Auntie Anne's pretzel bites.

Since I had no idea how this recipe was going to turn out, I had no reason to take pictures from the get go. The only reason that I took the picture on the left was to gauge the size of the dough before I left it out to rise. I took the picture on the right after almost an hour. Yep, the dough rose :). Whenever I make yeast based recipes, I take pictures of the "before" and "after" rising process to ensure that my dough has, in fact, risen and roughly risen to twice its original size.