If you like soft pretzels, you’ll absolutely love these Easy Pretzel Bites with Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip. The Pretzel Bites themselves use ready-made refrigerated French bread dough and take no time at all to make. The Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip uses four simple ingredients and produces an amazing dipping sauce to accompany these tasty morsels. Together, the Easy Pretzel Bites and Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip are the perfect appetizer for any occasion.
Ingredients for Easy Pretzel Bites with Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip:
For the Pretzel Bites, I used refrigerated French bread dough, baking soda mixed with boiling water, and coarse sea salt. As an aside, I also used a simple egg wash to enhance the appearance of the Pretzel Bites and help the salt to stick.
For the Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip, I used spicy brown mustard, honey, seedless raspberry jam, and whole mustard seeds. Seriously, this is all it takes!
About Pretzels:
It is generally thought that pretzels originated in Europe during the early Middle Ages.
One theory is that monks took long strips of dough and fashioned them into a type of twisted knot to reward children for learning their prayers.
Another theory is that the pretzel was produced with just flour and water to be eaten during Lent, with the knot shape representing hands in prayer.
The theories go on and on. However, the pretzels that we know today were heavily influenced by German bakers in the southern Bavarian region.
In the late 18th century, immigrants from southern Germany brought the pretzel to the United States. These immigrants, known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, opened handmade pretzel bakeries in Pennsylvania. In no time, the popularity of the soft pretzel spread to other areas of the United States.
A distinctive characteristic of the Bavarian pretzel is that it is dipped in a strong alkaline solution before being baked. Typically, lye or sodium hydroxide is mixed with water to produce an alkaline solution.
For the home cook, however, baking soda is a ready substitute for lye. The alkaline solution reacts with the sugars and proteins in the dough to create the distinctive flavor, chew, and color of pretzels.
You can read all about the chemistry of this reaction online.
Making the Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip:
To make the Raspberry Honey Mustard dip, I whisked together the spicy brown mustard, honey, raspberry jam, and mustard seeds until everything was combined. That’s it!
Once I had mixed the ingredients, I put the dip in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it. The dip tends to get a bit thicker after its been refrigerated..
Making the Pretzel Bites:
I started by opening the French bread dough and placing it on a floured piece of parchment paper. Rather than try to unroll the French bread dough, I merely rolled it into a rectangle that was roughly 14 inches by 6 inches.
Then, I cut the rectangle into three long pieces.
Next, I took each of the pieces and formed it into a long rope by pinching the sides together.
Finally, I cut each of the ropes into 1-inch pieces using my pizza cutter.
Once I had formed the Pretzel Bites from the dough, I filled my Dutch oven halfway with water and brought it to a boil. I could have used another type of pan, but I needed to make sure that the pan would not react with the baking soda.
Once the water was boiling, I added the baking soda. I had to be careful here because the addition of the baking soda caused the water to bubble up significantly.
I let the water/baking soda solution return to a simmer and added one-third of the dough pieces to it.
After 30 seconds, I removed Pretzel Bites from the liquid with a wire strainer, allowed them to drain, and transferred them to a silicone-lined baking sheet.
I repeated this with the remaining dough.
It’s important here to either use a silicone-lined baking sheet or a well-oiled parchment paper-lined baking sheet. The reason is that the Pretzel Bites are quite sticky when they come out of the baking soda solution. Think about flour and water used as a paste, and hopefully, this will make sense!
Anyway, I made sure to leave some room between the Pretzel Bites because they would expand a bit more when put in the oven. Before baking the Pretzel Bites, I brushed them with an egg wash, and sprinkled on some coarse sea salt. You could use Kosher salt here, but the coarse sea salt actually works better.
I popped the Pretzel Bites into a preheated 400°F oven for about 15 minutes until they were a deep mahogany color. It’s the baking soda that enhances the Maillard reaction to create this characteristic browning.
I removed the Pretzel Bites from the oven and transferred them to a wire rack to cool a bit. The Pretzel Bites are actually best served warm.
I served the warm Easy Pretzel Bites with the amazing Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip. Yum!
Other Delicious Appetizers
If you liked this recipe, you’ll love these appetizers.
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Easy Pretzel Bites with Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip
Ingredients
Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip
- ½ cup spicy brown mustard (See Note 1)
- ½ cup honey
- 3 Tablespoons seedless Raspberry jam (See Note 2)
- 1 Tablespoon whole mustard seeds
Easy Pretzel Bites
- 8 cups water
- ⅓ cup baking soda
- 11 ounce tube refrigerated French bread dough (See Note 3)
- Egg wash made by combining 1 egg and 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt (See Note 4)
Instructions
Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip
- Whisk together the spicy brown mustard, honey, raspberry jam, and whole mustard seeds. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. (See Note 5)
- Yield: 1 ¼ cups.
Pizza Bites
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. If using parchment paper, spray it well with vegetable spray. Set aside.
- Add water to a large, non-reactive pan, ensuring it only fills halfway. Bring to a boil. (See Note 6)
- Carefully add baking soda. Once the foaming subsides, stir to ensure all the baking soda is dissolved. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Open the French bread tube and place the unrolled dough on a floured surface. Roll out to approximately 14 inches by 6 inches. Cut into three equal lengths.
- Pinch together the long sides of each length of dough to form a rope. Cut into 1-inch pieces.
- Carefully add ⅓ of the pretzel bite dough pieces to the simmering baking soda solution for 30 seconds. Remove from the liquid with a wire strainer or slotted spoon. Allow to drain for 1 minute; transfer to the prepared baking sheet, leaving about ¾-inch between pieces. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces.
- Brush with egg wash, and sprinkle with salt.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 16 minutes or until a deep mahogany brown. Cool slightly on a wire rack.
- Serve warm with Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip.
- Yield: 12 servings.
Tips/Notes
- May use Dijon mustard in place of spicy brown mustard.
- May use Raspberry preserves in place of Raspberry jam.
- The refrigerated French bread dough can be found in the same location in your grocery store as the canned biscuits, crescent rolls, etc. You can use any white bread or pizza dough instead of the refrigerated French bread dough.
- Kosher salt may be used in place of coarse sea salt. However, the coarse sea salt really works better.
- This amazing dip will thicken somewhat when refrigerated.
- When the baking soda is added to the boiling water, it foams up significantly. Therefore only fill the pan half-way. Otherwise, it’s likely to boil over when you add the baking soda.
Katherine Monaghan says
Can this dip be canned/preserved? If so what are the canning instructions. Thank you.
Chula King says
Hi Katherine,
I’m afraid that I haven’t tried canning the sauce. However, I don’t see why it couldn’t be treated in the same way as making jam. That is, place it in a sterilized mason jar, seal the jar and submerge the jar in boiling water for 10 minutes. This is the technique that I use when I can jam.
Chula