If you like soft pretzels, you'll absolutely love these Easy Pretzel Bites with Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip. The Pretzel Bites use ready-made refrigerated pizza dough and take no time to make. The Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip uses four simple ingredients to make an amazing dipping sauce for these tasty morsels. Together, the Easy Pretzel Bites and Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip are the perfect appetizer for any occasion.
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Quick Look at the Recipe
- Prep time: 15 minutes
- Cook time: 16 minutes
- Difficulty level: Easy
- Servings: 12 servings
- Perfect for: Game day, cookouts, casual parties, anytime you want a quick and easy appetizer.
About Pretzels:
Pretzels are generally thought to have originated in Europe during the early Middle Ages.
One theory is that monks took long strips of dough and twisted them into a 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 we know today were heavily influenced by German bakers in southern Bavaria.
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 strongly alkaline solution before baking. Typically, people mix lye or sodium hydroxide with water to make an alkaline solution.
For the home cook, however, baking soda is a ready substitute for lye. The alkaline solution reacts with the dough's sugars and proteins to create the distinctive flavor, chew, and color of pretzels.
You can read all about the chemistry of this reaction online.
How to Make Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip
- Ingredients: Four simple ingredients
- Combine and chill: Whisk together the honey, mustard, raspberry preserves, and mustard seeds. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. The dip will thicken a bit when refrigerated.
It's that easy!
How to Make the Easy Pretzel Bites
- Ingredients: For the pretzel bites, I used refrigerated pizza dough, water mixed with baking soda, an egg for the egg wash, and coarse sea salt.
- Form the pretzel bites: Start by placing the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface and pressing it into a rectangle about 14 by 6 inches. Cut the rectangle into three long pieces and roll each piece into a long rope. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces using a pizza cutter.
- Baking soda bath: Bring 8 cups of water to a boil in a Dutch oven, filling it about halfway. Carefully add the baking soda. Be careful here because the water will bubble up significantly.
- Add pretzel dough: Let the water return to a simmer, about 195°F. Add about a third of the dough pieces to the water. After 30 seconds, remove the Pretzel Bites from the liquid with a wire strainer. Allow them to drain and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving room between them to allow for expansion. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Egg wash/salt: Brush the pretzel bites with egg wash (an egg whisked with a tablespoon of water), and lightly sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
- Bake: Bake the pretzel bites in a preheated 400°F oven for about 15 minutes, until they are a deep mahogany color. Baking soda enhances the Maillard reaction, creating this characteristic browning. Remove the Pretzel Bites from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool a slightly before serving.
Serve the warm Easy Pretzel Bites with the Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip for an amazing appetizer that's perfect for game day, cookouts, and anytime get-togethers. Yum!
PudgeFactor's Test Kitchen Tips
- The original version of these pretzel bites used refrigerated French bread dough, which is no longer readily available. I retested the recipe using Pillsbury Classic Pizza Crust and found it to be an excellent substitute. I also increased the baking soda in the pretzel bath from ⅓ cup to ½ cup for 8 cups of water. The stronger baking soda solution produced the deep golden-brown color and distinctive pretzel flavor I wanted.
- The pizza dough was easy to shape and produced tender, chewy pretzel bites that paired beautifully with the sweet-and-tangy raspberry honey mustard dip.
- When you remove the pretzel bites from the baking soda/water bath, they will be quite sticky. So, line your baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Think about flour and water mixed into a paste, and hopefully this will make sense!
In Case You Were Wondering
Yes. Another refrigerated pizza dough should work, although thickness and baking time may vary slightly. I used Pillsbury Classic Pizza Crust for the tested recipe.
The addition of baking soda to the water produces an alkaline solution that gives the bites their characteristic pretzel flavor, chewy exterior, and deep brown color.
No, but use a nonreactive pan such as stainless steel or enameled cast iron. Avoid aluminum because the alkaline baking-soda solution can react with it.
Yes. In fact, you can make the dip several hours or even a day ahead and refrigerate it. It will thicken somewhat as it chills.
Kosher salt will work, but I prefer coarse sea salt because it gives the pretzel bites a more traditional appearance and better little bursts of salt.
More Easy Bite-Sized Appetizers to Try
If you love easy, bite-sized appetizers like these pretzel bites, try these other crowd-pleasing recipes that are perfect for parties, game day, and casual entertaining.
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Easy Pretzel Bites with Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip
Equipment
- Dutch oven or large non-reactive pan the
- Spider strainer
- half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat
Ingredients
Raspberry Honey Mustard Dip
- ½ cup (5.5 ounces, 156 grams) spicy brown mustard (See Tip 1)
- ½ cup (6 ounces, 170 grams) honey
- 3 Tablespoons Raspberry preserves(See Tip 2)
- 1 Tablespoon (0.4 ounces, 11 grams) whole mustard seeds
Easy Pretzel Bites
- 8 cups (64 ounces) water
- ½ cup (4.8 ounces, 136 grams) baking soda
- 13.8 ounce tube refrigerated pizza dough (See Tip 3)
- Egg wash made by combining 1 egg and 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt (See Tip 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 Tip 5)
- Yield: 1 ¼ cups.
Pizza Bites
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat or parchment paper. 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 the baking soda dissolves. Reduce the heat to medium-low, to 190°F-195°F.
- Place the unrolled pizza dough on a floured surface, pressing 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.
Video
Tips/Notes
- May use Dijon mustard in place of spicy brown mustard.
- May use Raspberry jam in place of Raspberry preserves. I've made this with both seedless and regular preserves/jam and didn't detect a material difference.
- I used refrigerated Pillsbury Classic Pizza Crust, found in the same location in your grocery store as the canned biscuits, crescent rolls, etc. When I first made this recipe, I use refrigerated French bread dough, which is no longer available.
- I used Cerulean Seas Coarse Sea Salt. 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