Superbowl Snack Must Have

I'm not a huge sports fan. I generally don't watch sports very often, except for the four years at Penn State where I was at almost every home game. I know for a lot of non-sports people the super bowl is the one time of year they make sure they watch (if only for the commercials). I didn't even used to do that. In fact, when I was in Girl Scouts we used to go on a ski trip on Superbowl Sunday. So no superbowls for me, unless the Steelers are playing. To me it's really only fun if you really want one of the teams to win. That being said, I'll be watching this year as my boyfriend is a Giants fan. He's having a few of our friends over and I will be routing for the Giants to win. What I am most excited for though is the food! We're still talking about what to have but we know for sure that Ryan is making some delicious wings (we tested them out last night, yum!), and I'll be making brownies, and Pizza Pretzel Bites.

I stumbled across Pizza Pretzel Bites at Two Peas and Their Pod a few months ago and made them for a fun dinner one night and since then have been hooked! They are delicious and my favorite thing, easy. I could rave about how good they are, but here's something better: I made them for my cousin's birthday party last Friday and forgot to take a picture before I put them out. As soon as I remember I grabbed a picture. There were about 50 pizza pretzel bites and 7 people at the party, less than an hour into it here's what was left (we also had nachos, popcorn chicken, and drinks.... lots of drinks)



Whatever you are serving for the Superbowl, you should really think about adding these to the menu!

<3 Pizza Pretzel Bites <3

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 package active dry yeast
3 ounces unsalted butter, melted (the recipie called for unsalted but I used salted once and didn't notice a difference)
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
Canola oil
Pepperoni slices, cut into small pieces (I ripped them into quarters)
Mozarella Cheese, cut into pieces (I found a block works better than shredded)
5 quarts water
3/4 cup baking soda
1 whole egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
Coarse sea salt
Pizza sauce-for serving

Directions:
1. Combine the water, sugar, yeast, and butter in a bowl and mix until it just combined. Let that sit for 5 minutes. If you have a stand mixer or dough hook use that to mix this dough up.

2. Add the salt and flour (4 1/2 cups) and mix on low speed until combined. If you don't have a dough hook turn it out on a lightly floured surface and knead for five minutes, adding flour if it's needed. The dough will be a little sticky, but should be easy to work with. If you have a dough hook on your stand or hand mixer just turn the speed up to medium and let the mixer do the work (3-4 minutes), until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the side of the bowl. Remove the dough from the bowl, place on a flat surface and knead into a ball with your hands.

3. Oil a bowl with canola oil, add the dough and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm spot until the dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Bring the water to a boil in a large pot over high heat and carefully add the baking soda (it will bubly up like crazy!).

5. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface. Grab a piece of dough and wrap around some chopped up cheese and peperoni. The size is up to you, mine were about an inch long. Make sure the ends are pinched tight so the cheese doesn't escape while baking. Set bites on a baking sheet and continue until all pretzel bites are stuffed.

6. Boil the pretzel bites in the water solution in batches. I did about 6-10 bites at a time. Boil for about 30 seconds. Remove with a large slotted spoon. Place pretzel bites on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or a Silpat. Make sure they are not touching (they will spread!). Brush the tops with the egg wash and season liberally with the salt. Place into the oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown.

7. Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes. Serve warm with pizza sauce.

if this sounds like a lot to be doing game day you can make them up ahead of time. After you stuff the bites place the tray you placed them on in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Once they're a little frozen you can chuck them in a ziplock bag and store it in the freezer till game day. The day of the game just take them out of the bag and boil them, spread the egg wash on them, add salt and bake. That's how I have made them every time, and they taste delicious.

Hopefully you'll give these a try, if not for the superbowl, for another occasion soon. And who ever you are routing for, enjoy the game! And the food!