Beer & Cheese. Cheese & Beer. No matter what order they come in, two of my favorite things come together in this recipe perfect for a chilly, rainy afternoon or a Sunday spent watching some football.
Pretzels with cheese dip have long been a favorite of mine. There is a beer garden down the street from where I live and they serve this massive pretzel (like feeds 4 people massive) with cheese dip. It is the perfect complement to a nice cold beer and frequently ordered for only 2 people. So when the mister was craving a pretzel and cheese the other day, the beer garden was an option until he said he was craving a beer cheese sauce. As he searched for a restaurant that had beer cheese sauce, a recipe that I saw a while back came to my mind. Glancing over it again I realized it wouldn’t take long to make and wouldn’t require us to drive 30 minutes across town to order beer cheese sauce. Even more exciting was that the mister told me he would go to the store and get the missing ingredients while I made the pretzel dough. Who could say no to that?!
The dough requires just a little kneading and about 1 1/2 hours of rising time before rolling out the pretzels. Forming the pretzels into their traditional shape requires a little trial and error but I found that rolling them a little longer and thinner than you expect helps for a better shape. I won’t lie, rolling out 5 pretzels was enough for me so I decided to make the remaining dough into bite size pieces. Turned out the pretzel bites were the perfect companion to the beer cheese dip, they were meant for dipping!
As for the beer part of the beer cheese dip you could probably use whatever your favorite beer is, as long as it’s not too dark of a beer. I would recommend a pale ale or IPA. We decided to use an IPA from one of our new favorite Colorado breweries (Odell’s brewery). It is delicious and frequently in our refrigerator.
While homemade pretzels may sound intimidating give this recipe a shot, I promise you will not be disappointed!
Soft Pretzels w/ Beer Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
PRETZELS
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons fine salt
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (more as needed)
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 2/3 cup baking soda
- 1 egg, beaten w/ 1 tablespoon water
- coarse sea salt
BEER CHEESE SAUCE
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 12 ounces beer
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce, optional
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the water, butter, yeast, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes, or until yeast begins to foam.
- Add the fine salt and the flours to the mixture. Mix with wooden spoon until flours are almost fully combined. Once combined, pour mixture onto lightly floured counter and knead dough for 5-6 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky and smooth. If too sticky add more flour until the dough is easy to handle.(* this recipe can also be made in a stand mixer with a dough hook).
- In a separate large bowl, drizzle canola oil on the bottom and sides. Add dough to bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and set aside in warm, draft free place to rise for 1-2 hours (dough should double in size).
- Once dough has risen, remove from bowl and transfer to a lightly floured work surface.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large pot, bring to boil 9 cups of water.
- While waiting for water to boil, form dough into pretzel shapes. This recipe makes 8 equal sized pretzels if you wanted to cut the dough into 8 equal pieces and form the dough from there. I did a mix of whole pretzels and pretzel bites, so my proportions weren't all equal. To form the pretzels, take a piece of dough about the size of 1/3 cup and roll into a very thin rope. Lay the rope horizontally in front of you and cross the right side over the left. Twist the ends to form a pretzel shape, pressing the ends into the bottom of the pretzel to seal. Repeat this for the rest of the dough. (See above for visuals). To make bite size pretzels roll 2 tablespoons of dough into balls.
- Once pretzels are formed, very slowly add baking soda to boiling water. One or two at a time, add pretzels to boiling water for 30-45 seconds. Remove pretzels from water with slotted spoon and add to prepared baking sheets. Repeat for rest of pretzels. If making bites do the same, adding 6-8 at a time to the water.
- Brush pretzels with prepared egg wash and sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt. Bake at 425 for 10-12 minutes or until pretzels are brown on top. If doing 2 pans at once switch sheet positions halfway through baking. Remove from oven and let cool.
- To to make the sauce, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Slowly whisk in flour and cook for 1-2 minutes, or when roux is a golden color. Slowly whisk in the beer and continue to cook, whisking frequently for 3-4 minutes. Next, add the milk, whisking to combine. Once the mixture reaches a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and let cook until at desired thickness. Stir in cayenne and hot sauce if using. Season with a dash of salt and pepper. Remove sauce from heat and whisk in cheese a half cup at a time. Making sure cheese is fully combined.
- Pour sauce into serving dish and serve immediately with pretzels!
