Orange Cinnamon Roll Pretzel Bites

 While walking through a crowded Houston airport anticipating a 3-hour layover between flights, I felt a hunger pain. I realized it had been over eleven hours since my last meal and I had a long way to go before I could make it home. Right about the time of the growl, I walked past a very popular soft pretzel restaurant chain that had married its pretzels with a very popular cinnamon roll franchise.  I found this to be a brilliant move on the part of the pretzel company, as they had many savoury bread offerings and the cinnamon bun company had a national following of avid bun grabbers...err...roll eaters. "Bun grabbers" sounds inappropriate. Looking at the menu I found some cinnamon pretzel bites that sounded promising.  Though they were pretty delicious served warm, as soon as they cooled down a bit, they became really chewy. I thought to myself, as I often do...,"I bet I can make these better and cheaper at home....and give them a heck-of-a-lot more awesomeness in the flavour universe!"

A few months ago, I ordered this Wild Groves Blood Orange Olive Oil and instantly fell in love with the rich buttery flavour with remarkable orange notes. It was and is the perfect pairing for sweet pastries. Full disclosure, I loved it so much that I wrote an email to the owner of the company.  He generously sent me several more bottles of some of the finest olive oils on his website, including the Wild Groves Robust Blend Extra Virgin Olive Oil (that recently won one of the most prestigious rewards in the country at the LA International EVOO Competition). It won Best in Show Northern Hemisphere in the domestics category! Woot! Way to go!

Anyway, I used the orange olive oil on my pretzel bites. It was a huge, sinful, blessed mistake. If something sinful can be blessed? Can it? Not sure.  I just know that the mistake is that they are freakishly addictive! Evil. Evil. Evil. Gooooooooood.

Enters...the Orange Cinnamon Roll Pretzel Bits of glory and honour. 

These little nuggets of love have all the flavour of an orange infused cinnamon roll without having to zest any oranges or make any cream cheese frosting. The dough is soft and slightly chewy, like a pretzel and made in the same way that most deli-style pretzels are made.  For an authentic pretzel flavour, I use an alkaline solution of baking soda and water. To save on the mess...I don't dip the dough into the solution. Instead, I lightly brush the pretzel ropes in the solution. To save time, instead of rolling the pretzel dough into a knot, they are cut into 1-inch bites. They're perfect for snacking, travelling, and enjoying warm or cool.

Orange Cinnamon Roll Pretzel Bites

1 1/2 cup Milk

1 Tbsp. Active Dry Yeast

1/4  cup Sugar

1/4 cup Wild Groves Blood Orange Olive Oil

4 Cups Organic Grains Bread Flour

2 tsp salt, fine 

1/3 cup baking soda

Cinnamon Sugar Mixture

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. Cinnamon or Chef Tess Wise Woman of the East Blend

1/4 cup Wild Groves Blood Orange Olive Oil

Directions: Combine the milk, yeast, sugar, Olive oil, bread flour and salt. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic on a lightly floured surface, about 5 minutes. Shape into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and grease a large baking sheet. Punch the dough to deflate it, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. If the dough seems tight, cover and let rest until it relaxes. Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into an 18-inch rope, holding the ends and slapping the middle of the rope on the counter as you stretch. Form each rope into a long snake on a parchment lined baking pan one inch apart. 

Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups warm water in a shallow baking dish. Gently dip a pastry brush in the baking soda solution and paint each pretzel. Allow to dry slightly and "paint" again.  Cut the ropes into 1/2 inch segments using a pizza cutter/roller. Bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. 

Combine the cinnamon sugar mixture in a small bowl. 

Lightly brush the pretzel bites with the Wild Groves Blood Orange Olive Oil. 

Sprinkle generously with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Roll the parchment paper up and turn over the pretzels into a pile. 

Drizzle with additional orange infused oil and cinnamon sugar if desired.

 Serve warm. Serve them anywhere anytime. You'll be freakin' happy! 

There you go.

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

Homemade Soft Sweet-n-Salty Whole Grain-n-seed Pretzels

It's Tutorial Tuesday!

Have you ever wondered how to make homemade pretzels? How about heart shaped ones?! We love them here. Soft Chocolate Pretzels were the featured Valentine's Day project last year. This year I'm going all whole grain all the way.  This recipe has been a blessing. Seriously. They're a great grab-n-go snack for kids after school and for me on the run for work. We especially love them when they're sprinkled with a little sugar and salt. It's a sweet-n-salty soft-n-chewy flavoragious Tessalicious treat. Seriously, the biggest complaint I hear from people starting out with whole grain is the dough being dry. These are not that dough. They raise nicely and have awesome flavor. If you're looking for a vegan  whole wheat soft pretzel look here. If you want the multi-grain, just don't use the egg wash.  I'm doing these ones the traditional way, because they taste amazing! If you've never  taken the pretzels for a dip in a boiling water bath, you'll notice the difference in taste. I use baking soda in the water and it completely changes the flavor...in a good, very traditional way.  I don't know why I haven't shared this traditional method on the blog before today,especially with all the pretzel recipes I've shared over the years.

Chef Tess' Homemade Soft Sweet-n-Salty 
Whole Grain-n-seed Pretzels


2 cups warm water, (no hotter than 110 degrees)
1 T sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1T active dry yeast (one package)
22 oz (4 1/2 cups) Mountain Mills Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 cup  Teff
2T sesame seeds
2T Flax Seeds
2 tsp salt


Prep equipment:
parchment paper
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk
Pretzel salt or Kosher salt
Crystal cake decorating sugar (Any color! Be creative)


Directions: Combine the water, sugar oil and yeast in a small bowl. In a one gallon bowl combine the flour, teff, seeds and salt. Knead 5 minutes by hand or 4 minutes by machine. 

Form dough into a ball and place in a gallon size bucket or bowl with a lid. Allow to raise 1 hour (until your finger inserted in the dough leaves a hole.)

Preheat oven 450 degrees.  Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with vegetable oil. Set aside. Bring 10 cups of water with the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8 quart 14 inch deep skillet.

The finished dough will weigh about 41 oz. Give or take. 

Divide the dough into 8 portions for large pretzels. Fold each into a rectangle. 

Roll tightly using your magical skilled nimble-fingers...and pinch as you go. Roll into a 24 inch strand of dough. 

If you want to see the tutorial on how to make them into pretzels go here.  Place the pretzels on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Raise 15 minutes. 

To make them heart shaped...Pinch them at the base...like this...

Place in boiling water for 30 seconds or so. Really that's not too long. It's just long enough. 
I use a large slotted spatula to remove them from the water and drain well. Place the moistened pretzels back on the cookie sheets, 4 to a tray. 

Whisk the egg yolk with a teaspoon of water and whisk well. With a pastry brush, carefully paint the tops of the pretzels with the egg yolk mixture. Then...we sprinkle ours with some colored sugar and kosher sea salt. Don't feel like you have to use the colored stuff...I just think it looks really fun!

I know it's pretty.  It's like a movie-star getting ready to dance. Boom-chicka-waa-waaa...(I digress).

Transfer trays to your 450 degree oven and bake 15-17 minutes.  Dip in nutella or Chocolate Fudge Honey sauce aka Chocolate Buzz.

There you go! Make some fabulous happy-heart pretzels! Valentine's day is coming and I know what I'm making!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Chocolate Pretzels of Love

It's not a chocolate dipped cracker pretzel. It's a soft sweet bread studded with chocolate...or well...dipped in chocolate and covered in toasted coconut.

However it gets eaten, it's our special Valentine treat today. It's also "I love you Arizona" AKA Arizona Statehood Day...and well...the day before my youngest son Face turns eight years old. So...it seemed right when his class at school is having "Restaurant day" (Yes, it's on top of the Valentine exchange---Yes his teacher is amazing.) for the chef-mom to send in something fun. This is what he calls, "a perk" for being my kid. I call it a "thank you" to the Lord for sending him into my life.

Here's how I did it. I used my recipe for chocolate bread and made some pretzels instead of baguettes today. Fast and easy when I made the dough last night and put it in the fridge until I was ready to make the pretzels this morning.

There you go. Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Arizona Day! Happy Daggumit-I-Need-Chocolate Day!

Vegan Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels

I wanted a light and healthy "grab and go" snack that was satisfying and something my kids would eat. Imagine my joy in making homemade pretzels that satisfied both the need for good food and convenience! These are a quick bread. Not something I normally do with my yeast raised breads. They have no added sugar or fat. A very basic recipe. It is possible to make pretzels from the 5 day bread dough (the nutritional values will change because that recipe has added fat and sugar etc.--and they won't be vegan). Made with the overnight started bread , they would still be vegan and have outstanding flavor. Today I just wanted to whip something up really fast and had not thought ahead on the dough.

Vegan Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels

3 cups whole wheat bread flour

2 tsp active dry yeast (or one envelope)

1 tsp salt

2T cornmeal

1 1/4 cup lukewarm water ( may need more depending on how dry your storage is...I used 1 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup sprouted wheat berries (optional...but they look really cool and add some texture)

Put water in a 2 quart mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast over the water and allow to proof about 5 minutes. Add flour and salt and sprouted wheat (if you use it). Knead 3-5 minutes until a smooth dough is achieved. Allow dough to rest 5-10 minutes and then divide into 6 balls of dough...

I added 1/4 cup of sprouted wheat to the dough so there are a few stray wheat kernels there.

Take one of the balls of dough and separate it from it's friends. They are a bad influence on it anyway. Lightly coat your counter top with some of the cornmeal. This will help the dough not to stick, but also add a distinctive crunchy shell to the pretzels. It's a very nice touch. Though I personally really like the crunchy shell on M&M's...this will have to do.

Roll the dough out into a long snake. All those years of play dough as a kid will now be paying off!

To form pretzels:

First, play horse shoes...

Then think of breast cancer awareness...

Then get twisted...

Then flip the curls down...

Poke the dough strands down really hard to the bottom curve of the pretzel so it stays in place. I also stick my fingers in the twist and spread out the dough a bit so the spaces are bigger...

Repeat 6 times and place on a stoneware bar pan, lightly coated with cornmeal. Mist the tops of the pretzels with water. Allow pretzels to raise about 40-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Your pretzels should be really fluffy by now. Lightly mist with water again (or use an egg white spread on lightly with a pastry brush if you don't care if they are vegan or not).

I used some Kosher salt...a good fat pinch.

Sprinkle generously on pretzels. If you don't want salted pretzels try: cinnamon sugar, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, black pepper, herbs, all purpose seasoning (Italian is awesome!)...get the idea? Make them any flavor you want. If you eat cheese...by all means, try some Parmesan or asiago.

Once puffy and salted up (which in my twisted world, I get puffy because I'm salted up...really I retain water like crazy!). Salt on pretzels doesn't make you puffy. I refuse to believe it. It just tastes too good!

Bake 20-25 minutes.
See the cracked pepper on this one? Awesome huh?

There you go. A whole grain snack. I'm not a vegan so I had them with some low fat cream cheese. It was amazing. Cheap, healthy, tasty, and fun. It's the perfect diversion. You really ought to try them.

Weight Watchers?...4 points a pretzel (1 point more for WW cream cheese).