Growing up in New York, I’ve eaten my fair share of bagels. I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten more bagels than any other food in all of the other food groups. It seems as if there is a shop or bakery selling bagels on almost every other street corner in New York City. Sometimes, when I’m really craving a bagel, I pretty much settle for the closest bagel shop to where I’m at. I’m always amazed by how great the bagels are no matter where I go in New York City. When I finally make my way to the bagel counter, I order either an onion bagel or an everything bagel and always with either vegetable cream cheese or scallion cream cheese. There was a period of time when I made the trek to the gym in Sheepshead Bay a couple times a week just so I can stop by Bagel Boy for an everything bagel with a thick layer of scallion cream cheese. Going to the gym gave me an excuse to indulge right after. When I moved away from New York, I missed New York style bagels dearly. The bagels wherever I went just did not have the same crispiness on the outside and chewiness on the inside like the bagels in New York City. Most of all, I miss being able to pick up an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese for breakfast and stroll through the streets of New York City right after. Yesterday, I was especially craving soft pretzels (another wonderful marvel offered on the street carts of New York City) and bagels and decided to combine my two cravings into everything pretzels with scallion cream cheese dip. I didn’t have everything bagel seasoning on hand, so I ended up making my own using some poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried minced onion, dried minced garlic, and kosher salt. When making the everything bagel seasoning, I combined equal parts of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, onion, and garlic, and about ¼ part of kosher salt. Once my everything bagel seasoning was ready, I got started on the pretzels. The dough for my pretzels is the same dough I use to make pizza. I prepared a double batch of my pizza dough in advance the evening before with the intention of making deep dish pizzas the next day. I saved about ¼ of the dough for a deep dish pizza (more on this on a later post) and used the rest to make a combination of pretzel twists and pretzel bites. With the remaining dough, I used ¾ of the dough to make pretzel twists and used the other ¼ to make pretzel bites. Before rolling out my pretzels, I prepared a baking soda bath for my pretzels to help them develop a crispy outer exterior (just like my favorite bagels). Once the rest of my pretzels were rolled into my desired shapes, I dropped them into the baking soda bath, topped the pretzels with a generous heaping of everything bagel seasoning, and finished the pretzels in the oven. As the pretzels were baking, I made some scallion cream cheese to dip my pretzels in. The pretzels turned out crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and just perfectly seasoned with everything bagel seasoning just like my favorite New York style everything bagel. Snacking on these pretzels transported me back to the days in New York City where I would enjoy a bagel and stroll through the streets of New York City. These pretzels should hold my cravings over until my next trip back to New York City.
For the everything bagel seasoning:
· 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
· 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
· 2 teaspoons dried minced onion
· 2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the pretzels:
· A double batch of my pizza dough recipe
· 4 cups of water
· 2 tablespoons baking soda
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:
1) Prepare the everything bagel seasoning by combining the poppy seeds, sesame seeds, onion, garlic, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
2) Roll out the pizza dough into a large oval on a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough into about 1-inch pieces for the pretzel twists and ½-inch pieces for the pretzel bites. To roll the pretzel twists, roll each piece of dough into long rods. Bring both ends of each rod toward the top. Twist twice and bring the two twisted ends towards the bottom of the loop. Press the two ends of the rods onto the loop at the bottom with about ¼ inch space between the ends of each rod. Repeat for the remaining pretzel twists. Set aside. For the pretzel bites, roll each of the ½-inch pieces into balls. Set aside.
3) Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
4) Heat a Dutch oven pot on medium heat. Add four cups of water into the pot. Once the water begins to boil, add the baking soda and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Add in the pretzel twists one or two at a time. Let the twists sit in the boiling baking soda bath for 1-2 minutes. Remove the twists from the baking soda bath. Cook the pretzel dough balls 6 pieces at a time. The dough balls will begin to float after several seconds. Let the dough balls sit in the boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the dough balls from the boiling baking soda bath.
5) Arrange the pretzel twists and dough balls on the parchment lined baking sheet. Top the pretzel twists and dough balls generously with the everything bagel seasoning.
6) Place the baking sheet into the preheated oven. Bake the pretzel twists and balls for 20-25 minutes, until the twists and balls develop a deep brown exterior. Remove the baking sheet from the oven.
7) To make the scallion cream cheese, follow my instructions here.
Takeaways: My everything pretzels are delicious on their own, but I love serving them with scallion cream cheese. The pretzels also go well with a cheese sauce. You can make my cheese sauce following the instructions here. You can also serve the pretzels with some honey mustard by combining two parts Dijon mustard with one part honey. Better yet, you can create a pretzel bar with different types of dips on the side.