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These Vegan Pretzel Bites are easy without the hassle of boiling in baking soda. Served with Spicy mustard dip for Gameday. Vegan Dairy-free Recipe.
So finally I am getting excited about the Superbowl. After some miserable games, Seahawks have got their act together and made it to the play offs. #gohawks! That means we will need some chips and dips and things for the games. Why is it that we always want to nibble on something during the game. Its like a 3 hour continuous eating thing.
So I decided to make some Pretzels! I made them a bit easier by eliminating the whole boil in baking soda solution thing. Just brush the solution on the bites! Baking soda wash and vegan egg wash = perfect crust. No standing in the kitchen trying to boil away hundreds of small pretzels!
Make these into sticks or whatever shape you want. The crust needs 2 washes. A Baking soda wash and a vegan egg wash for the gorgeous golden and shiny crust. I paired them with a simple mustard hot sauce cheesy cashew dip. You know you can add some beer to that dip right. Yuhmmy!
Since I am dabbling in eating gluten-free for a while, I made some glutenfree pretzels for me too. I did sneak in a few regular ones, like seriously, fresh bread sitting in front of me.
More Game day Snack ideas from the blog
Mango Sriracha Cauliflower Bites
Vegan Cashew Mozzarella Sticks! Baked or fried
Jalapeno Poppers
Chickpea Kabocha fries
Some Gluten-free Bread options already on the blog.
These pretzels and dip are somewhat easy
super addictive
and will disappear too soon
Steps:
Make the Pretzel dough.
Let it rise until doubled.
Pat it down into a thick rectangle. Use a pizza cutter to cut strips and then bites of the dough.
Place or parchment lined sheet. Brush with baking soda wash and then with cornstarch wash. sprinkle salt, bake.
Serve with spicy mustard dip.
Vegan Pretzel Bites with Spicy Mustard Dip
Ingredients
For The Pretzels
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 Tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 Tbsp coconut sugar, or other sugar
- 3 cups unbleached white flour, or all purpose flour + more for dusting
- 1/2-3/4 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp oil, or melted vegan butter
- 2 tsp coarse sea salt, or kosher salt, for sprinkling
For The Baking Soda Wash
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup boiling water
For The Cornstarch Vegan Egg Wash
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 cup water
For The Spicy Mustard Dip
- 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight
- 1/4 cup almond milk, plus more, if needed
- 1-2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2-4 tsp hot sauce
- 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- salt and pepper, if needed
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the warm water, yeast, and sugar. Mix and let sit until frothy, 5 minutes.
- In another bowl, combine flour and 3/4 tsp salt. Mix well. Add the flour mixture, oil, and yeast mixture to a stand mixture fitted with the hook attachment and knead into a soft, smooth dough. Or, add the yeast mixture to the flour, add the oil, and knead by hand for 4-6 minutes to make a smooth dough.
- Spray water on the dough, cover with a towel, and let it rise for 1 hour, or until doubled.
- Flatten the dough into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Cut up strips using a pizza cutter. (thinner, about 1/2 inch thick, for smaller pretzels). Roll the strips between your hands if they are uneven. Cut the strips into 1 inch bites. Place the bites on parchment lined baking sheet, at least 1/2 inch away from each other.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F / 220ºC. Make the baking soda wash: Add baking soda to boiling 1/2 cup of water, mix, and set aside.
- Brush the pretzels liberally with warm baking soda wash. Let them sit for 2 minutes. Then slice the tops using knife or kitchen scissors (optional). Meanwhile, make the cornstarch wash: Mix the cornstarch in 1/2 cup of water and heat the water over medium heat until it thickens into a sludge. Brush the pretzels with the warm cornstarch wash. Sprinkle granulated salt on the pretzels.
- Bake for 13 to 14 minutes, or until a nice golden brown color. Serve with the Spicy Mustard Dip
Spicy Mustard Dip
- Blend the cashews with almond milk until smooth. Add more almond milk, if needed. Add the Dijon mustard, hot sauce, and nutritional yeast. Blend, taste, and adjust seasonings. Serve!
Variations
- Add 1-2 Tbsp fresh dill to the Spicy Mustard Dip.
- Add 1 Tbsp Ranch seasoning mix to the Spicy Mustard Dip.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Just made them as evening snack with my vegan boys. They ate with marinara sauce. We really enjoyed eating them.
I made these for a dinner party and they were a big hit. No leftovers for sure. Crispy salty tasty – perfect. The sauce, on the other hand, was a fail. I tried it, messed with it a bit, and still wasn’t excited. Sadly nor were my guests. We used a chipotle vegannaise sauce I had made for another dish instead. But the pretzels – awesome.
Thanks for the recipe.
yay for the pretzels! maybe try a queso or marinara for dip? I am not sure why the sauce didn’t work :(. Its a usual mayo+mustard kind of dip with a bit of heat. You can use it to make egg salad sandwiches with tofu.
The recipe and texture, look of these cane out perfectly, but they don’t taste “pretzely” enough. I wonder if painting on more baking soda wash would have helped that?
It depends on what you are looking for. For the darker crust, more baking soda solution layer, or a quick blanch in a boiling water + baking soda (3 to 4 tbsp baking soda in a quart (4 cups of water) ideally would give a darker and thicker crust. For the chewyness, knead a few minuted longer for developing more gluten.
Tried again with the 5 minute wait mentioned between washes, they’re excellent, thank you!
Is it possible to achieve decent results if the cornstarch step is skipped? Or is is there an alternative to that step? I have a pretty severe corn allergy and even just a tiny bit of corn will set off issues.
Thanks!
Hi Hillary, you can use other starch as arrowroot or tapioca. You can skip the step, but it won’t have a the pretzel crust.
I actually made this recipe and it is BOMB! I brought it to a super bowl party and it disappeared early in the night. No one knew or even asked about it being vegan.
The corn starch and baking soda washes are absolute genius. My entire kitchen smelled like Auntie Anne’s and my omnivore roommates could barely wait for them to come out of the oven to try!
The only thing is the sauce could use a little work. It was an odd consistency so I had to play around with adding more flax milk, mustard, etc. I also added cayenne pepper to mine, along with turmeric to make it more yellow.
Honestly, I don’t see why these aren’t just served with mustard! Don’t get me wrong, I love blending cashews into everything, but for a party setting no one is going to know about the extra protein, money, and effort in the dip. Just use mustard lol.
yay for the pretzels! great idea with serving just the mustard. no work at all! 🙂
I was wondering if anyone had issues with these sticking to the parchment paper? Most of mine did. They still tasted good, but I had to cut the bottom off them to get the paper off.
mine never stick to the parchment. you can spray some oil on the paper before placing the pretzels, and also use less of the washes so they dont leak to the bottom too much. It also could be the parchment paper. some are not as good quality and things like yeasted bread stick to them.
I made these a couple weeks ago and they were so amazing I’m making them again tonight
Awesome!
If I make these in advance, what would be the best way to warm them?
I was just going to ask the same question, how to make them ahead of time and then store/reheat?
Wrap them in foil and bake for 3 to 5 minutes. If they tend to dry out too much, spray water on the pretzels then wrap in foil and bake.
Wrap them in foil and bake for 3 to 5 minutes. If they tend to dry out too much, spray water on the pretzels then wrap in foil and bake.
do you think the sugar could be reduced or subbed?
you can use maple syrup, date sugar or date paste, thickened fruit puree or any natural sugar instead. Or you can use a tbsp of flour during the first step. the taste will be affected then, the bread with be more bland as the sugar balances the salt.
So much fun to make, even though they were tedious little things! I made them for a super bowl party last year. Awesome recipe 🙂
Yes they definitely are some work, but a bit less than boiling them and then baking 🙂