Giant Cheese Stuffed Pretzel

It is baseball season, and one of the things I always think about for ballpark food (other then hot dogs) is a hot soft pretzel with cheese.  I am not the only one in my family who LOVES pretzels, this has rubbed off on my daughter as well.  I think we eat one hot soft pretzel a week (I am not even joking).

I love new recipes, and I subscribe to many different food newsletters, so I get new recipes coming in on a daily basis.  This one happened to come across my inbox last weekend, and I showed my daughter, and she said "Let's do this, TODAY!"  So we went to the store and got the ingredients.  What a great treat for a Saturday/Sunday afternoon snack, or a perfect addition to a parties appetizer spread.  This is super easy, so easy in fact, that I made two of them.  Victoria, my daughter, doesn't particularly like jalapenos, so I made one with and of course, one without.

After making this, I don't think I could buy a store bought one again.  So give your seventh inning a stretch, and get in the kitchen and make you one of these delicious cheese stuffed pretzels!

Recipe courtesy of the Food Network - https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/giant-cheese-stuffed-pretzel-4609024


Ingredients: Yieds 6-8 Servings
Parchment Paper for baking sheet
2 13.8 ounce tubes of refrigerated pizza dough (I used Pillsbury)
12 slices of American Cheese
12 pickled jalapenos, chopped about 1/4 cup
1 Tbls baking soda
2 Tbls unsalted butter, melted
Pretzel Salt for topping (I used Margarita Salt)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Unroll the sheets of pizza dough and stack them on top of one another.
4. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to a 36 by 5 inch plank.
5. Lay the cheese down the length of the plank of dough, overlapping.
6. Sprinkle a line of jalapenos down the center of the cheese.
7. Fold the dough in half lengthwise and pinch the edges together to make sure the filling stays in the dough.
8. Roll and stretch the dough with your hands to make a 5 ft. rope.
9. Form the rope into a giant pretzel shape and place on the prepared baking sheet.
10. Bake until the dough is almost completely done, golden brown on top - mine was done in 30 minutes exactly.
11. Remove from oven.
12. Dissolve baking soda in 1/2 cup hot water.
13. Brush the pretzel all over with the soda water and place back in the oven.
14. Bake for another 10 minutes more until the pretzels come out a dark golden brown and crisp.
15. Remove from oven and brush with the butter and sprinkle with salt.
16. Let cool 5 minutes and then cut into it like a pie!
17. ENJOY!