Pretzones

There's a booth at the South Bend Farmers' Market that sells delicious pretzels and pretzel rolls. The pretzel rolls are pretzel dough wrapped around ham and cheese, pizza toppings, or hot dogs. The ham and pizza versions are like pretzel-calzones, hence "pretzones." For lunch today Paul and I split one, and it was so good that I made the same thing at home for dinner. My replication turned out really, really well--Paul said it was better than the one this afternoon!

I can see all sorts of uses for this basic concept in the future. There are so many filling combinations I want to try, and I think mini versions would be adorable party snacks.
I started with a pretzel recipe I found here:

2-3 cups flour (bread or AP -- I used bread)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm milk (~110 degrees--I microwaved it for 1 minute)

Combine all in a bowl and mix together until the dough forms a ball. Start with 2 cups of flour and add more as needed for dough to become stiff enough to knead.

Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes until it begins to get smooth.

Let the dough sit to rise, loosely covered, for an hour.

When dough has finished rising, preheat oven to 425 degrees.

(From here, you can either roll/shape into six traditional pretzels, or follow the below directions for pretzones.)
Cut the dough in half. Roll/stretch each half into a rectangle--mine were roughly 5"x7".

Top rectangles with filling of choice. I used ham and monterey jack. I tore the ham into bite-size pieces, laid down one layer of ham, thin slices of cheese, and then another layer of ham.

Form roll by bringing the long sides together in the middle. Overlap slightly and press to keep shut. Pinch short edges together and fold to the same side as seam. Place seam-side-down on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Dissolve a bit of baking soda in some water and brush on the pretzones. The baking soda helps develop a really nice crust. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt.

Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.I served this ham and cheese version with dijon mustard. So good!