Pimento-Stuffed Pretzels

I've gotta admit, Pimento Cheese is hands down my favorite food I've discovered since moving to Kentucky. It's perfectly creamy with the added bonus cheese chunks and pepper pieces. I could legitimately live off of Pimento.

If you haven't seen, The Mousetrap is currently running a Pimento Cheese Challenge to create a new recipe with their cheese! Of course I couldn't pass up on entering that, so here's my creating mixing the best two foods to exist: Pimento cheese and pretzels.

First off, let's talk ingredients:
I had a friend raving about rosemary and how it was perfect in anything the other day. This inspired me to try adding this to my pretzels and it turned out PERFECTLY. This, mixed with a little Parmesan and the pimento was the best savory combo I could have ever asked for. I ended up showcasing these at a fall party but they'd be the perfect tailgate food, app, or for absolutely anything you're going to this fall.

So here's your ingredient list:
1 1/2 cup warm water (emphasis on warm, not hot)
4 3/4 cups flour
2 tbsp (1 package) Active-Rise Yeast
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt, seperated
5 tbsp butter, softened
4 sprigs of fresh Rosemary (chopped, seperated)
Half a pot of water
1/2 cup baking soda
1 16 oz container of The Mousetrap's Pimento Cheese
1 egg, beaten
Excess butter ( ~2 tbsp)
3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
​1. Combine your warm water, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer and let sit for ~ 10 minutes, until the mixture gets foamy.
2. Add the flour, 1 tsp of salt, the butter, and half (2 chopped springs) of the Rosemary. Mix on medium speed with your dough hook for another 10 minutes. Dough should be just past sticky and easily able to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If not, add more flour until dough is ready.
3. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm area for an hour. If your house is cool, heat your oven up to its lowest setting then turn the oven off and let dough rise inside.
4. Preheat oven to 425 and line two baking sheets.
5. When dough has doubled in size, dump onto floured surface and separate into 8 even pieces.
6. Roll each piece into a role about a foot and a half long. Then flatten each out so that the rope is about 3 inches thick.
7. Add a thin line of your pimento cheese along the length of the rope, and fold the dough around to seal the cheese inside. (Be careful of how much cheese you use, using too much causes it to bleed out during cooking!)
8. Fold your rope into a pretzel shape (I know normal pretzels have 2 twists, but with the cheese inside, these bake much better with only 1).
9. Heat your tap water up to as hot as it gets and fill your pot halfway. Add the baking soda.
10. Dip each pretzel into the mixture for about 15 seconds and then set on baking sheet (usually works best with some sort of slotted spoon).
11. Once your pretzels have been dipped, use your beaten egg as an egg wash and brush on top of each pretzel.
12. Cook the pretzels for ~15 minutes until golden brown.
13. Once cooked, allow to cool for 2-3 minutes. If your cheese has leaked out (as it usually inevitably does), feel free to take a fork and drizzle the melted cheese back on top of the pretzels.
14. While cooling, melt some excess butter and in a separate bowl, mix the rest of your rosemary, Parmesan, and the rest of your salt.
15. Brush butter on top of pretzels and sprinkle mix on top. Serve warm!

*This post was created on 10/7/2019 and moved here on the date above