Food

December 28, 2025

Bavarian Pretzels

Making Bavarian Pretzels has become my entire personality this winter. I cannot get enough. My love for pretzels paired with a rich stone ground mustard runs real deep. And my soul is lit on fire with that doughy interior, crispy exterior, version of a dopamine hit.

The pretzels are best straight out of the oven. If not serving right away, be sure to let cool on a wire rack so moisture doesn’t get trapped.

Be sure to play around with the toppings. Rosemary, japapeno and cheddar, pepperoni and mozzarella, cinnamon sugar… options are endless!

Bavarian Pretzel Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ c. warm water
  • 1 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tsp kosher sea salt
  • 2 ½ tsp active dry yeast
  • 4 ½ c. all-purpose flour
  • ¼ c. salted butter, melted
  • 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3 quarts water
  • ⅔ c. baking soda
  • 1 egg york + 1 Tbsp water
  • Pretzel salt

Directions

  • In mixer, pour warm water over brown sugar and sea salt. Sprinkle yeast over top and let it sit until bubbly (approx 10 minutes)
  • Add flour and butter. With dough hook mix until dough comes away from bowl (approx 4 minutes)
  • Form dough into ball and place back in bowl, lightly coated with oil. Cover and let rise in warm spot for an hour or dbl’d in size.
  • After dough has risen, preheat oven to 450, and bring water & baking soda to a boil in a pot on stove.
  • Turn dough onto lightly oiled surface and divide into 8-12 portions. Roll one portion into long snake, bring ends up, twist twice, bring down toward bottom and secure under. Repeat.
  • Place pretzels in boiling water for 30 seconds, place on parchment covered pan, brush with egg/water mix.
  • Sprinkle with salt, or any other fun ingredients.
  • Bake for 12-14 minutes.
  • Enjoy!

I am learning a few tricks as I go, so I will be sure to add those tips to this post as my skills continue to develop:

  • Eat fresh day of.
  • If storing, be sure to cool completely on wire rack and store in air-tight container for one day.
  • If storing more than one day, put them in freezer bag and pop in freezer.
  • Whether eating next day, or multiple days out from freezer, always reheat in oven for 5 minutes at 350 degrees. Brush with a little water on top then pop in oven.
  • If making for later, hold off on adding salt until your reheat. The salt dissolves with added moisture from freezer.

Cheers!

July 29, 2021

Swig Sugar Cookies

A couple of years ago I posted this Swig Sugar Cookie recipe, and to this day it remains my favorite sugar cookie.

Had to pull the recipe out of the archives again, this time we just added colorful sprinkles to channel summer fun. Enjoy!

Swig Sugar Cookies

Prep Time 10 minutes Cook Time 8 minutes Total Time 18 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Butter room temperature
  • 3/4 cups Vegetable Oil
  • 1 1/4 cups Sugar
  • 3/4 cup Powdered Sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons Water
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tarter
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 5 1/2 cups Flour

Sour Cream Frosting (Original)

  • 1/2 cup room temperature butter
  • 3/4 cup Sour Cream
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 cup Powdered Sugar

Instructions

  1. Cream together Butter, Vegetable Oil, Sugars, Water, and Eggs.
  2. Combine dry ingredients and slowly add to butter mixture.
  3. Mix until everything is combined.  Your dough should be a little crumbly and not sticky.
  4. Use a cookie scoop or roll a golf ball sized ball of dough and place it on your cookie sheet
  5. To give the cookies the signature rough edge, press a glass bottom (dipped in sugar) into the center of the dough ball.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.  They should just barely be browning on the bottom.    Move cookies to a cooling rack.  Once they are cool put them in the fridge.
  7. For the ORIGINAL frosting: Cream together butter and sour cream and salt.  Slowly add powdered sugar.  When it gets so thick its not frosting like add a splash of milk.  Alternate this process until your frosting is the desired consistency.  Add 1 drop of red food coloring and whip on high for 1 minute.
  8. Keep cookies in a sealed container until they are ready to serve.  The magic of a Swig Sugar Cookie (apparently) is that the cookies are cold and the frosting is room temperature.  Frost right before serving.

I can attest to the refrigeration technique of the cookie.

SO GOOD CHILLED!  

I used a traditional buttercream frosting for this batch which includes 2/3 cup butter, 3 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp almond extract, 2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream.  Mix together until desired consistency, adding more powdered sugar and whipping cream as needed.

January 20, 2021

Salted S’more Truffles

Marshmallows and I go together like PB & J. Ketchup & Mustard. Pancakes & Syrup. Basically, it’s true love and a match made in heaven, if I do so say so myself.

Give me all the marshmallows.

Enter, Smore Truffles for a little bite-size mallow treat!

INGREDIENTS

1 pack graham crackers, crushed

1 standard size jar marshmallow fluff

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

5 Hershey Bars

Pinch of Sea Salt

DIRECTIONS

Crush graham crackers until fine.

Add mallow fluff + chocolate chips

Roll into Tbsp. size balls and freeze for 15 minutes

Melt chocolate bars in microwave in 30 second increments

Dip mallow bites into chocolate, sprinkle with crushed graham crackers + Sea Salt

Chill until set

Enjoy!

January 7, 2021

Salted Pretzel Cowboy Cookies

Pretzels, m&m’s, oatmeal, cinnamon and coconut is a combination I was happy to dive face first in. Thanks to Half Baked Harvest’s recipe as the baseline, with a few twists of my own, these little nuggets of love hit the sweet and salty spot.

Other then my pretzel presentation that is no-where near Tieghan’s masterpiece, I’d say these turned out quite perfect.

Enjoy!

Salted Pretzel Cowboy Cookies

  • 2 sticks salted butter, softened
  • 3/4 c. brown sugar
  • 1/4 c. granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temp.
  • 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
  • 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
  • 1 cup m&m’s (can just add more chocolate chips if you desire)
  • 1 cup pretzels, crushed

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Beat together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until combined. Beat in the eggs then add the vanilla, beating until creamy. Add the flour, cinnamon (if using), baking soda, and salt. Fold in the oats, coconut, chocolate chips, and m&m’s.
  3. Use a cookie scoop, or roll the dough into rounded 2 tablespoon size balls and place 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Push a few crushed pretzel pieces into each dough ball then slightly flatten the dough ball down with the palm of your hand.
  4. Transfer to the oven and bake for 9 minutes. (Note: the OG recipe has you bake the cookies for 5 minutes, remove from oven, tap pan on counter to flatten down, return to oven to bake an additional 4 minutes).
  5. Eat warm (definitely highly recommended) or let cool and store in an airtight container. 

Cheers!