Steak and Cheddar Stuffed Pretzel Pockets

I saw this on another blog and it looked awesome. Some food bloggers don’t have a print button which requires me to pick specific pages and print just those. At night I will go recipe hunting and print off tons of recipes. Well this one was one of those in my stack that didn’t reference back to the author. (updated 12.1.14 I found the blog..perpetuallyhungryblog.wordpress. It’s one of Taylor’s creations. Love her blog and photography. I posted in my “about” page several of my favorite food blogs.)

Let’s talk about this pretzel pocket idea. On my first attempt I used steak and cheddar, but I can see a host of ideas for these babies. It was my first pretzel attempt and it turned out really well. It has that browned salty outside and soft inside like you would expect in a ballpark soft pretzel but it’s stuffed with cheese and steak.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of warm distilled water
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs kosher salt
1 package of dry yeast
4.5 cups AP Flour
2 tbs unsalted melted butter
Canola oil for the proofing bowl and rolling

10 cups of water for boiling
2/3 cups of baking soda

Stuffing
Raw thinly sliced grass fed beef
Black Pepper
pinch of garlic and onion salt
1 cup fresh shredded Cheddar
1/2 cup fresh shredded Monterrey Jack

1 egg beaten for brushing the tops
pinch of Kosher salt

Directions
1. Make your dough by warming your mixing bowl in hot water to heat it up a bit. Pour the water out and put into the mixer. Add your warm distilled water 1.5 cups, sugar and salt. Stir to combine. Add your yeast and let it work it’s magic for about 5 mins. Add your flour and melted butter and mix until it pulls away from bowl. About 5mins.
Oil a bowl and turn your oven on at 150 and turn off 30 seconds later. Put your dough in the oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 50 mins.

2. While your dough is proofing, shred your cheese and cut your raw steak. I combined them into one bowl but next time I will keep them separate and grab cheese, then meat, then cheese in an assembly line type fashion.

3. Get your pot of boiling water and baking soda started.

4. Preheat your oven to 375.
To make the pockets divide your dough into 14-16 balls. Keep covered on a lined baking sheet. Spread out the dough ball into a pancake shape. Add your mixture in the center and then fold over the edges and pinch them closed. One ball with no cracks.

5. Add 2-3 filled dough balls to the boiling water and cook for about 30 seconds (poking and turning). Put these boiled buns back on the cookies sheet. Brush with egg wash and top with a little kosher salt.

6. Bake at 375 for about 15mins or until the dough is brown.