Pretzel Bread and Pretzel Bread Grilled Cheese

Jo and I are splitting the blog today. 

I'm going to tell you how I made these delicious buns and bread and then Jo will take over and share how she made the ooey gooey grilled cheese. 

You will probably want to make sure you read through the entire post so you don't miss anything. Jo got this glazed over look in her eyes when I said I was going to make pretzel bread. 

"Oooooh pretzel grilled cheese would be amazing," she drooled. 

Things got pretty messy. 

Anyway...

Pretzel bread - it's an amazing, wonderful, crazy thing. 

You can make a giant loaf ......

Or you can make individual buns.....

Either way... angels will dance on your taste buds playing tiny little heavenly harps. 

And then... things get waaaaaaaaaay out of hand by adding 2 different kinds of cheeses and sooooo many caramelized onions. 

*Sigh*

It's really, really good. 

Pretzel Bread

(Slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour)

Ingredients

Dough

1 3/4 cup hot water

2 Tbsp butter, softened

1/2 tsp salt

4 - 5 cups flour

1/4 cup nonfat dry milk

2 tsp active dry yeast

Water Bath

8  cups water

1 Tbsp salt

1/4 cup baking soda

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Directions

Make dough - In a large bowl mix together all ingredients until soft dough forms. **Start with 4 cups of flour and add more as necessary to form a solid but soft dough.**

Place in a clean, lightly oiled bowl and let rise, covered, in a warm place for an hour. 

After an hour, punch down dough and either cut into 10 equal sized balls (for buns) or 2 large balls (for bread).  Cover with a tea towel and let rest 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, preheat oven to 400. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside. 

Prepare water bath - Bring water, salt, and baking soda to a boil in a large pot. 

Drop 5 buns at a time (or 1 loaf) into the boiling water. 

Let it boil 30 seconds then flip the buns (or bread) over and let boil another 30 seconds.

Use a slotted spoon to remove the dough and place on prepared cookie sheet. 

Using a serrated knife, cut an "X" into the top of each bun (or loaf). Sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt. 

Bake at 400 for about 20 - 25 minutes, until tops are golden brown. (The loaves will take longer - the bread will sound hollow when you tap on the bottom of it.)

Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.

These buns make delicious sandwich buns.

Okay, now I will let Jo take over and tell you all about her new favorite grilled cheese.

I know it's going to be difficult to not just gobble up that warm pretzel bread fresh out of the oven BUT, hear me out, you really do need to save a few slices to make this ridiculous sandwich. 

Just seeing these pictures has me drooling all over my keyboard again. 

This is one of the reasons I love Sue. 

She makes me tasty bread.

Pretzel Bread Grilled Cheese

Ingredients

2 tsp sesame oil

2 large onions, sliced 

8 slices of pretzel bread (recipe above)

8 tsps spicy mustard

4 slices of Swiss cheese

4 slices of Mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions

In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, cook and stir the sesame oil and the sliced onions until just starting to brown. Reduce heat to low and continue to cook and stir until the onions are browned and caramelized - about 10 - 15 minutes. 

While the onions are cooking, slice the pretzel bread into medium thickness slices.

Place a little mustard on each slice of bread. 

Then layer one slice with Swiss cheese and another with Mozzarella. 

Place a very generous amount of the caramelized onions onto one slice of the bread topped with cheese.

Top with the other slice of bread and cheese. Place sandwiches on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Lightly spread a tiny bit of butter on top of the bread. 

Turn oven to broil and place rack at the lowest rung of the oven. 

Place cookie sheet on lowest rack. 

Cook, on broil, until bread start to turn a light brown. (Keep an eye on it and don't be tempted to move the rack up - you want to give the cheese a chance to melt!)

When that side is browned, remove from oven and, using a flipper, carefully flip sandwich over. Brush the sides of bread  now facing up with a little bit of butter. 

Place back on bottom rack of oven. Continue to cook until that side is browned to your preferred level of doneness and cheese is gooey.

Cut in half and serve hot. (But be careful you don't burn yourself on that gooey cheese!)

Do you hear that?

That's the sound of all other grilled cheese sandwiches crying because they will never be as good as this one.

By the way, with the ingredients I've listed above I got 4 sandwiches.  

The combination of all that gooey cheese, caramelized onions, crunchy, salty, chewy pretzel bread and little bit of zip from the spicy mustard is absolutely ridiculous. 

Like....*boom*... brain-explosion-from-all-the-tastiness-ridiculous. 

Maaaaaaaaaaake these. 

Seriously. 

Be sure to visit Carole's Chatter for more foodie links!