Everyone has their favorite snack foods when it comes to watching sports. (Unless, of course, you don’t watch sports, and then I suppose you probably don’t.) My number one favorite would have to be popcorn, because I’m a popcorn fiend and it’s always my snack of choice. But, when I think about the other snacks I associate with sporting events, soft pretzels are high up on the list. Classic soft pretzels are great of course, but for one thing, they are a rather large snack. Eat a single soft pretzel and you may be to full to try the other foods available. That’s where pretzel bites come in. All the goodness of soft pretzels that we love, without committing to eating an entire pretzel. That’s what I’m talking about.
The basic pretzel dough lends itself well to many flavor variations, whether it be mixed into the dough, in the dipping sauce, or both. After some deliberation, this was the trio I decided upon: garlic herb pretzels with cheddar dipping sauce, classic pretzels with honey mustard dipping sauce, and cinnamon sugar pretzels with chocolate dipping sauce. We liked these all so much it would be tough to choose a favorite. You’ll just have to try them out and decide for yourself which you like best! Another variation you could play with is filling these in a similar fashion to pizza bites. (Incidentally, those are another fabulous option for game day snacking.) I used to have a ham and cheese pretzel bite posted, but it was removed some time ago because too many readers had issues with it being unreliable. If you use the pizza bite filling method and are careful to be sure the bites are sealed before boiling, I think that would have better results than the old method. Be sure to check out the make-ahead instructions below, so if you’re hosting for the big game this weekend, you can prep these in advance. Enjoy!