Holiday Pretzel Bites With Cranberry and Brie

Holiday appetizers don’t get more festive than this! With that perfectly brown crust and gooey center, these holiday pretzel bites with cranberry and Brie make one irresistible party snack. For an extra special touch, serve these stuffed pretzel bites with an orange honey-mustard sauce — everyone is sure to love this seasonal appetizer.

Why You Need to Make This Recipe

I entertain a lot, and the appetizer that consistently flies off the platter is a stuffed pretzel bite, especially when warm right out of the oven. In fact, someone (cough, cough, Matt the husband) requests stuffed pretzel bites at just about every gathering, so these little snacks make frequent appearances at our get-togethers. Despite showing up on the menu often, everyone still devours these pretzels instantly.

I especially love how this particular combination brings together casual comfort food with a touch of elegance, which is the perfect vibe for the holidays. The Brie and cranberry add a gourmet flair, but we’re still talking pretzels here. They're perfectly homey and cozy.

Plus, this is the perfect way to use leftover cranberry sauce. Make a platter of these holiday pretzel bites for Rivalry Weekend right after Thanksgiving or after Christmas time when the bowl games start, and you have yourself the perfect football snack with a festive twist.

Ingredients

Ready to make this stuffed pretzel bite recipe? Let’s gather our ingredients.

• Pretzel dough: I recommend using my soft beer pretzel dough, which includes flour, amber ale, water, active dry yeast, salt, sugar and butter.We also need baking soda and and egg yolk to prepare the dough for baking.
• Cranberry sauce: Any kind will work, but I highly recommend my spiced-brandied cranberry sauce. I just love its perfect balance of sweet and tart with spice notes.
• Brie: We leave on the rind and cut it into squares.
• Melted butter: This gives our pretzel bites the perfect finishing touch when they come out of the oven. Please don’t skip this step. The butter makes these next-level delicious.
• Coarse salt: Because we’re talking pretzels here.
• Orange-Dijon sauce: This is a simple mixture of fresh orange zest, honey and mustard. For the mustard, both whole grain and Dijon work well.

Step-by-Step Instructions

If this is your first time making pretzel dough, don't worry. This process is surprisingly simple. Let's walking through it.

We begin by heating together some beer and water until the mixture hits about 110 degrees. Once it comes to temperature, we pour it into a mixing bowl with sugar and salt, sprinkle the dry active yeast on top and allow the mixture sit until it foams.

Now we add our flour along with melted butter to the mixing bowl and knead until the dough turns smooth and elastic. At this point, we cover the bowl tightly with plastic and let it double in size for about an hour. Our dough is now ready to form into delicious little bites.

And now for the super fun part -- stuffing our holiday pretzel bites! We first divide our pretzel dough into 20 small balls. I like taking care of this step first to ensure we have the right amount of dough balls.

Using the palm of our hand, we gently flatten each dough ball into a disk and top with a dollop of cranberry sauce and square of Brie. To ensure nothing leaks, we fold the dough like a present, pinch the seems and then roll in the palms of our hands to tightly seal.

With our pretzel bites formed, we're almost ready to bake, but we first need to boil them in a baking soda bath. This step gives our pretzels that classic brown crust. Otherwise, we're just getting stuffed bread rolls. While tasty, that's not what we want here.

After a quick boil, we brush our pretzel with an egg yolk mixture for even better browning, sprinkle with salt and then bake. Once the pretzels bake, we brush them again but this time with melted butter for a luxurious touch.

Now we dunk our little holiday pretzel bites into our orange honey-mustard sauce and enjoy every festive bite. Serve them with some truffle deviled eggs and you have a holiday appetizer spread that everyone will love.

Make-Ahead Directions

Need to make these pretzel bites ahead of time? We have a couple options.

One way is to make the pretzel dough and wrap tightly in plastic wrap after rising. The dough will keep in the refrigerator for three days. We can also freeze it for three months. Before shaping, we just want to make sure we bring the dough down to room temperature in its wrapping before shaping. To thaw, I like to let the dough sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Another option is to form the pretzels into balls, tightly cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for several hours. Because of the cranberry sauce, I recommend storing seam-side up, and then check to see if you need to reseal any seams before placing the pretzel balls in the boiling water. Sometimes as the balls sit, the seal slightly opens.

Expert Tips and FAQs

• If you don’t want to use beer in the pretzel dough, water works just fine.
• Make sure you check the expiration date on your yeast. Expired yeast is no good. Also, the temperature of the beer mixture listed is a guideline. Check your yeast package to see if it specifies a temperature and follow that.
• Dry active yeast and instant yeast work differently, so make sure you use the right type.
• Dough needs a warm place to rise, and sometimes ambient room temperature won't cut it. If you need a warm place, turn the oven to 200 degrees as you prepare the dough ingredients. Before kneading, turn off the oven with the door closed. The covered bowl then goes into the oven with the door cracked for rising.
• Need a Brie substitution? Havarti or fontina make delicious options.
• I always have trouble finding pretzel salt at the store. You can pick some up on Amazon or substitute coarse kosher salt.

Perfect Pairing

I love a Belgian quad with these Christmas pretzel bites. Belgian quads show off hints of toffee and caramel, which are delicious with orange commonly found in cranberry sauce, and the spicy yeast character adds some warmth to the tart fruit. For an extra festive touch, St. Bernardus Christmas Ale is a fun option.

Looking for a wine pairing? Try a pinot noir. With its fruit-forward profile, a pinot noir matches our jammy cranberry, and its earthy tones are nice against the spice. Plus, it’s a classic favorite with Brie.

Of course, with this festive spin on pretzel bites, we can’t go wrong with some holiday cocktails, and I have quite the selection. Try my sparkling cranberry-ginger margarita, Sugar Plum Fairy Martini, cranberry-apple cider holiday sangria, chai-cranberry bourbon smash or Winter Wonderland Margarita.

For your next celebration, I hope you try these holiday pretzel bites with cranberry and Brie.

Cheers!

Looking for More Holiday Appetizers?

• Best bourbon bacon jam
• Herbed smoked trout spread
• Baked Brie with fig and Kahlua sauce
• Bourbon bacon jam cheese ball
• Crab cake sliders
• Gouda and chorizo pretzel bombs

If you love this recipe, please leave a comment with a five-star rating — or simply hit the five-star button in the recipe card. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter, and you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

📖 Recipe

Holiday Pretzel Bites With Cranberry and Brie

Holiday appetizers don’t get more festive than this! With that perfectly brown crust and gooey center, these holiday pretzel bites with cranberry and Brie make one irresistible party snack. For an extra special touch, serve these stuffed pretzel bites with an orange honey-mustard sauce — everyone is sure to love this seasonal appetizer.

5 from 41 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American, German

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Rising Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

Servings: 20 pretzel bites

Calories: 202kcal

Author: Amanda McGrory-Dixon

Ingredients

Holiday Pretzel Bites With Cranberry and Brie

• ▢ 1 cup beer preferably an amber ale
• ▢ ½ cup water
• ▢ 1 tablespoon white sugar
• ▢ 2 teaspoons salt
• ▢ 1 package active dry yeast about 2 ¼ teaspoons
• ▢ 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
• ▢ ½ cup melted salted butter divided
• ▢ Oil
• ▢ ½ cup cranberry sauce store-bought or homemade
• ▢ 8 ounces Brie cut into 20 pieces, about ¾- to 1-inch cubes (see note)
• ▢ 10 cups water
• ▢ ⅔ cup baking soda
• ▢ 1 egg yolk
• ▢ 1 tablespoon water
• ▢ Pretzel or coarse kosher salt

Orange Honey-Mustard

• ▢ ½ cup whole grain or Dijon mustard
• ▢ ½ cup honey
• ▢ 1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest

Instructions

For Holiday Pretzel Bites With Cranberry and Brie

• Mix the beer and ½ cup water together and heat to 100-110 degrees or the temperature listed on the yeast package. In a mixing bowl, pour in the warm beer and water mixture with sugar and salt. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let it sit until it turns foamy, about five to 10 minutes.
• If using a stand mixer, add the flour and ¼ cup melted butter to the beer and yeast mixture and use the paddle attachment on low speed to combine into a shaggy dough. Replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook. Turn the speed up one notch to speed two and knead until smooth and elastic. This should take about four minutes. If kneading by hand, stir in the flour and butter with the beer and yeast mixture in the mixing bowl until it becomes a dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. 
• Remove the dough from the bowl, lightly oil it, place the dough back in the bowl and cover. Allow to sit in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough just about doubles in size.
• Divide the dough into 20 equal balls. Keep the dough balls in a mixing bowl covered with plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out. Flatten one dough ball at a time into a disk, about 3 ½ to 4 inches in diameter. Spoon 1 teaspoon of cranberry sauce onto the flatten pretzel dough and a cube of Brie on top of the cranberry sauce. Fold edges like a present. Pinch the seams and roll in between your palms to make sure the dough ball is well-sealed. Repeat for all dough balls. Keep the filled dough balls in another mixing bowl covered with plastic wrap to also prevent them from drying out. 
• Heat the oven to 450 degrees and boil 10 cups water with baking soda. 
• Check the dough balls to make sure they're still sealed. Drop the sealed pretzel dough balls into the boiling water and baking soda for 30 seconds. Move to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Whisk an egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water and brush it over the boiled pretzel dough balls. Sprinkle with salt. 
• Bake until the pretzels turn golden, about 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from oven and lightly brush with remaining 4 tablespoons of melted butter. If the butter brushes off any salt, you can always add more if you'd like. Enjoy!

For Orange Honey-Mustard

• In a small bowl, combine mustard, honey and orange zest. Stir until combined.
• Serve as a dipping sauce with the pretzel bites. 

Notes

• You may have some leftover Brie. Don't feel like you need to use the whole thing. As long as you have 20 cubes, you're good to go. 
• Dough needs a warm place to rise, and sometimes ambient room temperature won't cut it. If you need a warm place, turn the oven to 200 degrees as you prepare the dough ingredients. Before kneading, turn off the oven with the door closed. The covered bowl then goes into the oven with the door cracked for rising.
• For full tips, please see blog post.
• Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

Nutrition

Serving: 1pretzel bite | Calories: 202kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 234mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g

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