Species 007: Toasted Vanilla Sugar & Cinnamon Soft Pretzels
I grew up in Connecticut and went to college in Cambridge, MA, and being a 2.5 hour drive away from my parents’ house as an undergrad was the perfect balance for me. It meant that I could easily go home for holidays and be with my family for birthdays but couldn’t just hop on home any time the going got a little rough. Having this balance between my dependent home life and independent college life also conveniently created a balance of something else tantalizingly comforting in my life: Auntie Ann’s cinnamon sugar pretzel nuggets.
The drive from school to home or vice versa took me straight past the Charlton service plaza on the Mass Turnpike. At this beautiful, generic plaza was the most perfect Auntie Ann’s location on earth—or at least the most conveniently placed—where I would stop during my drives for a cup of warm, buttery cinnamon sugar pretzel nuggets. I’d place them carefully into the cupholder of my car, fashion an exceedingly classy napkin bib, and continue my drive with those sugary, soft, chewy nuggets as my fuel.
There are many things I miss about school—the intellectual challenge, the stable and robust social network, the camaraderie between ambitious students trying to figure out how they can make their mark on the world—and I am not ashamed to say that the periodic trips to Auntie Ann’s are solidly on that list. In an effort to recreate that kind of comfort in my life, I decided to create my own cinnamon sugar pretzel recipe with my own subtle twists.
Primary Traits
A cinnamon sugar pretzel is darn near perfect so long as the cinnamon sugar is plentiful and the pretzel is tender yet chewy, with the quintessential pretzel crust, so it’s difficult to improve the combination without making some uselessly contrived effort. Instead of going crazy with new flavors, I decided to instead take the basic flavors of butter, sugar, and cinnamon and just turn the volume up a little bit.
Don’t feel guilty, sometimes you have to get down to business…
Trait #1: Toasted Vanilla Sugar & Ceylon Cinnamon Topping
Auntie Ann’s pretzels are topped with a sugar and cinnamon mix, which is quite good as it is. A favorite trick of mine, however, is subbing in toasted white sugar for plain white sugar—which works to mellow the sweetness out a tad and deepen the flavor. I first learned the trick from Serious Eats and now like to keep a supply of toasted sugar on hand for quick substitution in buttercreams and other sweet dressings.
Another great trick is to rub aromatic ingredients like citrus zest or vanilla bean seeds into your sugar and let it sit for a while. The oils in the aromatics infuse with the sugar, creating a subtly flavored sugar blend. Combining the toasted sugar and infused sugar tricks, I knew I could create a sugar topping that had slightly more complexity than just plain white sugar.
When it comes to the cinnamon, you can use whatever cinnamon you have on hand—but Ceylon cinnamon has a mellow, sweet flavor that complements the sugar beautifully. Saigon cinnamon, another popular variety, has a spicier, sharper flavor. At the end of the day, cinnamon is cinnamon, but if you really want to hone the flavor profile, try to find Ceylon.
Trait #2: Browned Butter
The sugar and cinnamon topping needs something to stick to, and melted butter is the perfect, decadent intermediary between the topping and pretzel. Browned butter, which has an aromatic nutty flavor, is a great way to boost the flavor profile of warm, sweet ingredients like cinnamon. Used in moderation, you almost don’t notice it as a separate flavor—all you notice is that the treat has a deeper, rounder taste overall. I decided to take advantage of this easy flavor win by brushing the pretzels in browned butter as opposed to plain melted butter before dredging them in the sugar-cinnamon mixture.
Trait #3: Soft Pretzel Base
All the toppings in the world couldn’t save a tough, dense, or rubbery pretzel, so I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the soft pretzel base I used to accompany my tweaked toppings. When it comes to bread recipes of any kind, I rely heavily on King Arthur Flour and have never been let down. For this recipe, I used King Arthur Flour’s Hot Buttered Soft Pretzels recipe verbatim, as it needed no improvement. What I love about this recipe is that it uses a warm baking soda bath, whereas a lot of pretzel recipes will use a boiling baking soda bath. The baking soda bath gives the pretzels their characteristic chewy exterior, and the subtle heat is just enough to infuse the outer layer with baking soda without shriveling up the dough. I decided to make chubby little twisted pretzels instead of nuggets because out of the confines of my car, I could easily pull apart the sugary, cinnamony, buttery pretzels to devour.
Resulting Species
The resulting pretzels bring the same comfort as the Auntie Ann’s nuggets, with a little more intrigue and depth of flavor. The perfect, laudable KAF soft pretzel base is the perfect vehicle for a slathering of nutty browned butter, mellow toasted sugar infused with fresh vanilla seeds, and sweet, soft Ceylon cinnamon. I hope they bring you as much comfort as they have me!
Until next time,
The Culinary Darwinist
Toasted Vanilla Sugar & Cinnamon Soft Pretzels
Makes 8 small but chubby pretzels
Ingredients
For the toasted vanilla sugar
For the pretzels
To assemble
Method
Make the toasted vanilla sugar
- Preheat your oven to 350º. Pour the sugar into an even layer in a sturdy, heatproof saucepan. Size your saucepan so that the sugar layer is no more than 1/4" thick. Toast the sugar in the oven for 30 minutes, or until it is a light golden color. Use a spoonful of untoasted sugar for comparison, as the change can be subtle.
- Transfer to a bowl and, using your fingers, work the vanilla bean seeds into the sugar until well-distributed. Let the mixture sit for at least 30 minutes before using, to allow the vanilla flavor to infuse into the sugar.
Make the pretzels
- Combine the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, and warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. If you're baking on a humid day, like during the summer, start with a scant 1 cup of warm water and add more if necessary as the dough mixes. Knead the dough on medium speed for 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover, and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, dissolve the baking soda in the hot water in a medium pan, like an 8x8" baking pan or pie tin. Be sure that all the baking soda dissolves—if it doesn't, strain the clumps out. Clumps will stick to the bottom of the pretzels and result in a rather bitter flavor when baked. Let the water cool to lukewarm before using.
- Preheat the oven to 475º and grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil. You can use parchment paper instead, but I like the crisp achieved by an oiled sheet. On a lightly oiled surface, divide the dough into eight equal pieces. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rest 5 minutes.
- Roll each dough ball out into an 8" strand and fold into a pretzel shape. Place about two pretzels at a time into the baking soda bath, and use a spoon to bath the pretzels in the solution for two to three minutes. Transfer to the oiled baking sheet and allow them to rest uncovered for another 10 minutes.
- Bake the pretzels for 8 to 10 minutes, or until a deep golden brown. Let cool slightly, about 5 minutes, before proceeding.
Assemble
- Combine the toasted vanilla sugar and cinnamon in pan, such as the 8x8" cake pan you used for the baking soda solution. Brush the pretzels generously with browned butter, getting both the top and bottom. Toss the buttered pretzels in the cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately. If you want to serve the pretzels later on, then refresh them in a 350º oven for 5 minutes, butter, and sugar-coat them just before serving. ∎
