The Sweet Pretzel: A Caloric Carpet-Bomb of Toppings

Hey there, guys, welcome back to Binging with Babish! Today, we're taking on a caloric carpet-bomb that only Michael Scott could have dreamt up – the 18 topping pretzel. The toppings are obviously very silly, but they give us the opportunity to learn how to make soft, buttery, shopping-mall style pretzels.

To start, we need to heat 2 cups of whole milk to 110 degrees Fahrenheit and add 2 packets of active dry yeast. We then let that sit for about 5 minutes or until it turns a little frothy and bubbly. After that, we put the mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer and add 6 tablespoons of light brown sugar, three and a quarter cups of flour, one cup of bread flour, two teaspoons of salt, and four tablespoons of cooled melted butter. We then affix our dough hook, drop it down, and knead for ten minutes. We want a tacky but not sticky dough; if it's too sticky, we add flour a couple tablespoons at a time until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Once we've got our dough ready, we let it rise for one hour in a well-oiled, covered bowl in a warm place. A good spot is on top of or inside an off oven. While that's resting, we've got some toppings to make. Let's start with caramel sauce. We're basically cooking sugar and water until it turns honey colored, adding heavy cream, and letting cool. This recipe is actually one we already made for Homer's Moon Waffles, so if you want to see how to make caramel sauce, just check out that video.

Next up, we've got hot fudge sauce. We're combining four tablespoons of butter, half a cup of cocoa powder, two thirds of a cup of chocolate chips, a whopping two cups of sugar (newsflash: this recipe is unhealthy), and a can of sweetened condensed milk. Simply stir everything together and bring to a bare simmer and cook for about seven minutes, or until a beautiful chocolate fudge sauce forms.

Lastly, we've got the peanut butter drizzle. We're going to start with a 1/2 cup of heavy cream, add to that a quarter cup of sugar and a quarter cup of light corn syrup and two tablespoons of unsalted butter. Optionally, you can add a little bit of vanilla paste. Heat this mixture until just steaming and all the ingredients are incorporated and then let cool slightly and add a half a cup of smooth peanut butter. Mix until completely smooth and pour into a really cool mason jar.

Now that we've got our toppings ready, it's time to make the pretzels. Unwrap the dough, which by this point should have doubled in size, and liberally spray your work surface with nonstick spray. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and begin rolling out into long dough thingies about the width of your finger. Once you've got it stretched out about 3 feet wide, it's time to twist the dough around three times and fold it over on top of itself, forming a pretzel that we're then going to dip into a solution of about four cups of hot water and a half a cup of baking soda.

We're making two different kinds of pretzels here, so I'm gonna hit three of them with rock salt and three of them with cinnamon sugar. We're then going to place them in a 450-degree oven for about 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. While the pretzels are baking, let's start on our toppings. First, we've got some M&M's – I went with M&M's minis for the sake of structural integrity. Next up is some hot fudge sauce; this one was tricky, as it needed to be microwaved briefly to make it drizzleable again.

We're also adding some mint chips, some chocolate chips, miniature marshmallows (these aren't as mini as I would like, but whatever), nuts, toffee nuts (you can make or buy these, they're just candy-coated pecans). Some sweetened flaked coconut is next – this is a very odd combination, peanut butter and coconut. We've also got one whole crushed Oreo for good measure. A healthy sprinkling of multicolored jimmies or sprinkles will give our pretzel some extra color, followed by a gentle snowfall of powdered sugar.

As you can see, we're using quite the variety of toppings here. Some might say it's a bit too much, but we're going for that shopping-mall experience. Whether or not this is a good idea is up to you – we're just excited to share our creation with you!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en-Thank you. -Hi, please tell me you have a Sweet Pretzel left. -We do.We have 18 different toppings.We have sweet glaze, cinnamon sugar, chocolate, white chocolate, fudge, M&Ms, caramel dip, mint chip, chocolate chip,marshmallows, nuts, toffee nuts, coconut, peanut butter drizzle, Oreos, sprinkles, cotton candy bits, and powdered sugar.Is there any way that you could do all,all of them? -The works you got it. -Alright!Hey, what's up guys, welcome back to Binging with Babish, where this weekwe're taking on a caloriccarpet-bomb that only Michael Scott could have dreamt up: the 18 topping pretzel, the elements of which are laid here before you. The toppings areobviously very silly, but they give us the opportunity to learn how to make soft, buttery, shopping-mall style pretzels.We're gonna start by heating 2 cups of whole milk to 110 degrees Fahrenheit and adding 2 packets of active dry yeast.We're then gonna let that sit for about 5 minutes or until it turns a little frothy and bubbly.Put it in the bowl of a stand mixer and add 6 tablespoons of light brown sugar,three and a quarter cups of flour, one cup of bread flour, two teaspoons of salt, and fourtablespoons of cooled melted butter. Affix your dough hook, drop it down, and knead for ten minutes. You want a tackybut not sticky dough; if it's too sticky, if it's sticking to the side of the bowl, add flour a couple tablespoons at a timeuntil it pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Then, we're gonnalet the dough rise for one hour in a well oiledcovered bowl in a warm place. A good spot is on top of or inside an off oven. While that's resting,we've got some toppings to make. Let's start withcaramel sauce. I'm gonna kind of breeze through this one because we already made it for Homer's Moon Waffles, if you wanna see how tomake caramel sauce, just check out that video.We're basically cooking sugar and water until it turns honey colored, adding heavy cream, and letting cool. Next up,we've got hot fudge sauce.We're combining four tablespoons of butter, half a cup of cocoa powder, two thirds of a cup of chocolate chips, awhopping two cups of sugar (newsflash: this recipe is unhealthy), and a can of sweetened condensed milk.Simply stir everything together and bring to a bare simmer and cook for about seven minutes, or until a beautiful chocolate fudge sauce forms.Lastly, we've got the peanut butter drizzleWe're going to start with a 1/2 cup of heavy cream,add to that a quarter cup of sugar and a quarter cup of light corn syrupand two tablespoons of unsalted butter. And optionally, you can add a little bit ofvanilla paste. Heat this mixture until just steaming and all the ingredients are incorporatedand then let cool slightly and add a half a cup ofsmooth peanut butter. Mix until completely smooth and pour into a really cool mason jar and at long lastit's pretzel time, no pun intended. Unwrap the dough,which by this point should have doubled in size, and liberally spray your work surface with nonstick spray.Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and begin rolling out into long dough thingies about the width of your finger.Then once you've got it stretched out about 3 feet wideit's time to twist the dough around three times andFold it over on top of itself, forming a pretzel that we're then going to dip into a solution of about four cups of hotwater and a half a cup of baking soda.I'm gonna make two different kinds of pretzels here,so I'm going to hit three of them with rock salt and three of them with cinnamon sugar.We're then going to place them in a450 degree fahrenheit oven for about 12 minutes, turning half way through until we are greeted with some kind of sloppy lookingbut totally delicious pretzels. And, because we're not watching our waistlines,we're gonna brush them down with melted butter while they're still hot. Let these cool a little bit,but we obviously want to serve them warm.I'm gonna be performing this procedure on a sheet of parchment paper because I know it's gonna be an absolute disaster.Now in the order as listed by the pretzel man, we're gonna start with a sweetglaze made from powdered sugar and milk, some cinnamon sugar, which is just half cinnamon half sugar, achocolate drizzle, a white chocolate drizzle, a semi-redundant smearing of hot fudge sauce (you're gonna need to microwave this briefly to make it drizzleable again).Then we're gonna add some M&Ms(I went with M&Ms minis for the sake of structural integrity), a healthy drizzle of our deliciouscaramel sauce. This is gonna help our other toppings stick down the line. Then, it's time for mint chips(I have some mint chocolate chips here, I couldn't find the straight-up green ones), some chocolate chips, miniature marshmallows(these aren't as mini as I would like, but whatever), nuts, toffee nuts (you can make or buy these, they're justcandy-coated pecans). Some sweetened flaked coconut, our peanut butter drizzle(this is a very odd combination, peanut butter and coconut), one whole crushed Oreo, a healthy sprinkling ofmulticolored jimmies or sprinkles and then cotton candy bits. This one was tricky,I had to go to a baking supply place to find them, and a gentle snowfall of powdered sugar.I know that you're thinking \"this pretzel needs more toppings on it!\"But that's really all that there is, and I managed to get a bite with almost everything on itand I gotta say, not as bad as I thought it was gonna be. I actually went back for seconds.But it seemed like this form factor could be improved upon, so I divided the pretzel into equal sections,drizzled it down with sweet glaze for a topping support andplaced a 1-inch segment of each topping all the way around the pretzel. This way, you can have a different flavor with every bite. Atthis point my hands were actually shaking from the measly two bites of pretzel that I had taken earlier,so I couldn't possibly eat this thing.But hey, at least it was half way Instagram-able. And in the end, isn't that really all that matters?\n"