Pretzel Munchkin Bites

These bite size balls of baked pretzel dough,
are really easy to make and aren't fried.
You bake them into golden brown snacking goodness.
These are salty bite size pretzel poppers.
I like to serve these with a mustard sauce.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water, (100 degrees F.)
1 tablesppon white granulated sugar
2 teaspoon salt
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablesoons unsalted butter, melted
10 cups cold water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt for topping to taste

Directions:
Combine the water, sugar and salt in the bowl
of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top.
Allow to sit for 5 minutes until it foams a bit.
Add the flour and unsalted butter and using the
dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until combined.
Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is
smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl,
I did this for approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove the pretzel dough from the mixer bowl,
and coat the bowl with vegetable oil.
Return the dough to the bowl, cover with
plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for
an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Line sheet pans with parchment paper.
Bring 10 cups of cold water and the baking soda
to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan.
In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly
floured work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces.
Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope.
Cut each pretzel dough rope into 1-inch pieces.
Place the pretzel pieces into the boiling water
and cook in batches for about a half a minute.
Remove the pretzel pieces from the water
and place them on the baking pan,
making sure they aren’t touching.
Brush the top of each pretzel piece with
the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and
sprinkle with the pretzel salt.
Bake until they get dark golden brown in color,
approximately 6 to 10 minutes or so.
Cool pretzel bites on a wire rack.