Welsh Rarebit Sauce with Soft Pretzels

It was SO hard to take this photo before digging in.

Snow days definitely bring out the "ish" in "healthy-ish." But they taste so good.

I got hooked on rarebit sauce during college. We used to get it at this Welsh pub where they served it with homemade potato chips. Heaven. Since I had a baking bug today, soft pretzels seemed like a good accompaniment. I turned to Alton brown for both recipes: pretzels and rarebit sauce.

The pretzels are outstanding. They're done the REAL way: boiled, then baked. It brought me back to my bagel-shop-managing days. It's a process, but it wasn't difficult and it really didn't take as much time as I thought it would. It's worth it if you can spare a couple of hours. Alton Brown's instructions are great and I followed them exactly, so I won't regurgitate them here. In confidence that his recipe will never disappear from the internet, I say read Alton Brown's original recipe if you want to make the pretzels.

Boiled, egged, and salted. Some closer to pretzel shapes than others.

Baked!

*See second Husband Quote, below.

The rarebit sauce is also directly from the original recipe, but that one is simple enough that I'll list it here for future reference.

My favorite use for beer.

The Recipe:

2 tb butter

2 tb flour

1 tsp mustard

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 c dark beer

3/4 c heavy cream

6 oz sharp cheddar, shredded

2 drops hot sauce

In pan over low heat, melt butter and whisk in flour. Cook, whisking constantly, 2 minutes.
Whisk in mustard, worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and beer.
Whisk in cream.
Add cheese and mix until melted.
Mix in hot sauce.

The Verdict:

Overall grade: A-

Overall reason: Absolutely delicious, and absolutely devoid of nutritional merit.

Time to prepare: Rarebit sauce - 15 minutes. Pretzels - 2 hours.

Husband quote: "You must really love me." *Also, "I want the poop-shaped one!"

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