The Pretzel Disaster: Filled Pretzels

Last night, I decided to make filled pretzels. First I made a batch of dough using Alton Brown's pretzel recipe. Then I whipped up some of the cupcake filling I've used many times before (cream cheese, sugar, egg, pinch of salt). I divided the cream cheese filling into four bowls and added different flavors to each one:

Flavor 1: 1/2 Tbsp Key lime powder + 2 tsp ginger ale
Flavor 2: 2 tsp bacon bits, 2 1/2 Tbsp Gouda, 2 1/2 Tbsp cheddar, garlic, 2 tsp crushed tomatoes, pinch each of black pepper, celery seed and paprika
Flavor 3: 3 tsp peanut butter, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Flavor 4: 4 Tbsp blueberries, 1/2 tsp vanilla

I tasted each filling and they seemed fine. I was going to start filling the pretzels, but I noticed it was almost 3 AM (yeah, I like late night baking). So I stuck the bowls of dough and mixtures in the fridge until this morning.

After letting the dough rise one hour, I set to work. My plan was to roll the dough flat, cut out circles, add filling and pinch them closed. That did not work out too well. The key lime and blueberry mixes kept popping out of the dough. I ended up making a couple patch work jobs.

After I baked the pretzels and sliced them open, I saw the pretzels had either absorbed or dissolved the cream cheese. The blueberries were fine on their own, regardless of the cream cheese being gone. The key lime was too faint to notice. The cheese & bacon bits filling would've been better if I'd used less sugar and added red peppers. The peanut butter was utterly disgusting. I was going for something like peanut butter cheesecake; but instead it tasted like a peanut butter sandwich left it in the fridge for 2 days. The pretzels by themselves were delicious, though.

Oy, what a mess. It's back to the drawing board for me.