Buzz
This viral video is particularly exasperating, because the creator was on the right path. She starts by chopping store-bought cinnamon roll dough into small pieces, dunking them into a lukewarm baking soda-water mixture for 15 seconds, then air-frying them after a butter brush. I thought to myself, 'She should have boiled them in the baking soda solution,' but I opted to follow the hack exactly first to see the baseline results, since it’s always courteous and beneficial.
I stuck to the directions, and although the sweet bites that came out of my air fryer tasted pleasant (like cinnamon rolls), they didn’t have that distinct pretzel flavor. They weren’t chewy, and they lacked the slightly bitter, alkaline taste that’s typical of pretzels. They darkened well, but that’s typical when butter is brushed onto dough.
The result was a sweet treat, but not a pretzel. It tasted like cinnamon rolls rather than the chewy, slightly bitter pretzel experience I had hoped for. Despite darkening nicely, it missed the mark on texture and flavor.
You need to develop that gluten.
Before diving into the baking soda, let's address texture. Pretzels—even the soft variety—are chewier and denser than fluffy cinnamon rolls. How do you achieve chewiness in dough? By promoting gluten formation. And how do you do that? You knead the dough. So, here’s an easy improvement to this hack: Cut the cinnamon rolls into pieces as shown in the video, but knead them a few times before rolling them into balls. This will give them the chewy texture a pretzel should have.
You need to boil the baking soda solution.
I'm not sure where the creator of this hack got the idea that a quick dip in a room-temperature alkaline solution could turn cinnamon roll dough into a pretzel. It just doesn't work, at least not with that amount of baking soda or that short of a dunk.
For a pretzel with the perfect chewy crust, you should boil the dough in the solution for around 30 seconds. (Traditionally, lye is used instead of baking soda, but lye should not be handled in a home kitchen.) Boiling activates the baking soda, helping it penetrate and gelatinize the dough’s outer layer, giving you that chewy, beautifully browned crust. Without this step, your pretzel bites will be fluffy, with only a slightly chewy crust—definitely not what I expect from a pretzel. This also provides that signature salty, subtly bitter flavor. Without it, you’re left with pretzel-shaped bread.
How to create cinnamon-sugar pretzel bites that truly taste like pretzels.
The necessary adjustments here are simple. Knead the dough, boil it, and one more thing—use an egg wash instead of butter to achieve that perfect shiny finish. Save the butter for after baking—brush it on the bites just before tossing them in the cinnamon-sugar.
Improved Auntie Anne’s Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Bites.
Ingredients:
1 package of store-bought cinnamon rolls
1 quart of water
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons baking soda
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Take the cinnamon rolls out of their packaging and cut each one into four equal pieces. Set the icing aside for later. Knead each piece of dough four to five times by folding it over itself, then roll it into a ball. Place the balls on a plate and set them aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine the water and baking soda. Bring the mixture to a boil. Working in batches of four, boil the dough balls for 30 seconds each, then transfer them to a wire rack set over a plate. (They’ll be soft and slippery, as is typical with alkaline solutions.)
After all the dough balls have been boiled, set your air fryer to 330℉. Beat the egg and brush each dough ball with the egg wash. Air fry the bites for 8 minutes, flipping once, until they’re dark brown and shiny. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Brush the warm bites with melted butter, then place them in a paper bag with the cinnamon-sugar mixture and shake to coat. Heat the icing in the microwave for 10 seconds and serve it on the side for dipping.
