Crab Pretzel
A delicious soft pretzel topped with crab dip, this Crab Pretzel is the best appetizer for parties!
If there is one thing Marylanders are all about it’s crabs. In the summer we buy them by the bushel and sit outside on the deck with friends picking crabs and once the season has passed and the weather gets a little cooler we buy crab meat and serve it in warm, cheesy crab dip. Now you can eat your crab dip with chips or bread but my favorite way to serve it is on a thick, soft pretzel. Yep, Crab Pretzels are a thing and once you try one you’re never going to eat crab dip any other way.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of OLD BAY. All opinions are 100% mine.
To start you need to make a big batch of crab dip and the key ingredient to get that Maryland crab flavor is OLD BAY. If you’ve never had it OLD BAY is a perfectly blended bold and zesty combination of 18 herbs and spices that cannot be duplicated and has no substitute. It’s a seasoning staple here in Maryland. It brings out the best in seafood and we put it on pretty much everything from french fries to scrambled eggs. Basically if you give a Marylander a dish they’ll say “I’d OLD BAY That” and suddenly you’ll have OLD BAY chicken wings and you’ll wonder why you didn’t try that sooner!
Crab dip is a creamy mix of cream cheese, cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, ground mustard, and of course OLD BAY. You mix all of those together and then gently fold in your crab meat so you don’t break the meat up too much. When it comes to the crab meat you can use either lump crab meat which are the big unbroken pieces of crab meat or you can buy the less expensive backfin crab meat which has smaller broken up pieces of the body meat. While lump crab meat is always delicious I don’t think it’s necessary for crab dip since you are adding so many other ingredients to it. It’s up to you!
At this point you could just put your crab dip in a casserole dish and bake it in the oven until it is all melted and delicious but I like to take mine to the next level. I spread the crab dip on a few large pretzels, top it with some cheddar cheese and bake them in the oven to make Crab Pretzels. You can make your own homemade pretzels if you like but if you want to keep this simple and save yourself some time you have a few options. You can buy pretzel rolls at the grocery store (this is Melinda’s favorite) or you can use frozen soft pretzels (these are what I like to use). Or you can use a mix of the two. There really aren’t any rules when it comes to a Crab Pretzel! If you do use frozen pretzels you want to make sure you cook them completely BEFORE putting the crab dip on them. Once you spread the crab dip on the pretzels you top them with cheese and bake them in the oven at 325 degrees F for 20 – 25 minutes.
When it comes out of the oven the crab dip is warm and melty and it smells so good! Sprinkle a little more OLD BAY on top and they are ready to serve. The soft, chewy pretzel with all of those little balls of pretzel salt goes perfectly with the creamy, cheesy, crab dip with that little extra kick of OLD BAY. Make sure you cut yourself a piece before you put them on the table because if your friends and family are anything like mine these Crab Pretzels will disappear quick!
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Crab Pretzels
Ingredients
- 1 pound Lump crabmeat
- 8 oz Cream cheese, softened
- 1 c Mayonnaise
- 1 Tbsp OLD BAY Seasoning
- 1 tsp Ground Mustard
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 ½ c shredded Cheddar cheese
- 6 Pretzels or Pretzel rolls, , fully cooked
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, OLD BAY seasoning, ground mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/2 c of shredded cheddar cheese in a bowl.
- Gently fold in crab meat.
- Scoop crab dip onto fully baked pretzels and sprinkle each one with cheddar cheese.
- Place crab dip pretzels in oven and bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and crab dip is warmed through.
- Sprinkle with a little more OLD BAY.
- Enjoy!
Notes
For more amazing OLD BAY recipes and places where you can buy OLD BAY check out http://oldbaythat.com/ .
I would use it on bruschetta.
Yes, that would be delicious too!
I would make shrimp scampi #IdOldBayThat #Sweepstakes
I love to use old bay in my homemade crab dip! But I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Definatelly a comfort food. They should sell these pretzels at the mall! They were so good, the kids keep begging me to make them again. We used fresh lump crab meat and they were killer.
They made these where I work and cut them up. Let’s just say by the time our break was over which is 10 minutes the whole plate was demolished.
So glad you and your coworkers liked it. It’s one of my favorite Maryland foods! 🙂