In a medium size mixing bowl (or stand mixer) combine the yeast, sugar, flour, and salt. If you are using honey instead of sugar, mix the flour and yeast together before adding the honey so your yeast doesn't clump. Stir all the dry ingredients together.
2¼ teaspoons instant yeast, 1 Tablespoon white sugar, 2 cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon fine grind sea salt or kosher salt
Add ½ cup of the water and mix by hand with a spatula or with the dough hook in your stand mixer. The dough will be dry, but you want to add the water slowly so you don't add too much. Add another 2 tablespoons and mix the dough. If it is sticky and hydrated, you can stop adding the liquid. If it is still a little dry, add the remaining water. I have always used the entire ¾ cup of water, but this will depend on your home environment and how dry your flour is. If the dough is sloshy and wet, you added too much water and you can fix this by adding 1 Tablespoon of extra flour at a time until your dough is sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit 5 minutes while you get the water boiling.
¾ cup warm water
Sprinkle about 1-2 Tablespoons of flour on your work surface, spread it out a bit and place the sticky dough on top of it. Sprinkle about 1 Tablespoon of flour on top of the dough and knead it for about 3 minutes or so. The extra flour should be incorporated and the dough should feel tacky, but no longer sticky.
Separate the dough into 8 equal pieces. Leave 2 out and put the other 6 back into the bowl and cover again with plastic wrap.
Roll each piece of dough into a 12"-14" rope that is slightly less than a dime in diameter. Cut the rope into pieces about 1¼" long.
Place the pieces of pretzel dough in the boiling water/baking soda and boil them for 30-60 seconds or until they float to the top. Scoop them out and place them on a cooling rack. Keep them separated so they don't stick together as they cool and dry.
Repeat for the remaining 7 pieces of dough.
Baking Soda Bath
Put 10 cups of water into a large pot (or the Ninja Foodi/Instant Pot inner pot) and heat on high until simmering. Add the baking soda an stir. Continue to heat on high until boiling. Keep the water boiling the entire time you boil the pretzel pieces.
10 cups water, ½ cup baking soda
Air Frying Pretzel Bites
Preheat the air fryer with the basket or tray in the air fryer on 400℉/200℃ for 10 minutes. Place parchement or a silicone liner in the basket or on the tray. The pretzels will stick if you skip this step. Parchment can also fly up into the heating element as the pretzel bites cook, so weight it down with a fork or something else heavy enough to keep it in place.
Place the boiled pretzel bites in the air fryer in a single layer. Reduce the temperature to 350℉/175℃ air fry for 5-7 minutes. Open the air fryer after 4 minutes to see if you need to break them apart and to judge how much longer they need. 6 minutes has been the average time in my Ninja Foodi, but this can vary by air fryer. The pretzels should be just past golden brown in color.
Remove the pretzel bites and put them on a tray to coat in butter or place them on a cooling rack if you are skipping the butter. Repeat this process for the remaining pretzel bites. How many batches you have to do will depend on your air fryer. In the Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker & Air Crisper, I had to do 4 batches.
Butter & Salt Coating
Once the first batch of pretzel bites are out of the air fryer and onto the tray, pour about 1 Tablesspoon of melted butter over them and shake the tray back and forth to coat. Place the butter coated pretzel bites onto the cooling rack and sprinkle with pretzel salt or coarse salt. Repeat for each batch.
4 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter, pretzel salt or coarse salt
Air fryer pretzel bites are best served warm right from the air fryer, but I have successfully stored them in an airtight container for up to 3 days.If you want to prep the pretzel bites ahead of time to cook later, place the boiled and cooled bites on a parchment-lined tray and freeze them. Once frozen, place them into a freezer bag and grab some out anytime you want freshly air-fried pretzel bites. Air fry on 300℉/150℃ for 10-12 minutes or until they are golden brown