Spicy Cheese Pretzel Wontons

Instructions

Make the filling:

1. In a food processor, pulse the Cheddar and cream cheeses, flour, scallions, jalapenos, and mustard until the cheese starts to break down into a chunky paste.
2. Scrape the sides of the bowl down and process until the filling is smooth and creamy.

Assemble the wontons:

1. Set up a filling station (ha ha, get it?) with a large cutting board, a small bowl of water, and a waxed paper-lined sheet pan that will fit comfortably in your freezer.
2. Place 4 to 6 wonton wrappers on the cutting board.
3. Scoop 1 teaspoon filling onto each wonton, placing the round of filling just off-center. (This will make folding and sealing easier.) It won't look like enough filling, but trust me—it will spread.
4. Dip your index finger into the bowl of water and lightly wet the edges of a wonton.
5. Fold one corner of the wonton over to meet the corner on the opposite side and form a triangle.
6. Carefully pick up the wonton and seal the edges of the triangle.
7. Lightly wet the tips of the two long corners of the triangle, then fold them up as if you were about to make bunny ears, but pinch together to seal.
8. Place the wonton on the baking sheet and repeat with the remaining wontons and filling.
9. When all wontons are filled, place the baking sheet in the freezer until the wontons are frozen solid, about 2 hours.
10. Transfer the frozen wontons to a resealable bag or airtight container until you're ready to cook them.

Make the pretzel liquid:

1. Bring 2 cups of water to a simmer in a small (1-quart) saucepan.
2. Whisk in the baked soda and brown sugar until dissolved.
3. Remove from heat and transfer to a heatproof container, then refrigerate until you're ready to cook the wontons.

Cook the wontons:

1. Preheat an air fryer, toaster oven, convection oven, or conventional oven to 400 degrees F.
2. If using an air fryer or toaster oven with a convection/air fryer setting, cut a piece of parchment paper big enough for your fryer basket or air fryer rack. Place it on an upside-down sheet pan or plate that can be used pizza peel-style to slide the wontons onto the fryer rack.
3. If using a conventional oven, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.
4. Grab as many wontons as can fit in your air fryer basket, rack, or sheet pan, along with the chilled pretzel liquid.
5. One at a time, dip the wontons in the pretzel liquid for 10 seconds, then shake off excess liquid and place on the parchment paper.
6. When all the wontons are on the parchment, sprinkle lightly with sesame seeds.
7. Slide the wontons AND the parchment paper onto the fryer rack, or place the lined baking sheet in the conventional oven.
8. Fry or bake for 6 minutes, watching carefully around the 4 1/2-minute mark to make sure the wontons crisp up but don't lose the filling.
9. The minute you see a mere bubble of cheesy filling oozing out of a wonton, pull the batch and remove it. This can happen very quickly, and that cheese is precious.
10. Repeat with more wontons as desired.
11. Serve as soon as the wontons are cool enough to handle but won't burn your mouth with the molten cheese filling.