You know how much you love pretzels. You know how much you love hot dogs. Now consider the following idea:
Pretzels wrapped around hot dogs!
Look at them: pudgy, salty, golden brown grubs concealing a secret...
...the secret of hot dogs!
(Jeff was fond of the pretzel dog in the center, saying it looked like it was tipping its hat. "Top o' the morning to ye!" I enthused.)
Oh yeah, you'll get attached to these cuties during the baking process, even to the point where you assign some of them personality traits seconds before you dip them in ketchup and mustard and shove them into your face.
The recipe is from the always great Joy the Baker, who adapted it from Alton Brown, and I urge you to visit this link if you want to see Joy's excellent step-by-step photo instructions. I was on my own in the kitchen as I made them, and Jeff and Melissa (his daughter) were watching a 2-hour episode of Sherlock in the living room.
It's an awesome show.
During that time I was able to make the pretzel dough, let it rise for an hour while I made phone calls, cut the hot dogs in half, get a pan of water boiling, and divide the risen dough into 16 pieces. They finished their show just in time to help me with the fun stuff: wrapping, boiling, egg-washing, baking, and eating.
A note on the recipe: it is right on the money, but I halved the water and baking soda amounts.
A note on eating: they are delicious. You will groan.
(My notes are in italics.)
INGREDIENTS
- 1 ½ cups warm water (between 110 and 115 degrees F)
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 ¼ teaspoons (1 package) active dry yeast
- 22 ounces all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 cups) <--this amount was perfect, no more, no less
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
- about 8 cups of water <--original recipe called for 14
- generous 1/3 cup baking soda <--original recipe called for a whole cup, which seemed excessive
- 1 large egg, beaten, with a splash of water
- salt and pepper for topping <--The only coarse salt we had in the house was some fleur de sel that I got for Christmas. Ain't we fancy?
DIRECTIONS
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine warm water and sugar. Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and set aside for 5 minutes. The mixture will begin to foam and froth. If it doesn’t, throw the mixture away and start again with new yeast.
Once the yeast and water is frothy, add the flour, salt, and melted butter. Using the dough hook, mix on low speed until well combined. Increase the speed to medium and knead the dough until it is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, creating a ball of dough around the dough hook. Beat on medium speed for approximately 4 minutes.
Remove the dough from the bowl. The dough will be soft, pliable, and just a bit sticky. That’s perfect. Scrape any residue out of the bowl and coat the bowl with a bit of vegetable oil. Place the dough back in the bowl, sprinkle with flour, cover with plastic wrap, and store in a warm place to rise. Allow dough to rise, until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Place baking racks in the center and upper third of the oven. (Jeff vetoed the idea of baking two pans at the same time, and while I didn't think two pans would be a problem, I gave him a "fair enough" shrug because who really cares? We used the upper-third rack and baked the pretzel dogs in two separate batches.) Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and lightly brush the paper with oil. It’s important to brush the parchment paper or the pretzels will stick!
Combine water and baking soda in a large pan (8 quart is fine) and bring to a boil.
While the water comes to a boil, turn the dough out onto a clean, slightly oiled work surface. Divide dough into 8 or 16 pieces, depending on how large you’d like your pretzel dogs. 8 pieces of dough for whole hot dogs. 16 pieces of dough if you’re going to slice the hot dogs in half. (We sliced them in half.)
Start with the fingers of both hands in the center of the dough, and roll, moving your hands outward as you roll. Roll the dough along the oiled surface until you have about a 24-inch or 12-inch piece of rope (depending on how large your piece of dough was… the more dough the longer the rope).
Wrap pretzel around a hot dog, making sure to seal the ends.
When water has come to a boil, gently lower a couple of pretzel dogs into the boiling water. Boil for 30 seconds. Remove carefully, using a flat, slotted spatula. Place on prepared baking sheet. Brush boiled pretzels with beaten egg, and add coarse sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper (we just wanted salt).
Bake until deeply golden brown, about 12 to 14 minutes. (15 minutes resulted in the pretzels in my top photo. The second photo was more like 13 minutes.) Transfer to a cooling rack for a few minutes before serving warm.
Soft pretzels are best enjoyed the day they are made.
If you’re not going to enjoy all your pretzel dogs, double wrap them in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. When ready to serve, transfer out of plastic and into a piece of foil. Wrap well and bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes, or until heated through.
I am definitely going to use this recipe when babysitting my kid cousins this weekend!
On another note! I am so excited that you have an account on imagekind! I have always wanted a few of your prints, but I can't afford to buy canvas.
I have been reading your blog for several years now and have always greatly, supremely (plus many other -ly words) admired your work.
I am excited to order one for my birthday!
Thanks Kelly!
Posted by: Andrea Patrao | February 24, 2012 at 04:56 PM
Well thank you, Andrea! I was going to write about Imagekind this weekend and explain how it works, but it looks like you noticed the new ad on my sidebar. Cool! Please do buy some prints from me--I'd like this to be a new source of income. Compliments are nice, but you can't cash them in, unfortunately! :D
Posted by: Kelly | February 24, 2012 at 05:37 PM