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Mmmm…pretzel bun dogs. So ridiculously expensive at Weinerschnitzel and so easy to hack.
Don’t be intimidated! If you can make cookies, you can make these. Here’s what you need.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
4 1/2 cups flour
2 ounces butter, melted
Water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg
Combine the water, sugar, kosher salt, and yeast in your mixer bowl. Swish with a fork to combine and let it sit for a few minutes.
Sift the flour into a separate bowl. Once the yeast mixture has a few bubbles on top, add the flour and butter to the mixer bowl and mix on low until everything is combined. Then change to medium and mix until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
Grab a large bowl and spray it with nonstick spray. Put the dough in, cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm place to rise.
After about an hour, the dough will be doubled in size. Plop it onto your clean, lightly floured counter and divide into 12 pieces.
Then take each dough chunk and roll, roll, roll.
Your dough snake should be 3-4 times the length of a hot dog. Really! It sounds like that would be too long, but you’ll see.
Here’s the secret: give the hot dog a light dusting of flour to help the dough stick. Place the dog at the end of the dough snake and roll it along, making sure the spirals are next to each other and they don’t overlap.
When you reach the end, pinch the dough so it doesn’t unravel.
Before you wrap up the rest of the dogs, preheat the oven to 450 and put a large pan of water on to boil. Part of the pretzel magic comes from boiling the dough for a minute.
Once the water is boiling, carefully add the 2/3 cup of baking soda (it will foam up like crazy). Then add your dogs, two at a time, and boil for 1 minute.
After boiling, place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat. Brush the dough with a beaten egg. If you wanted to sprinkle on some cheese, onion flakes, sesame seeds, etc–now’s the time. I skipped the pretzel salt since hot dogs are too salty already.
Bake in a 450 degree oven for 12-14 minutes, until the pretzels turn a delightful golden brown. Try to keep the hordes away while they cool, and be sure to save a couple for yourself. Yum!
