Get It Down Pat's "We Ain't Got Buns!" Pretzel Dogs
Better than buns, the pretzel dough is easy to make with the staples you should already have on hand!
Ingredients
- 8 Hot dogs
- Cheese (optional) I used some Velvetta that I had in the fridge. I made half of the dogs with cheese, half without.
- Cooking spray (such as Pam)
Pretzel Dough
- 1 C warm (115°) water
- 1 .25 oz package active dry yeast
- 1 T (heaping) sugar
- 1/2 stick butter, melted
- 1 t salt
- 3 C flour Bread flour is better than all purpose, but either will work.
- 1 C water, boiling To warm up the cold hot dogs
- 10 C water, boiling
- ¾ C baking soda
- 1 T butter, melted
- Sea salt, roughly grined
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.
- Place warm water at the correct temperature in a mixing bowl.
- Add the package of yeast to the bowl of water.
- Add sugar to yeast and mix well.
- Let stand for 10 to 15 minutes. Mixture will be bubbling and look creamy.
- Add salt and melted butter to yeast mixture.
- Add flour one cup at a time into the yeast mixture. Mix well after each addition. (We use a mixer with a dough hook, but you could also do this step with your hands.) The dough should "climb" up the dough hook when it is has enough flour incorporated.
- Ball up the dough. Spray it with cooking spray over all of its surface.
- Cover the mixing bowl with a wet paper towel and allow the dough to double in size (roughly an hour).
- In the meantime, place the hot dogs in boiling water for 5 minutes to bring them up to a warmer temperature. Drain.
- If using cheese, cut into small slices that can fit lengthwise with the hot dog when it is wrapped with the dough.
- After dough doubles in size, divide into 8 sections. Roll out each section into a small circle about an ⅛" thick that you can wrap around a hot dog.
- Wrap the pretzel dough circle around a hot dog (and if using, wrap the cheese inside it with the dog). Continue with the rest of the hot dogs. Smooth the edges of dough where it meets and forms a seam, so that the wrapped dough won't open up while it's boiling.
- Bring the 10 cups of water to a boil.
- Add the baking soda to the water as you are bringing it up to a boil. Stir.
- Drop two wrapped dogs into the boiling water for about a minute. Drain wrapped dogs and then place them on lightly sprayed cookie sheet. Repeat until all the dogs are boiled and placed on the sheet. (You might need more than one cookie sheet depending on the size of the wrapped dogs. It's best to place the sheets in the oven next to each other, as opposed to one above the other, as doing so can affect cooking time of the wrapped dogs on the lower sheet.)
- Brush the top of each wrapped dog liberally with melted butter; salt the tops as well to your own taste. (I tend to like my pretzels salty.)
- Add to preheated oven. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes, until pretzel dough is browned.
Notes
My son adores these pretzels dogs! My Better Half introduced them to us, and now we know how to make them on our own — although as my mom used to say, it always tastes better when someone else makes it! Watch your water temperature with the yeast, and you'll find that while these do take a while to make, especially due to the rising time for the dough, they really aren't difficult at all. They make simple (and cheap) hot dogs into more of a meal and turn them into something special! Enjoy!