Pretzel Dogs

On my last leg of my exploration of the pacific northwest, I drove back from Vancouver to Seattle... google told me it would take 2 hours 40 minutes, it took a glorious 4 hours.... traffic at the border.. traffic through the city... and just like that my friend and I were last to board the aircraft... phew that was close. Anyway, I knew to juice up with some of Vancouver's best coffee, I went to JJ Bean on Granville's public market.. the coffee was great (actually attempting to make cold brew coffee right now!).. it got me through a few hours of driving... but then.. it hit.. the diuretic effect. I saw a monstrosity of traffic, and exited as soon as I could.. to a mall... my friend and I went through the mall hoping to find a pretzel shop (oh.. and of course the bathroom haha,) but there was none in sight.. it was so sad, I was really craving a pretzel... I mean.. pretzels are my mall comfort foods, post boards.. I went and got a pretzel... black friday shopping.. regular shopping.. having a cruddy day shopping.... I go and grab a pretzel (typically the pizza one)... and well this trip sure warranted a pretzel, but no darn pretzel shop!! I settled on another iced coffee.... and well.. cotton candy... then I was on my way again...

So I've been back for a few days.. and decided to make pretzels this morning.. part of my Sunday Morning Tradition... and what better thing to pair it with than a good ol hot dog.... yea I guess I haven't started my diet yet... but the hot dog was "reduced fat" (Hebrew Nationals brand) ... still fatty though. haha yep, so there's my story on my pretzel craving... and my craving is finally SATISFIED :)


The dough was so versatile... I made pretzels, pretzel bites, a large bun, and 3 pretzel dogs... I cut this recipe in half because pretzels aren't that good the next day. I don't know, I've been out of the baking loop for awhile...  I struggled to get nice looking pretzels at the beginning because my dough was way too soft, I guess pretzel dough isn't like the doughs I'm used to working with, my first few attempts were too ugly to blog about, but they were probably the tastiest bunch too! I made a few more errors + set off the fire alarm, definitely over salted a few buns, and over baking soda-ed the last batch... I fired up my oven 3 times yesterday just so I can have fresh tasting pretzels throughout the day... but I thought that I would have to add more baking soda to the water during my last batch... WRONG... that made it taste so weird... and I didn't have pretzel salt... so I used sea salt which is pretty and all... but.. dang.. that's salty! All in all, I still think it's the perfect recipe, the bread was very soft and tender, with a distinct outer texture, it only took around 2 hours from start to finish. I used my super trustworthy bread machine to mix it and let it rise... yea.. laziness at its finest... but I haven't been able to produce a dough that I like with my kitchen aid yet! Anyway, shaping the dough was fun, pretzel dogs are so easy, you just roll or pull out a rope of dough, start with one end of the hot dog, and continue wrapping it around until you get to the other end.... I call this one a copycat recipe success. :)

Pretzel Dogs using a Bread Machine

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com "Mall Pretzels" and Alton Brown's "Homemade Soft Pretzels": 

Makes 6 

Dough: 

1 tsp active dry yeast

1 tbsp light brown sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup bread flour

1 3/4 cups AP flour

1.5 tsp vegetable oil 

Baking soda bath:

1/3 cup baking soda

5 cups water

6 hot dogs - I used Hebrew Nationals Reduced Fat Beef franks

Toppings: 

Coarse salt

Melted butter

1. Add all of the dough ingredients into a bread machine on dough setting, press start, but stick around to see if the dough incorporates into a nice mass, and is not really wet. Let rise for 1 hour, or until double
2. Preheat oven at 450 degrees, with the rack in the center, line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
3. In a large pot, bring the baking soda bath ingredients to a boil, stir to make sure that the baking soda is not clumping and is somewhat dissolved
2. On a well floured surface, flour your hands and turn the dough onto the board. Cut the dough into 6 pieces. Roll the dough with your palms so that you get a long rope. I found that pulling/ stretching it in the air was easier... your rope should be around a foot long, start wrapping it from one end of the hot dog to the other leaving a little piece of the hot dog sticking out.. ( my hot dogs were longer than most... so just stretch out your dough to what you think is the length of your hot dog... ) Place the hot dog/ dough into the baking soda bath, gently ladle some of the mixture over it, time it for 30 seconds, and take out with a slotted spoon of spatula (with holes) try to shake off all the excess water, and place onto lined baking sheet, sprinkle with salt.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, and then broil on low until tops are brown, watch it carefully!! When ready, brush with melted butter, and serve.