Sometimes you have the best of intentions. You intend to make healthy vegetable based meals, but instead you just want something that has no nutritional value, feels like summer, and will make your taste buds sing. And sometimes, your husband is really happy and excited when you make said unhealthy meal that you just can’t help yourself. So you do it, you make pretzel dogs and eat that instead of the huge amounts of produce that just got delivered from Waitrose. Oops. 

This is a wonderful weekend treat though. The work to make this isn’t all that difficult but it is time consuming, which means it’s not a weeknight dinner. Although, it does make a pretty indulgent and happiness inducing workplace lunch.

The first time I made pretzel dogs was for lunch on my 30th birthday. The end product was delicious but making them was extraordinarily frustrating. I could not get the dough to come together. It stayed sticky until I added almost a cup more flour than listed in the recipe. And once it was dough, it was hard to handle and roll it out to wrap the hot dogs.

But, since pretzel dogs taste so good Ryan and I wanted to make them again. We’ve been missing baseball a lot this summer, and pretzel dogs remind us of the ballpark. I love getting a pretzel dog, with some cheese dipping sauce, and sitting out in the sun, sweating and cheering on the Nats.

For this recipe, I combined what I’ve done before with soft pretzels with some general research, and a recipe from Buns in My Oven. Her recipes uses Auntie Anne’s pretzels from any mall in America as her inspiration. Both those mall pretzels and ball park food are junk foods that you know lack nutritional value, but you just have to have them. Seriously, I just gotta eat pretzels when I smell ’em. They are staples for those places and it’s not a proper outing to the mall, or the ballpark, without a pretzel. This time to ensure successful dough I mixed everything by hand instead of with the stand mixer. Kitchen gadgets are my favorite, but sometimes doing it manually is a safer bet. You’re just unlikely to overwork dough when you do it by hand. Your (ok, my) arms are going to give out before the dough does. And I think that was part of the problem in my first attempt. I used the dough hook attachment in my mixer and I think it overworked the gluten in the flour, which ultimately made everything tough and dense.

This time I used a wooden spoon to bring together the liquid and dry ingredients together. Once they formed a messy dough that could be handled I kneaded it for 4 minutes until it came together as a smooth ball. It’s pretty easy. I think when you’re a dough/bread novice (like me) it’s best to start out using your hands to get a feel of what well done dough looks and feels like. Unsure how to knead? Check out the step by step photo tutorial on Wikihow.

This dough makes enough to cover 10 hot dogs. Originally though I only cut 8 pieces of dough because I didn’t realize how many dogs were in my pack. Oops. This recipe works for 10, but then the pretzel layer is a bit thin. I think 6-8 hot dogs is the sweet spot for this recipe. That way you have a thick enough layer of pretzel so you can really enjoy its flavors, but not so much that you lose the hot dog and feel like you’re just eating bread.

I know the pretzel dogs might sound like a crazy recipe you might never actually make, but I encourage you to think about trying it out. It’s delicious and I think it would please any member of your family – especially children. It’s fun and it’s a different way to eat a classic summertime barbecue food. Also did I mention?  It’s delicious!

Finally, if you can go to a baseball game this summer, please have a pretzel dog for me.

Messy level: I badly want to say this is an easy mess free recipe, but it’s really not. You need to make the dough, then roll it on the counter, then boil the dogs quickly, then bake them. It’s a lot of steps. None of them difficult, but it requires a lot of dishes. And also, drops of baking soda water leave white marks on dark surfaces so you definitely have to wipe down the stove afterwards.

Pretzel Dogs

 

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Prep time

90 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

1 hour 45 mins

 

Serves: 8-10 pretzel dogs

Ingredients

• ¾ cup warm beer, or water (about 110°F/43°C)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2¼ cups flour
• 1 tablespoon/14g butter, melted
• Vegetable oil
• 10 cups water
• ⅔ cup baking soda
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• Coarse salt for topping
• 6-10 hot dogs

Instructions

1. To heat the beer or water microwave it in 15 second bursts. Use a thermometer if you have one to check its temperature. Otherwise, if it feels warm to your finger but not scalding hot, then it's probably fine.
2. Once the beer is warm stir in the sugar and yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes. In this time the yeast will get foamy and smell like bread.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the salt and flour. Create a well in the center of the flour mixture.
4. Pour the beer mixture and the melted butter into the well of the flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon (or a dough hook on low) mix together the liquid and flour mixtures. Mix until you have a shaggy ball.
5. Knead the dough for 4-5 minutes or until it forms a smooth ball. I recommend doing this by hand, but you can use the mixer.
6. Lightly oil a medium bowl with vegetable oil. Put the prepared dough in the bowl and roll it around a bit so it's lightly coated in oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 1 hour or until it's doubled in size.
7. Towards the end of that 1 hour, preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C.
8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and grease the parchment.
9. In a large pot combine the water and baking soda. Bring to a boil.
10. Now that the dough is ready, divide it into the same number of pieces as the number of hot dogs you have.
11. Using a rolling pin or your hand flatten the dough so it's about ¼"-1/2" in thickness. Put the hot dog in the middle and wrap the dough around it. Depending on what look you prefer you can cover the hot dog entirely or let the ends stick out. Pinch the edges of the dough together to form a seal so that the dough won't unravel.
12. Once all the hot dogs are covered, in batches of 3-4, drop the hot dogs into the boiling water. Let them boil for 30 seconds them remove with a slotted spoon.
13. Place the pretzel dogs on the prepared baking sheet. Leave at least 1" in between the pretzel dogs.
14. In a small bowl beat together the egg and 1 tablespoon of water.
15. Brush the egg over the tops of the pretzel dogs. Sprinkle each dog with some coarse salt.
16. Bake for 15 minutes, or until nicely browned all over.
17. Let cool just slightly.
18. Serve with ketchup, mustard, or cheese sauce and a beer.

3.3.3077

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These pretzels are billowy soft, buttery, with just a touch of salt. They really taste like the pretzels you get at the mall (in the good, indulgent sort of way). What’s great is that this recipe doesn’t take too long (as far as making bread goes), the technique isn’t too difficult, and you’ll already have practically all the ingredients you need in your kitchen.

So here’s the final recipe in my pretzel series. This recipe is easy to double, but as written here you’ll be able to make six 3-4″ soft pretzels. I’ve adapted this recipe from the one here on allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:

2 tsp active dry yeast

1/2 tsp white sugar

5 oz water (5/8 cup of water) – should be warm at about 100°

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil

1/4 cup baking soda

2 cups hot water

1 tbsp butter

kosher salt (for sprinkling)

Directions:

1. Make sure your 5oz of water is warm. I turned the faucet on high heat and then used a cooking thermometer to check the temperature. Microwave it hotter if you need to.

2. Dissolve the yeast and 1/2 tsp of sugar in the warm water. Let sit for 10  minutes. It will start to look kind of creamy and it will smell strongly of bread.

3. In a large bowl, mix the flour, 1/4 cup of sugar and salt.

4. Create a hole in the middle of your flour mixture. Pour in the vegetable oil and the dissolved yeast. Mix until it forms into a dough. If the dough is too dry add a few tsps of water to help it mix together.

5. Knead the dough for 7-8 minutes. You can do this by hand, but I recommend an electric mixer with a dough hook.

6. Lightly butter a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with butter. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour.

7. Preheat oven to 425°. In a shallow bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water. (I turned the faucet as hot as I could and used that to dissolve the baking soda) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease it with cooking spray.

8. When the dough risen, put it on a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into six pieces. Roll each piece into  18″-24″ rope.

9. Take the two ends of your rope and bring them to the middle and cross them. (It will look like an upside-down awareness ribbon)

10. Twist the ends one more time.

11. Fold the twist over and press it onto the bottom circle part, so you get the traditional pretzel shape.

12. Dip the pretzel into the baking soda water. Place on the baking sheet.

13. Bake for 8 minutes, or until golden brown.

14. Melt the butter. Brush it on to of the baked pretzels. Sprinkle the salt to your liking.

15. Let cool enough so they’re easy to handle, but so they’re still warm to taste. EAT THEM.

Messy Level: When I’ve done this in the past I’ve made an epic mess with the pretzel prep and baking soda dip. What I did this time to alleviate the mess was set up an organized system. I had the floured work surface, then immediately to the right the baking soda water, then immediately to the right of that the baking pan, and then after that a kitchen towel. That way I wasn’t dripping baking soda everywhere and I had a place to wipe my hands as soon as I finished each pretzel. I’m going to give this a two spoon rating.

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The blue things on the side of the book are the post-its for all the things I want to make!

A few months ago my aunt suggested that I try out Christina Tosi’s cookbook Milk. It took me awhile to get around to it, but I’m so glad I did, and today’s recipe comes from the book. Let me tell you, I was absolutely enthralled by the book. I found it both intimidating and exciting. I really couldn’t wait to dive in and make a half-dozen recipes.

But let me back up. Momofuku Milk Bar is basically a bakery in New York City. But their cookies, and cakes, and pies, aren’t run of the mill. The use unexpected ingredients to make delightful treats. They use breakfast cereal, salty snacks, and of course sugar, to make amazing baked goods.

At first I was intimidated, and I still am a little bit. Baking is about precision and Tosi takes it pretty seriously. She strongly advocates for measuring ingredients in grams and for using specific ingredients. After the introduction, there is a whole section on ingredients and another section on equipment. This was where I got intimidated because she uses ingredients like glucose, freeze dried corn, and both brown and clear vanilla extract. Tosi recommends buying what you can’t find in stores on Amazon. Whew. For some reason, no matter how amazing a recipe looks, I’m averse to buying an ingredient if I’m not sure I’ll ever use it again. Why can’t I use what I already have?

But what is clear from all these instructions is that Tosi loves Milk Bar and loves what she does. And so most of the time when I get a celebrity or restaurant cookbook it doesn’t feel like these are the real recipes, but instead are instructions altered for public consumption. But, here it feels like these are the true recipes and she’s sharing it with us, her readers, and letting us know that it might be scary but we can make amazing baked goods. And so, why not push myself? If the purpose of my blog and my cooking adventures is to try something new, then I should suck it up and figure out where in the world I can buy malt powder.

What really got me excited about the book is how the recipes are exciting and vivacious. There’s no plain sugar cookie in this book. Every recipe has great personality. Throughout the book there’s a great mix of sweet, salty, crunchy and gooey. I was so inspired by the idea of using rainbow sprinkles, or cornflakes, or crushed pretzel bits. I rented this book from the library, but I’m definitely going to buy a copy on my own because there’s too much I want to try. My only true gripe is there are not enough pictures of the food. I want more drool worthy images!

Look at all the gooey yummy cream cheese!

Anyway, I decided to start out with the bagel bomb recipe. This recipe would push me out of my comfort zone because I hardly ever make bread, but it doesn’t require any hard to find ingredients. To describe this recipe, it’s like a bagel the shape of a dinner roll, baked, and filled with oozy gooey cream cheese. Amazing right? I made them on Saturday for breakfast and Ryan and I had to hold back so we didn’t devour them too fast and burn ourselves on the very hot cream cheese.

What is great about this recipe is that there is so much room for innovation with this recipe. As is, the recipe is for an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese.  But, you could easily knead chocolate chips in the dough and use plain cream cheese. You could also knead in raisins and cinnamon, or dried cranberries. Or you could fill it with salmon cream cheese! Oh the possibilities!

One last note before we get started…  I’m going to give you the ingredient list using cups and spoons, not grams. I know it’s less authentic, I’m sorry! I didn’t use grams because my kitchen scale isn’t sophisticated enough, and I only want to share with you what I actually did. Also, I changed up Tosi’s cream cheese recipe because she used bacon in it and I didn’t feel it was necessary. And finally, “everything bagel topping” calls for black sesame seeds but I didn’t use those. I already had white sesame seeds and I just couldn’t bring myself to buy more sesame seeds. It still tasted good. However, if you make this and decide on using both types of sesame seeds, I’ll be super proud of you.

Ingredients:

Bagels –

3 1/2 cup flour

1 tbsp salt

1/2 packet or 1 1/8 tsp of active dry yeast

1 3/4 cup water at room temperature

grape seed oil (although I used vegetable)

Cream Cheese –

7 ounces cream cheese (buy the kind that’s in a square package, ounce measurements will be on the outside)

3-4 scallion greens thinly sliced (I used the food processor)

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Everything Bagel Topping –

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp white sesame seeds

2 tsp black sesame seeds

2 tsp poppy seeds

1 tbsp dried onion

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder.

Other

1 egg

1/2 tsp water

Directions:

1. Start with the cream cheese because it takes the longest. Chop up the scallions into small pieces. Put the cream cheese in a bowl and beat until lighter and smooth. You can beat it a.) by hand (ouch! my arm would be tired) b.) electric hand mixer c.) Tosi’s recommendation, stand mixer with paddle attachment on medium.

In case you don’t know what yeast looks like… at the store it comes in packets and you can find it in the baking aisle

2. Add the scallions, sugar, and salt to the cream cheese and beat until well mixed.

3. On a parchment lined baking sheet, put 8 lumps of cream cheese. Freeze until hard, about 1-3 hours. I left mine in 1.5 hours.

4. Now move on to the dough; that takes the next longest. Tosi recommends a stand mixer, and that’s the directions I’ll use, but I’ve made bread dough before completely by hand, so if you don’t have a stand mixer, I am confident you can still do this recipe. ANYWAY. Put the flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl. Hold the dough hook in your hand and mix. Basically pretend the dough hook is a spoon.

5. Slowly add the water. Continue mixing, by hand, using the dough hook. Tosi says it should be a “shaggy mass,” which to me meant the dough was a little shredded looking and not smooth.

6. Attach the dough hook to the machine. Mix on the lowest speed for 7 minutes. At about 3.5 minutes in you can stop and check the progress if you feel so inclined. Tosi says it should “look like a wet ball.” Mine didn’t look wet, but it was sticky and when I poked it the dough slowly bounced back into place (which she said it should). If yours looks really wet, then add a little flour.

7. Grease a large bowl with oil. To do this, I poured a little oil in a bowl then used a paper towel to coat all the sides. Put your dough in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit for 45 minutes.

8. Mix all the ingredients for the everything bagel topping in a small bowl. Set aside.

9. Heat oven to 350°.

10. Lightly flour your work surface. Put the dough on your surface. Punch down the dough to flatten it. Using a dough cutter (or a ruler, or something that shape) divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Using your hands and gently stretch the dough pieces to be about 3 inches wide.

11. Put a frozen cream cheese lump into the center of each piece of dough.

12. Bring the edges of the dough up and around the cream cheese. Pinch the dough shut, then roll the ball gently in your hand to seal it up.

13. Put the bagel balls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Give 3-4 inches of space between bagels.

14. Whisk the egg and 1/2 tsp of water. Brush each bagel with a generous coating of the egg mixture.

15. Generously sprinkle the everything bagel topping over the bagel. Cover it as much as you can!

16. Bake for about 25 minutes. You want it to be a light golden brown and the cream cheese should be exploding and oozing out of some the bagels. Looks great right? I want to run home and make this right now. Thank you Milk Bar!

Messy Level:  This recipe is more time consuming than it is messy. I’ll call it a 2 spoon recipe. You need to use a few bowls, but nothing flies all around or gets sticky or crazy. Yes, the cream cheese oozes, but then you just dip in the bagel. This recipe cleans itself. YUM.

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