Making Pretzel Dogs!

A few years ago, I shared my experiments with making pretzels. I've made them several times since then, but I decided this time to make some with a twist! I mean, all pretzels have a twist, I guess, but this time, I mean I wrapped the dough around a hot dog. These are basic Oscar Meyer wieners, so sing the jingle if you know it. I tried to take some snapshots of the process, but some may be a bit out-of-focus. My priority was making food, after all.

One batch of dough got divided into sixteen equal blobs of dough, so I made eight of them into standard pretzels, and used the rest to see just how many wieners I could wrap. It turns out this was just about right to wrap the full package of ten dogs. I started by rolling out a snake, wrapped each hot dog until it seemed about right, and then used the discarded remnants from the eight to wrap the remaining two. I also got a bit better at consistent dough thickness as I went, so the first few are a bit irregular.

I knew the dough might take longer to bake, so I also made the pretzels with a fatter shape to bake everything at once. It took about 20 minutes, and they were done.

Then comes the awful waiting patiently for them to cool. I hate that step.

Verdict: Not bad at all, especially with a dash of dijon mustard. I was a bit heavy-handed with the coarse salt after they were boiled, but I'm a bit out of practice when it comes to eyeballing that. I need more practice. What a shame. I have eight more in the freezer for future snacks, but when they're gone, I'll have to try again. I can bear that burden.

If you ever make pretzels, set some dough aside and give this a try! This is way cheaper than the store-bought option that inspired this idea, and you can choose every ingredient. Want a higher-class bratwurst? Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you! You could even spear it on a stick for a more grown-up variation on a corn dog.

And if nothing else, remember you should always wrap your wiener.