How to Make Pretzel Dogs

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Pretzel Dogs

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1 tteaspoon (9 grams) salt
  • 3 cups (16 1/2 oz. or 500 g) Bread flour
  • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
  • 3 Tablespoons baking soda – for water
  • Hot Dogs (I prefer Hebrew National Reduced Fat all-beef Hot Dogs)

This is a stiff dough, similar to bagels. Place the yeast, honey, salt and water in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Add the flour, one cup at at time and using the dough hook and knead for five to seven minutes, until a smooth and elastic ball of dough forms.  Or, this can be easily mixed using a Cuisinart food processor;  place all dry ingredients in food processor and pulse a few times to mix. With the machine running, add honey and then water (you may not need all of the water). The dough will start to form a ball, mix for 20 seconds. Turn machine off and let dough rest 2 minutes. Turn machine back on and knead the dough for 20-30 seconds or until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Place dough on an oiled counter top in a long flattened log shape. Cover with oiled plastic wrap, and a damp cloth if you live in a very dry climate. Let rise for 1 – 1 ½ hours. Gently deflate. Preheat Oven 450F, and boil 6 cups of water with three Tablespoons baking soda.

Use a pizza cutter to form long strips of dough.  Gently roll the dough to lengthen it create uniform strips.  Now, beginning about 3/4 of an inch from the end start wrapping the hot dog with dough.  Try not to stretch the dough out too much during this step.  Each pretzel dog should rest for about 15 minutes before boiling.  Be sure to tightly squeeze the ends of the dough together.  Boil three pretzel dogs at a time for 30-40 seconds.  Drain, then place on a baking sheet lined with a silicon baking mat.  If you do not have a silicon baking mat use a pan lined with aluminum foil and a generous amount of cooking spray.  Do not salt these, as the hot dog is already very salty.

Bake on the middle rack at 425F.  Place on baking sheet. Top with salt or seeds before baking. Bake 12 – 16 minutes, turning the pan half-way through cooking. These are a dark golden brown when finished.  Allow to cool completely.  If you prepare extra, wrap in saran wrap.  These can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days or in the freezer for several months.  This is a great homemade convenience food.  Just microwave and serve.  We serve these for football parties and at Halloween (mummy dog).  You can make several batches in advanced and freeze.  Warm a large tray in the oven before a party.

For more photos and detailed instructions

The dough has doubled.   Carefully slicing the dough into a “rope” using a pizza cutter.  Roll to make the rope uniform.

Be sure to dry the hot dogs on paper towels before wrapping with dough.  Kids love helping with the wrapping of the dough.  Be sure to firmly pinch the ends.  If there is a little bit of left-over dough after covering a hot dog, just use it for the next one, and again pinch to strands of dough together.  At the end of making the hot dogs, you can form regular pretzels with any remaining dough.  Boil and bake the same way as you would for pretzel dogs, just add pretzel salt after they are boiled.

Boil for 30-40 seconds.  The dough will slightly inflate and become a yellowish color.  Roll the hot dogs a few times as they boil.

Pretzels ready to go in the oven.  They will not spread much when baking so do not worry about over-crowding the pan.  Do not use wax paper or parchment paper to line the baking sheet.  Silicon liners give the best result.  Aluminum foil lined generously with cooking spray is also effective.

The pretzels will be just a bit darker then golden brown when done cooking.  The ones pictured above are slightly over-cooked, but no one complained and they still tasted great.  If your oven has hot spots, take the pretzel dogs out with tongs if some finish baking before others.  Make sure the sides don’t feel soggy.  The internal temperature of the dough should have reached 190F.  If these are wrapped before they have cooled the dough will become soggy.

Special thanks to Pretzeltime for making these back when I used to hang out at shopping malls.  Thanks to the Cooks Illustrated book, Baking Illustrated where I found this great pretzel dough recipe, it is exactly what I was searching for, almost a fusion between an authentic German pretzel and a mall pretzel.  And lots of thanks to my sister Becca for helping me type this recipe and for the hours spent on the phone analyzing results and providing the most thorough test kitchen input.  Happy Football Season.  These pictures aren’t pretty, but this is definitely a family friendly food.