I had some friends with kids over recently and thought these pretzel buns might be a fun way to dress up a hot dog. They definitely added a little something...I would say that it's the chewy, salty exterior that really improves upon the classic bun. No one wanted mustard (maybe because I made cheese sauce), but obviously a hot dog on a pretzel bun just screams for it. One of the kids said I could put the
Pretzel Factory out of business with these, so she liked them. Don't worry Pretzel Factory, I only have one oven and two silpats (and no ambition).
PRETZEL HOT DOG BUNS
Yield: 14-16 servings
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 packet active dry yeast
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 small cloves garlic, grated
3 cups all-purpose flour,
plus more for dusting
1 cup bread flour
1/2 cup baking soda
pretzel salt or coarse ground
sea salt, for sprinkling
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1. In a small saucepan, heat the
milk, water, sugar and honey to 105 to 110º F. Add to the bowl of a stand
mixer. Sprinkle the yeast over the water mixture and wait for at least 10 to 15
minutes until the yeast blooms.
2. In a separate saucepan over
medium heat, add the butter and garlic and cook until the butter is melted and
the garlic is fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Combine the all-purpose flour
and bread flour in a mixing bowl.
4. Add the flour mixture to the
bowl with the blooming yeast, and then add in the melted butter and garlic
mixture. Mix on medium speed until the dough has come together and is smooth
and elastic in texture and pulling away from the sides of the bowl, 5 to 7
minutes.
5. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone
mats. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured cutting board and form into a
ball. Cut into 7 or 8 equal pieces, and then cut those in half to form 14 or 16 equal
pieces. Using your hands, roll each piece into a ball and place onto a prepared
baking sheet. Cover with a dish cloth and let them rest in a warm place for 12
to 15 minutes.
6. Once rested, lightly dust
your work surface again and roll the balls into 6-inch logs. Place onto the
other prepared baking sheet, cover, place back in the warm spot and let rest
for an additional 30 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 425º F. Place
one oven rack high and one low. Line 2 more baking sheets with silicone mats or
parchment paper.
8. In a large pot, bring 8 cups
water to a boil, and then add the baking soda. In batches, place the dough in
the water and cook for 30 seconds on each side.
9. Using a slotted spatula,
remove the logs and place onto the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle the logs
with pretzel salt as they come out of the water, to ensure the salt sticks.
Then cut 3 diagonal slits on top of the bread, not too deep.
10. Bake for about 10 minutes or until deep golden brown,
rotating between the top and bottom racks of the oven halfway through the
cooking.
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yeast sprinkled over warm milk, water, honey, sugar mixture
I put everything in the kitchen aid bowl so I
could avoid washing more dishes than necessary. |
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pouring garlic butter into the bloomed yeast
Because I was cheating a little and using just one
bowl, I decided to add the liquid first. It just seemed
to make more sense. |
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| adding the flours |
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| smooth dough |
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| dough ball |
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cut into 8 pieces
This recipe originally had a yield of 8, but the
buns came out way too big, so I changed it.
As a matter of fact, I took one of the balls below
and halved it, just to check the size. Even that bun
came out slightly long, but way more manageable. |
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| dough balls on a silpat |
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risen dough balls on parchment
I'd love to say that I experimented by using one silpat and
one piece of parchment so I could let you know the results,
but the truth is I could only find one of my silpats. Luckily
you can benefit from my laziness (turns out my other silpat was
easy to find if I had only looked for 30 seconds). So here are
the results: DO NOT USE PARCHMENT. The cooked rolls
stuck. And I mean STUCK. They couldn't be peeled off, but had
to be cut off (which loses some of that nice crusty, chewy outside). |
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| dough rolled into logs |
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| logs risen |
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| adding baking soda to boiling water (it bubbles up) |
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| boiling the dough |
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boiled dough slashed and sprinkled with salt
I didn't have any pretzel salt, so I just used kosher. |
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pretzel hot dog buns
You can see the baked buns on the parchment in the
background. You can tell from this photo that the parchment
is totally stuck to the buns, just by the way it's pulling up.
You can also tell how gargantuan the other rolls are compared
to the smaller one (at the very top of the silpat lined sheet pan). |
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This is one of the smaller buns, so you can imagine
how crazy large the other ones twice the size were.
I wish I'd taken a photo of one with a hot dog in it for
scale. Sorry about that. You'll just have to take my word
for it. They were like torpedoes. Delicious torpedoes. |
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