PRETZEL DOGS

Steps:

• Combine the warm water, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes, until the yeast is foamy and begins to smell of yeast.
• Add the flour and butter to the yeast mixture. Attach the dough hook to the stand mixer and, on medium-low speed, combine the mixture until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and appears shiny, roughly 4 to 5 minutes.
• Spray a large bowl with non-stick spray (or lightly grease with vegetable oil) and place dough in greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Place bowl in a warm area and let dough rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
• Place an oven rack in the top third of your oven, and preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Spray parchment paper with non-stick spray. Set aside.
• In a large pot, bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil.
• Place the dough on a greased surface, and divide into 16 equal pieces (If you weigh dough, like I do, they will be about 2.20 oz. each).
• Roll each piece into a long rope, roughly 12 inches long. Carefully wrap half of each piece around a third of a hot dog. Pinch the ends together to seal the dough. If you run out of hot dogs before dough, make regular pretzels. Cut a little more dough off (3 oz.), and shape as desired.
• Place each shaped pretzel on the parchment lined baking sheet.
• Boil the shaped pretzels and pretzel dogs, one at a time, in the baking soda water for 30 seconds each. Using a slotted spatula or spider strainer, remove each pretzel dog from the water and place it on a drying rack to allow any extra baking soda mixture to drip off.
• Place the boiled pretzel dogs back on the parchment lined baking sheets. Brush with beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with pretzel or kosher salt.
• Bake until golden brown, roughly 10 1/2 minutes (14 to 15 minutes for large pretzels).
• Transfer pretzel dogs to a cooling rack for a few minutes before serving. Serve with a variety of mustards or cheese sauce.