Celebrate National Pretzel Day with Pretzel Dogs

Happy Pretzel Day! Did you even now National Pretzel Day existed? Yeah me neither, but any excuse to have these is a good one.

I know this recipe looks like a lot of steps but it's not hard at all & goes much quicker than you can imagine. Trust me you will not regret making these!

Pretzel Dogs (adapted from this recipe)

1 12oz can of warm beer (or water)

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 package INSTANT dry yeast (you can use active also *see note*)

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

4 tablespoons butter, melted

18 uncooked hot dogs

10 cups boiling water

2/3 cup baking soda

1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water

4 tablespoons salt

Add beer (or water), sugar, salt, yeast, flour and butter to mixer; mix well with dough hook. Place dough in a oiled bowl and cover for at least an hour, or until dough is doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheet pans with parchment paper or brush foil with vegetable oil. (Do not use wax paper!) Heat water & baking soda until boiling.

Turn dough out on an oiled surface (do NOT use flour; use oil) and spread into a 10" x 20" rectangle. Cut into 18 - 1" strips (I had enough left over to make a few pretzel nuggets so save any dough you don't use!) Roll dough around hot dogs tightly and seal dough so it stays together. Leave ends open. Place on the parchment-lined pan.

After rolling them all, place the pretzel dogs into the boiling water, 2 or 3 at a time, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water and place on the cookie sheet.

Brush the top of each pretzel dog with the egg yolk and water mixture then sprinkle with the kosher salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, about 15 minutes.

You can cut any unused strips into 1 inch squares, boil 30 seconds, brush with egg wash and bake with or without salt until golden brown.

*NOTE: If you are using active yeast, but not instant yeast you must combine the beer, sugar and kosher salt in a bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. And then mix with the flour and butter.