Mini Pretzel Dogs

Happy Superbowl Sunday!

In honor of today I'm posting two recipes this week. WHAT? I know.
I wasn't sure of where I was going to be watching the game until Friday night so I didn't have a whole lot of time to plan what I was going to make. However, while I was searching the web for something amazing, (I like to wow on occasions like these. I.e. the buffalo bites or Bears cookies I made for the first game of the season.) my Grandmother reminded me that we had mini hotdogs in the freezer. I remembered that I had a recipe for pretzel dogs in my bookmarks and was so excited because I've been wanting to make pretzels ever since I got my Kitchen Aid mixer for my birthday. And really, wrapping mini hotdogs in croissants is so predictable. Delicious, but predictable.
The original recipe on Joy The Baker used normal sized hotdogs, cut in half but I already had the mini ones and I think that they work better for parties anyway.
After making the dough for the buffalo bites from scratch, I assumed that the pretzel dough would take forever but surprisingly you only have to let it rise for an hour and five minutes all together. Not too bad.
Using the mini hotdogs, I made 30 pretzel dogs, but really you could make a few more, maybe 35.
Not to mention they are delicious with mustard or just as is. But I mean, really, how could they not be? Its a pretzel hotdog.
Don't think it's too late to make these, you still can!

Mini Pretzel Dogs

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter, (melted and cooled)
14 cups of water
1 cup baking soda
8 hotdogs
1 large egg, (beaten with a splash of water)
salt & pepper for topping

In the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with a dough hooks, combine warm water and sugar.
Sprinkle yeast on top.
Set aside for 5 minutes.
Mixture will begin to foam and froth. If it doesn't, dump out the mixture and make a new one.
Add the flour, salt, and butter.
Mix on low speed until well combined.
Increase speed to medium and knead dough until smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl in a ball, about 4 minutes.
Remove dough.
Scrape bowl of any residue.
Coat bowl with vegetable oil.
Return dough to bowl.
Sprinkle flour on top of the dough.
Cover and let sit for about one hour in a warm place to rise double its size.
Place oven racks to the middle and upper 1/3 of the oven.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly brush paper with oil.
Combine water and baking soda in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
While the water comes to a boil, turn the dough onto a clean, slightly oiled work surface.
Divide dough into 8 or 16 pieces, depending on how large you'd like your pretzel dogs. (8 for a whole hot dog and 16 for half hotdogs.)
Start to roll each piece of dough in the middle with both hands, moving your hands outward as you go to make a rope.
Roll the dough until the dough is about twice the size of the hotdog you will be using.
Wrap dough around hotdog, sealing the ends.
When the water has come to a boil, gently lower each hotdog in the saucepan.
Boil each pretzel dog for 30 seconds and remove with a flat, slotted spatula.
Place on prepared baking sheet.
Brush pretzel dogs with the beaten egg.
Top with sprinkles of salt and pepper.
Bake until deeply golden brown, about 12-20 minutes.
Transfer to a cooling rack for a few minutes before serving warm.
If you're not going to serve all of them, double wrap in plastic wrap and store in freezer.
When ready to serve, take them out of plastic and wrap in foil.
Bake in 350 degreed for 12 minutes.

Buffalo Chicken Bites

I was looking for something to make for football sunday. Something other than a dip. Let's be honest, I love making things that I've never had before, It's just more fun to give people something they've never herd of!
I've been on a spicy kick lately, putting tabasco on everything. I got the idea of buffalo chicken in my head and found this on Tracey's Culinary Adventures.
You can cut the time for these by more than half by using premade pizza dough from the store, I had never made homemade dough before and had no idea how long it was going to take. I didn't have enough time and the dough didn't get to rise enough, but they still tasted amazing. All who tried said they were so good, and I'll admit I ate almost all of them myself.
Also, I used Frank's buffalo hot sauce but you can use any.
In attempt to make these slightly healthier, slightly, i used low fat cheddar cheese and skim milk. Every little bit helps, right?
Make these for any party or get-togehter and they will be a hit, just make sure you allow a long time to make them if your dough homemade. Learn from me!

Buffalo Chicken Bites

1 cup shredded chicken
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup hot sauce 
4 tablespoons unsalted buter, (melted and cooled)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar, (packed)
1 cup milk, (warm)
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt

To make the buffalo chicken mixture:
combine the chicken, cheese, hot sauce and butter in a medium bowl.
stir to combine.
the mixture may seem too wet, but the chicken will absorb some of the sauce.

To make the dough:
combine the warm milk and brown sugar in a measuring cup and stir until the sugar dissolves.
Add the flour, yeast and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Beat on low briefly just to combine.
With the mixer on low, gradually pour in the milk/sugar mixture and beat until a rough dough forms.
Switch from the paddle attachment to the dough hook.
Knead the dough for about five minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic.
You want the dough to clear the sides of the bowl as it kneads, if it's not, a tablespoon of flour at a time until it does.
The dough should be tacky but not sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and shape into a ball.
Spray a large bowl with non stick cooking sprat and add the ball of dough, turning to coat.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 90 minutes.
You can tell if the dough has doubled in size by sticking your finger in and making an impression.
If the impression remains, you are ready to move on.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Line a rimed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and cut it into four equal pieces.
Working with one piece at a tie, roll the dough into a twelve inch rope.
Use your fingers to flatten the dough into a rectangular shape, the use a rolling pin to roll to a roughly 12x4 inch rectangle.
Add 1/4 of the buffalo chicken mixture to the lower third of the, making sure to leave a border along the bottom.
Stretch the bottom edge of the dough up and over the filling, pressing to seal.
Starting at the bottom, roll up the dough as tightly as possible.
Cut the log into twelve even pieces and transfer them to the prepared sheet pan.
Repeat with remaining pieces of dough and chicken mixture.
Let the bites rise at room temperature uncovered for about twenty to thirty minutes, the dough will only rise slightly.

Bake the bites for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack, and if desired, brush the tops with melted butter before serving.

Bears Cookies

It's football season once again!! It's also the perfect time make roll out cookies and use your football helmet cookie cutters.
I made these for the bears first game of the season using royal frosting and the Spiced Brown Sugar cookies I've made previously. I get so sick of sugar cookies being the cut out cookie of choice so  i really like the spiced brown sugar cookies, which offer just the right amount of spices on a very soft cookie. They're perfect for fall, football season, Halloween, and Thanksgiving so keep them in mind next time you're having a get together this time of year.
Royal frosting is very time consuming. My Mother decided to make helmet cookies for my cousins birthday after i made these and used royal frosting as well and i warned her! Your cookies will turn out beautiful but I wouldn't make these without a whole day to spare with when you're making dough, rolling out, baking, waiting or them to cool, doing outlines, flooding, and putting piping on the top. they're well worth all the time and effort though and everyone loves the end results.

Like last time I used royal frosting, last Halloween with my Chocolate Halloween Cutout Cookies, I used the recipe and tutorial by Annie's Eats

Also, I got my helmet cookie cutter at Sur-La-Table (my favorite store period.)
What cut out cookies are you making this fall?