My kids have been asking for simple dinners lately.  Hot dogs, hamburgers or pasta with sauce is what they want.  Nothing fancy.

I think things are so stressful in their life right now, as they are for all of us, they want comfort and familiarity in their meals as well as in their routines.  My mother-in-laws was given last rites on Saturday when she suddenly sat up and had a surge.  She sat up just as the priest finished and chatted for almost 2 hours.  She drank, ate and even went for a walk.  It lasted for about 24 hours or so but now she is back to mostly sleeping again.  So, our life goes on as we continue the long good-bye.

To meet my kids requests half-way I found this recipe for Pretzel Dogs from Stresscake.wordpress.com on Pinterest.  Now, he does not use his bread machine.   That is fine with me.  I love just dumping the ingredients in the bowl and about 1 hour later I have dough.  No mixing, no kneading, just waiting.  For me it works perfectly. So I used my bread maker.  I do not have a mixer with a dough hook and these turned out perfectly in my little Breadman Bread Maker.

Verdict:

These hit the spot for everyone.  They were fun and they went quickly.  I made 12 hot dogs and about 6 rolls.  We had rolls leftover for lunches the next day and 2 hot dogs which the kids took in their lunch boxes.

The recipe looked a little intimidating to me at first but it wasn’t bad at all.  It basically moves in four steps – making the dough, rolling out the dough, poaching the rolls and baking them.  I could handle four basic steps.

I also used turkey hot dogs because if and when we eat hot dogs that is what we eat and these were good.  Use your favorite hot dogs when making these.

I served these with a side of sweet potato fries and green beans.

Ingredients:

for the dough:

• 1 ½ cups warm water
• 1 TBSP active dry yeast (1 packet)
• 2 tsp sugar plus a sprinkle for proofing yeast
• 4 ½ cups flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 TBSP butter, melted

for the poaching & glazing:

• 1/4 cup baking soda

• large saucepan of water
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• pretzel salt

• 12 hot dogs, use your favorite brand
• mustard, ketchup or cheese for dipping, if desired

Directions:

1. Combine the water and the yeast in the bowl of the bread maker and sprinkle with a pinch of sugar.   Let it rest until foamy.  If it does not turn foamy within 5 minutes throw away the mixture and start over.  Either your water was not the right temperature (about 110 degrees, warm to the touch) or your yeast was bad.  Either way the dough will not rise.
2. Add the remaining ingredients (sugar, flour, salt, butter) in order and mix on dough setting
3. Once dough has risen place dough on lightly floured surface
4. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
5.  Cut the dough into 18 pieces, roughly 2 ounces each.
6. Roll each piece out to a long snake roughly 2 1/2 times the length of your raw hot dog.
7. Starting at one end of the hot dog wrap it with the dough snake leaving no gaps in between the rows.
8. Space evenly on the prepared sheet pans, leaving at least 1” between each roll.
9. Cover with a light film of plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes until doubled.
10. Preheat oven to 425°F.
11. In a large saucepan, bring 2 quarts of water to a low boil.
12. Add the baking soda and lower heat to a simmer.
13. Carefully place the rolls into the water.
14. Poach for 30 seconds then carefully turn the roll over.
15. Poach other side for 30 seconds then remove with a slotted spoon to the same prepared sheet pan.
16. Repeat with the remaining rolls, leaving at least 1” between rolls for baking.
17. With a pastry brush, glaze each roll completely with the lightly beaten egg making sure to coat all sides completely.
18. Top each roll with a sprinkle of pretzel salt, if desired.
19. Bake the rolls for 15-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through.
20. Cool slightly before serving.