Soft Pretzel Hot Dog Buns

• Ingre­di­ents:
• 10 oz. water, luke­warm (110–115°)
• 1 tbsp. gran­u­lat­ed sugar
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• ¹⁄₄ oz. (2 ¹⁄₄ tsp.) instant dry yeast
• 4 cups all-pur­pose flour
• 2 tbsp. unsalt­ed but­ter, melt­ed and cooled
• 8 cups water
• ¹⁄₂ cup bak­ing soda
• 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tbsp. water, for the egg wash
• Pret­zel salt or coarse sea salt

Place the water in a mix­er bowl. Add the sug­ar and kosher salt; whisk to com­bine. Sprin­kle the yeast over the water mix­ture even­ly and let stand 5–10 min­utes until foamy.

Add the flour and but­ter to the water mix­ture, stir­ring by hand with a rub­ber scraper, until most of the flour is incorporated.

Mix on low, using your mix­er’s dough hook, until just com­bined, then increase the speed to medi­um for about 5 min­utes, or until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn out the dough into a bowl greased with canola oil and cov­er. Place in a warm spot and let rise about an hour, or until dou­bled in size.

Pre­heat the oven to 450°; light­ly oil parch­ment paper for 2 bak­ing sheets and set aside.

Turn the dough out onto a counter — do not sprin­kle flour on the sur­face — and deflate — gen­tly, please! We don’t want to hurt the dough’s feelings.

Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, cov­er, and let rest 10 min­utes to relax the gluten. Using your hands, roll each of the 8 pieces into 7‑inch logs. Place them on the bak­ing sheets, cov­er, and let rest 30 minutes.

Place the water in an 8‑quart pot and bring to a boil.

Boil That Dust Speck!

This is the per­fect time to pre­tend you’re Pro­fes­sor Snape: Wave a spoon over the boil­ing water, say “Quad­ran­tem Anui!” and add the bak­ing soda. Smug­ly pat your­self on the back as the water gets all fizzy and magical.

Reduce the heat slight­ly and add the pret­zels, only a few at a time, and boil 30 sec­onds per side. Remove from the water with a slot­ted spoon or spat­u­la, and place back on the bak­ing sheets.

Repeat with the remain­ing pret­zels, then brush each one light­ly with egg wash and cut 3 diag­o­nal slits with a ser­rat­ed knife in each one, being care­ful not to cut down more than about a quar­ter inch. Sprin­kle with pret­zel or coarse sea salt and bake in the mid­dle and upper third of the oven for 10–13 min­utes, rotat­ing the pans halfway through the bak­ing time. When the pret­zels are a deep brown col­or, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Slice the buns and serve with your favorite hot dogs. Enjoy!

Hot Doggin’ Like a Boss!

Here’s just one of the many rea­sons these buns are bet­ter than store-bought: You can slice them on top!

Take a gan­der at the pic­ture up there. You can buy top-sliced buns, but they’re real­ly hard to find. 

Once you’ve enjoyed a hot dog or brat in a top-sliced bun you’ll nev­er go back.

Check out Fla­vor the Moments for this and oth­er great recipes!