Pretzel Wrapped Lit’l Smokies
I’ve had this little recipe idea kicking around in my head for a while now and I finally made them yesterday! AMAZING!!! The pretzel flavor wrapped around the smokey little beef hot dog is a match made in heaven. It was all I could do to stop myself from eating the entire batch.
They are perfect to make for a fun New Year’s Eve snack.
My kids have been begging me to make them again….little do they know I already have them on the New Year’s Eve snacks menu.
I used my favorite pretzel recipe. It is Martha Stewart’s, you can find it here.
Instead of dividing the dough into 16 pieces and forming each piece into a pretzel, I ripped off small chunks and rubbed them back and forth in my hands until they turned into long snakes (about 6 inches long). Then I started at one end of the lit’l Smokie and wrapped it down.
If you have never made pretzels before you might be surprised to see how easy it is. The dough is very similar to pizza dough. What gives it the pretzel flavor is the step of boiling them in baking soda water for one minute before baking.
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 5-6 cups flour
- 2 tsp canola oil
- 2 packages Lit'l Smokies (I like the all Beef)
- Course Sea Salt
- 2 Tbsp Baking Soda
- 1 egg
- Water
- In your stand mixer with a dough hook attatched combine warm water and sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved and then sprinkle yeast on top of water. Let stand 10 minutes
- Add salt and 1 cup flour to yeast mixture. Stir well, add 4 more cups of flour and turn mixer on medium low for 1½ minutes.
- Turn mixer to low and continue mixing for one more minute. Add a little more flour at a time, up to 1 cup, if dough is sticking to the edges.
- Turn dough out on to a lightly floured surface and hand knead for 3-4 minutes.
- Use the 2 tsp of canola oil, or generously spray a large bowl and place dough in the oiled bowl, cover it and let rise until dough is doubled, about 1 hour. (I do this step in a warm oven and it only takes 20-30 minutes) To get your oven warm turn it to 200 degrees while you are making the dough, when you place it in the oven to rise turn the oven off. If you do the oven method use a greased glass bowl not a metal one.
- When dough has risen, preheat oven to 450 degrees and fill a large pot (I use my larges and deepest frying pan) with 2 inches of water and 2 tbsp of baking soda.Turn it on to bring it to a boil
- Spray two cookie sheets with cooking spray and begin wrapping the lit'l smokies with the dough. Set wrapped smokies on cookie sheet,
- When you have finished wrapping half of them place approx 12-14 in the boiling water for 1 minute, fish them out with a slotted spoon and put them back on the cookie sheet. Repeat until all the pretzel dogs on the sheet have been boiled.
- Brush them with egg wash(beat the egg with 1 tbsp water) and then sprinkle lightly with course salt.
- Cook them for 12-15 minutes in the 450 degree oven.
- While those are cooking prep the other half of the smokies so they will be ready to go in the oven when those come out.
- Serve with honey mustard, ketchup or your favorite dipping sauces.
Enjoy!
Keep it Real!!!
Glenn Daniels
October 19, 2014 at 1:25 amThis sounded like an awesome recipe. Followed the recipe and ended up with what looked like awesome wraps but the bottoms were burnt beyond use for a party. Very disappointed. Made many pizza’s that had the bottom turn out much better.
Maria
October 19, 2014 at 1:28 pmI am sorry to hear that Glenn. I have made these multiple times and never had the bottoms burn, maybe in your oven they need less cooking time or you could turn the heat down by 25 degrees next time to see if that would make a difference.
Maria
Len
March 11, 2016 at 2:41 pmIt’s also possible Glenn’s pan was too close to the bottom of the oven?
Tracye
January 13, 2016 at 12:37 amI just made these for the first time… they turned out perfect… just fyi, my son is allergic to eggs so I used melted butter instead of egg wash… but I do have a question. I did not use all of my dough, I wrapped it and put it in the refrigerator, will it still be usable and for how long? I may use some for a pizza but have to find something to do with the rest…it makes quite a bit of dough… Thank you for sharing the recipe !!!
Maria
January 13, 2016 at 2:12 pmThe dough doesn’t keep very long. I usually just turn what is left into regular pretzels. I would use it asap. I am so glad you liked the recipe. We love them.
Darcie
January 20, 2016 at 1:08 pmWould I be able to put these in the fridge after boiling them and bake them the next day?
Maria
January 25, 2016 at 11:04 pmHi Darcie, I have never tried it so I can’t say. I have a feeling it would make them very tough though.
Sheila
February 7, 2016 at 4:51 pmI’ve made these multiple times and my family just LOVES them!! I’ll be making them again tonight to go with the rest of our Super Bowl munchies! Thanks for a great recipe!
Maria
February 16, 2016 at 8:19 pmYay! So glad, my family loves them too, I always make them for New years and if they are lucky once or twice during the rest of the year.
Dianna
February 4, 2018 at 5:51 amIt’s no fair for this recipe to only have one star simply because someone burnt their pretzels… that says nothing about the quality of the recipe itself except that temperature/cooking times may need to be adjusted or relativity to heat inside the oven or even the baking sheet used! In my opinion though, this is a great easy to follow recipe!
Maria
February 6, 2018 at 10:16 pmDianna! You’re my new favorite! Thank you for coming to the cute little pretzel smokies defense. 🙂 I am so glad you liked them and found the recipe easy to follow! Thank you for taking time to leave a comment!
Sincerely, Maria