Sourdough Pretzel Hot Dog Buns

May’s Sourdough Surprise challenge is… hot dog and burger buns. To be honest this didn’t grab me as very exciting to start with. Partly because I’ve recently done burger buns, and partly because it’s actual bread rather than some interesting other use for sourdough. It also doesn’t help that we’re on a pre-holiday weight-loss diet in our house during may, and hamburgers and hot dogs in buns are not the lowest calorie meal around!

However the idea has grown on me…

Firstly Soph pointed out that we could do healthy turkey burgers or low-fat sausages that are only about 60 kcals each. So as I haven’t done hot dog buns before I decided I’d go for them, use the low-fat sausages, and serve with fried onions (fried with oil spray, not tablespoons of oil!) and squeezy mustard.

Then I stumbled across a recipe for pretzel hot dog buns on the Food Network. Having tried making bagels recently, and discovering there’s nothing to scary about boiling bread dough, this seemed like the perfect twist to my hot dog rolls!

So I’m going to use the same recipe I used for my earlier burger rolls:

• 150g refreshed starter
• 175g white bread flour
• 50g wholemeal bread flour
• 25g rye flour
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
• 30g butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 100ml water
• Sea salt flakes to top
• 4 tbsp of bicarb of (baking) soda for boiling (with 2L water)

The starter will get five hours refresh, then the dough will get three hours to rise, stretching and folding every hour.

I’ll then roll into 4 mini-baguette shapes and let proof for 2 hours.

Pretzels need more baking soda than bagels when they boil, as the alkaline solution helps give the dark brown crispy crust you want in pretzel bread. So it’s 2 tbsp of soda instead of 1 tsp for bagels.

• 2 litre water
• 4 tbsp bicarbonate of (baking) soda

The rolls get 30s boiling on each side, then get sprinkled with sea salt flakes as soon as they come out.

I’ll bake them on the baking stone, which will have had an hour in the oven at max 230C fan. Once the buns go in it’s down to 200C for about 10 minutes.

Then it’s grilled (broiled) low-fat sausages, stewed onions, squeezy mustard, sweet potato wedges & chitople ketchep…

And… MMMMMM… amazing! OK we didn’t eat many of the healthy wedges… and I may have nearly cut the tip of my finger off making them. But apart from the wedges… salty pretzel rolls, caramelised onions, sausages… NOM NOM NOM!

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Check out the other hot dog and hamburger rolls the Sourdough Surprises members have made!