This is what I used
1 Pkg. Hebrew National Hot dogs (7 count)
1 Pillsbury reduced fat Crescent Rolls tube
1 cup of hot water
1 egg room temperature
1TBS. baking soda
1 -2 or so TBS. flour ( for rolling dough)
1 Tbs. butter
Pretzel salt or Coarse Sea Salt
Pre Heat oven to 350 deg. Fahrenheit. Lightly flour surface to roll out dough. Open package & roll out dough on surface with your fingers. Sprinkle some more flour on top of dough to keep roller from sticking to dough.
Looking at dough, you will notice that there are triangles to the dough. Pinch the triangle edges together. And make 4 large rectangles out of these (this is where I should have taken a picture) Roll the dough out once or twice to seal the triangle edges your pinched together.
Using a cutting tool ( I used my pizza cutter) cut each rectangle in half horizontally. This should give you 8 strips of dough. Spray cooking surface with Pam, if it is not a not stick surface. Gently take one strip and roll a hot dog in it to create a "pig" in a blanket. Do this for all 7 of the hot dogs. Use leftover strip to create your own little pretzel creation.
Here is how to get a golden sheen and a pretzel taste from the dough
Fill up a measuring cup to 1 cup of water. Add 1 tbs of baking soda. Place a skewer or chop stick or wooden stick in the water. Cook on high for 1 minute. ( placing a wooden stick into microwaved water will prevent the water from exploding since unlike traditional methods of boiling water, microwaved water may not bubble showing that its boiling.)
With a basting brush, take the hot water baking soda stuff and brush all the dough with it. Want to know why? Watch this Episode of Good Eats S11 Ep. 2 Pretzel Logic (start at 12:29 on the time on youtube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcHEQpoOraE
Or watch the whole episode
I chose to not boil the dough in the water because I did not want to , and it seemed to get fine results with out boiling the dough in the baking soda water.
Then break you egg and whisk it to make a egg wash. Brush the egg wash on each pig in the blanket and cook for 16 minutes, or until a nice dark golden brownish color.
Take out of oven and brush melted butter on your little piggies. Sprinkle with your pretzel or sea salt.
Grab a soda and eat one of these before the kids get the rest. They will go fast!
