Buffalo ranch mini pretzel dogs

This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible! 

Pretzel dogs make for a delicious Super Bowl snack, and you won’t believe how easy they are to make. I use store-bough refrigerated pizza dough in this recipe because it is almost identical to pretzel dough. The only difference is the hydration levels. You probably wouldn’t be able to tell a difference if they were side-by-side. 

But the real key to making homemade pretzels is a lye bath. Lye is what makes a pretzel a pretzel and not just a baked piece of dough.

What is lye?

Lye, which is also known as sodium hydroxide is an alkaline compound that boosts flavorful browning by accelerating the Maillard reaction and caramelizing sugars on the outside of the dough as it bakes. The stronger the alkali, the better the results. Lye is a very strong alkali with a pH of 14. 

Some people use baking soda if they’re uncomfortable using lye. Baking soda has a pH around 8.3. That’s a big difference. That’s why it doesn’t work nearly as well as lye. Baking soda pretzels are lighter in color and flavor.

Where can I find lye?

You can find lye online. Here is the lye I use.

What are safety tips for working with lye?

Lye is poisonous and must be handled with extreme caution. The lye solution we’re working with is very diluted, but it can still cause skin irritation. That’s why you should always wear gloves and long sleeves when working with lye, and don’t touch anything that has been in contact with the solution.

Add lye to the water, don’t add water to the lye.

Keep the solution away from pets and children. 

How do you give the pretzel dogs buffalo ranch flavor?

Brushing the pretzel dogs with Challenge Buffalo Snack Spread right after they come out of the oven is the key to delicious buffalo flavor. If you can find the snack spread, you can mix a little buffalo sauce with softened butter. Then I rolled the pretzel dogs around in ranch seasoning. It's that easy! One thing I learned is to add the butter and seasoning after it's done baking because otherwise the seasoning may burn in the oven. 

Buffalo ranch mini pretzel dogs

Yield: Makes 42 mini pretzels

Time: About 90 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound pizza dough, room temperature
• 1 (14 oz) package mini smoked sausages (or 10 hot dogs or sausages, cut in fourths)
• 1 quart cold water
• 1 ounce food-grade lye* (see notes for how to substitute baking soda)
• 4 Tablespoons Challenge Buffalo Snack Spread, melted (can substitute 3 Tablespoons softened butter plus 1 Tablespoon buffalo sauce)
• 2 Tablespoons ranch seasoning
• Also helpful: Spray bottle filled with water**

Directions

1. Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and grab large slotted spoon. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Divide dough into 8 pieces so it’s easier to work with.
4. Roll one of the pieces into a long rope and tightly wrap it around mini smoke sausage. Once the sausage is covered, cut the dough from the rest of the rope and press down the end so the seam is smooth. Place sausage on one baking sheet.
5. Continue to wrap dough around sausages until you run out of dough. Place all wrapped sausages onto same baking sheet.
6. Put on clean food safe gloves, grab large slotted spoon, and clear work surface.
7. Pour water into large glass or stainless steel bowl. Add lye to water and stir until lye is dissolved.
8. Use slotted spoon to carefully lower several pretzel dogs into lye bath. Push down pretzel dogs with back of spoon so they’re fully submerged. 
9. Remove with slotted spoon after 10 seconds. Allow excess lye solution to drip off before sliding onto baking sheet.
10. Continue process until all of the pretzel dogs have been dipped in lye bath.
11. Rearrange the pretzel dogs so they’re about 1 inch apart using both baking sheets if necessary.
12. Remove gloves and sprinkle each pretzel dog with flaky sea salt.
13. Bake for about 10 minutes or until pretzel dogs are dark, glossy brown.
14. Immediately after removing pretzel dogs from oven, brush with Challenge Buffalo Snack Spread and cover in ranch seasoning.

NOTES

*Use extreme caution when handling lye solution. Always wear gloves. It can cause skin irritation if not handled correctly. Keep the solution away from pets and children. Dispose of the lye bath immediately after you’ve finished using it. You can pour it down the drain. If you cannot find lye here is how you substitute with baking soda: Bring 6 cups water and 2 Tablespoons baking soda to a boil. Submerge pretzels into baking soda bath for 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place on baking sheet.

**I like to use a spray bottle with water to wet the dough a bit before rolling it into a rope. I also spritz the parchment paper so the dough doesn’t stick to it.

Beer cheese dip

Yield: Makes about 2 cups

Time: About 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 8 ounces Velveeta cheese, cut into cubes
• 1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 4 ounces IPA beer

Directions

1. Heat Velveeta in small saucepan. 
2. Once cheese is mostly melted, add mustard and Worcestershire sauce and stir until combine.
3. Slowly pour in beer and continue to stir until cheese is completely melted.
4. Serve warm.

"Bloody Finger" Hot Dogs for Halloween

I recently did a "finger foods" segment on FOX59. Even though it incorporated foods you can eat with your fingers, it was actually a play on words because all the food looked like fingers. I thought it would be so funny for Halloween! I think my coworkers were a little weirded out at first, but I thought it was hilarious!

I knew hot dogs turned into "bloody fingers" would be the perfect addition to the segment.

I've actually been creating hot dog "art" for years. When I was in high school, I babysat for a family with four young children. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why they trusted me with so many young children—probably because I was cheap. Anyway, they requested hot dogs for dinner every time I was there babysitter. One time, I decided to cut the ends of the hot dogs so it looked like an octopus' tentacles, and they thought it was the funniest thing! Then they started to request more complex animals like giraffes and elephants. I tried my best, and even though they didn't turn out great, the kids still loved them.

I channeled my inner hot dog artist skills for these fingers. They're very easy to make (much simpler than giraffes and elephants)--just cut a square sliver near the top for the nail bed and several arced slits for your finger joints. Make sure you do this before cooking the hot dogs because once you boil them the slits will open up.

Bloody finger hot dogs
Ingredients

• Hot dogs
• Hot dog buns
• Ketchup

Directions

1. Make the finger beds by using a sharp paring knife to slice the two sides straight down and the top and bottom with a slight arc. The carefully cut the tiny piece off.
2. Make the knuckles by cutting arced slits, directly above and below each other, about a third of the way down the hot dog. Do the same thing in the middle of the hot dog and a third of the way from the bottom of the hot dog.
3. Boil the hot dogs for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Load a hot dog bun up with lots of ketchup and place a hot dog inside the bun. Add more ketchup on top of the bottom of the finger. Repeat with remaining hot dogs.