Smoked Sausage Pretzel Dogs

**This recipe was the Recipe of the Week in my Cooke's Frontier podcast if you'd like to give it a listen!**

Kevin works outside almost all of the time, in all weather, in all kinds of situations. He often lays on wet ground, blistering pavement and sometimes for hours. He's also one of the blessed people who have an amazing metabolism and can eat what they want all the time. During the colder months it takes a tremendous amount of food to keep him going and full. He works so hard that he just burns calories like snapping your finger, so I try to fix things that are 1) easy to heat up at work and 2) going to keep him full for a while and 3) are easy to eat.

Pretzel dogs work really well so when I saw this huge package of smoked sausages at the store on a really good sale, I picked them up thinking that I would make these pretzel dogs for Kevin. I can pop one in his lunch box and he can have a quick snack that's tasty to boot. It saves us money since he isn't buying snacks out of the machine at work or from the fast food places in town. I should also point out when these are made with regular hot dogs, my kids enjoy them as well.

I make the dough in my bread machine while I do other things and then I just wrap the dogs, boil and bake. Really, really simple and quick. The recipe I use for the pretzel dough is my all time favorite soft pretzel dough from the Food Network. It's an Alton Brown recipe and I just love it for so many things!

Soft Pretzel Dough Recipe

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• Vegetable oil, for pan
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Put the water, sugar, salt, yeast, flour and butter in the mixing bowl of a bread machine. Let it mix and raise on the dough setting. When it is done, place it on the counter and divide it into 10 pieces. Roll them into snakes and wrap them around a hot dog, smoked sausage or other sausage of your choice. Bring a pot of water and 2/3 cup baking soda to a boil. Boil pretzels for 30-45 seconds and remove from the water and onto a clean kitchen towel lined baking sheet. When all of the dogs are done, spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray and place the dogs on it. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with salt if desired. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the pretzel is completely deep golden brown. Remove and let cool. Enjoy or package for freezer. 

Yummy!

This recipe has been linked up to Little House Living's Old Fashioned Recipe Exchange