Pretzel Pigs in a Blanket

5 from 1 vote

Pretzel pigs in a blanket or pretzel hot dogs, whatever you call these mini sausage bites are delicious, great finger food for any kind of party.

Prep Time40

Cook Time20

Additional Time45

Total Time1 45

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American, German

Servings: pieces

Calories: 129kcal

Author: Adina

Ingredients

Pretzel dough:

2 cups all-purpose flour 250 g
1 packet active dried yeast 7 g/ 0.25 oz
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
a pinch of granulated sugar
¾ cup milk 175 ml

Pretzel pigs:

4 sausages Notes 2 and 3
6½ cups water 1.5 liter
3 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
coarse sea salt as much as needed
sweet coarse mustard to serve
curry sauce or curry ketchup to serve

Instructions

Pretzel dough:

Combine: Mix the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Very gently, heat milk and sugar; it should have about 97°F/ 36°C (body temperature). Pour the milk into the flour mixture and knead.
2 cups all-purpose flour/ 250 g + 1 packet active dried yeast + ½ teaspoon fine sea salt + a pinch of granulated sugar + ¾ cup milk/ 175 ml
You can knead the dough with the handheld mixer fitted with dough hooks or in a kitchen machine fitted with dough hooks (2-3 minutes). If you knead the dough by hand, you should do it for about 4-5 minutes.
Let rise: Place the dough into a bowl and let rise for about 45 minutes in a warm place, it should double in size.

Pigs:

Preheat the oven to 360°F/ 180°C.
Make alkali solution: While you wrap the pigs, bring the water to a boil. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the water and let boil for about 3 minutes.
6½ cups water + 3 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda
Cut dough: After the dough has doubled in size, knead it briefly on a floured surface. Roll the dough to a rectangle and cut it. Once vertically in half and then horizontally to obtain 12 smaller rectangles. Cut the edges of the dough all around so that the rectangles are regular.
Add sausages: Cut each sausage in three pieces that would fit into the dough rectangles. If making the pigs with weisswurst, start by removing the peel of the weisswurst. Half the weisswurst horizontally and cut the halves in two vertically as well. In the end, you will have 4 pieces out of one weisswurst.
4 sausages
Make pretzel pigs: Place one piece of sausage in the middle of each rectangle and roll the dough around it.
Use the dough scraps to roll and cut a few more rectangles, I had 3 or 4 smaller extras. Wrap a sausage piece in these extra pretzel dough rectangles as well.
Boil pretzels: Carefully place some of the pretzel pigs into the boiling water and let simmer for about 30 seconds. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon, shake shortly to remove the excess water, and place the pigs on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
Repeat with a second batch.
Bake pretzel pigs: Brush the pretzel bites with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
1 egg + coarse sea salt
Serve with sweet coarse mustard, the typical accompaniment for weisswurst or curry sauce/ curry ketchup.

Notes

Measurements: Always use a digital kitchen scale in baking (the Amazon link opens in a new tab); it guarantees the best results.
Type of sausage: Hot dogs, wiener, frankfurters, or white sausages (weisswurst).
The recipe makes 12 pretzel pigs, however I had 3 or 4 smaller extras, which I formed out of the dough scraps leftover after rolling and cutting the pretzel dough. You might need 1 extra sausage to fill the pretzel dough scraps.

Nutrition