Homemade Whole Wheat Pretzel dogs make this fun meal whether your watching the big game or a family movie with the kiddos. Make them small bites for an appetizer or large for a meal-on-the-go!
Whenever I bake for my kids and family, I am always trying to make it a little bit healthier – even when it isn’t consider health food. Soft pretzels are loved by all of us, but I know we shouldn’t eat too much of a good thing!
I made these whole wheat pretzel dogs for my kids when they were young. They love them now as big teenagers just as much as they did when they were little ones.
Jump to:
Recipe highlights
- Healthier: I made them a little bit more healthy so I split the flour half white flour and half whole wheat flour.
- Versatile: This recipe makes 16 big dogs that use ¼-pound hot dogs or spicy sausages. You can also use smaller hot dogs, turkey or beef.
- Family Friendly: This is a recipe that everyone in the family can agree on! It makes great picnic food, school lunches or anytime you need to grab a meal and go!
- Beginner Friendly: If you are intimidated with yeast recipes, have no fear! I break down the steps so it is easy to follow and the dough is very forgiving.
Ingredients you need
Step-by-step directions
- Hot dogs: You can use any type of hot dogs. I like using all beef Hebrew National hot dogs.
- Granulated sugar: Sugar is used to feed the yeast.
- Active dry yeast: You can also use instant yeast, which doesn’t require blooming.
- Kitchen staples: Egg and butter.
- Pantry staples: All purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, kosher salt.
Step by step directions
- Bloom the yeast. Combine warm water, sugar and kosher salt. Sprinkle yeast over the water and let sit until foamy.
- Add flour. Add in flours and melted butter. Mix until combined, then increase speed and mix until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- Add water. If dough is crumbly and not holding its shape, add water 1-tablespoon at a time until it is smooth and soft. Work dough into a ball.
- Let the dough rise. Coat a large bowl with oil and add dough ball. Cover bowl with a towel and let it sit until the dough has doubled in size.
Want to save this recipe?
Just enter your email and get it sent to your inbox! Plus you’ll get new recipes from me every week!
- Wrap the hot dogs. Divide dough into 8 equal pieces for ¼-pound hot dogs. Roll each piece of dough into a long rope, about 24-inches long. Wrap it around one hot dog. If the rope tears, just pinch the ends together, smooth it out and continue rolling.
- Tuck the ends of each rope into the folds and place the wrapped dogs on a baking sheet, seam side down. Cover with a damp paper towel while you work.
- Parboil the hot dogs. Combine water and baking soda in a large pot and bring to boil. Boil the pretzel dogs one at a time in the hot baking soda water for 30 seconds each. Remove dogs and place back onto baking sheet.
- Brush the egg wash. Whisk together egg water. Brush each pretzel dog with egg wash and sprinkle with kosher salt.
- Bake the bagel dogs. Bake until browned then allow to cool on a cooling rack.
Recipe tips and FAQs
If you have a newer style oven, check to see if it has the ‘proof’ button on it. This was a life changer for me and my bread making skills. This is the perfect temperature for your dough to rise, but some ovens do make it too hot so pay attention to your dough.
If you want more delicious sandwich recipes, you should also try my Baked Brats in the Oven or this fabulous Chicken Caesar Club Sandwich. And if you want to try some of my other yeast bread recipes you must my olive bread with rosemary or this wonderful Azerbaijani sweet milk bread (shirin chorek).
Storing/Freezing Instructions
TO STORE: Store your pretzel dogs in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 7 days.
TO FREEZE: You can also freeze pretzel dogs. Transfer to a resealable bag or freezer safe container and freeze for up to 3 months.
You should not replace all of a recipe’s all purpose flour with whole wheat flour without making any modifications. Whole wheat flour is a bit more dry and needs more liquid than regular white flour. You can substitute half of the regular flour with whole flour in almost any baking recipe and for the most part, the recipe will turn out just fine. But if you want to completely use whole wheat flour, you will have to increase the water and fat in the recipe to keep the dough from turning into a lead weight once baked.
yeast needs warm water to bloom and will die if the water is too hot. Stick your finger in it. Does it feel warm? If you pull your finger out because you can’t keep it in the water, it’s too hot. You want the water to be warm to touch.
This is achieved by boiling the pretzel dogs first in a water bath containing baking soda. Baking soda is an alkaline ingredient. By boiling your pretzel dogs in water with baking soda, you are increasing the alkalinity on the outside of the pretzel. And by doing this, you can bake your pretzels for less time so it can brown more quickly. So wrap your dogs, tuck the ends, and boil them one by one for 30 seconds. Once boiled, they get baked in a hot 450ºF oven and turn dark without burning.
If you are enjoying my recipes, please sign up for my newsletter and get my free 28-day meal plan! You can also follow me on Instagram or Facebook.
Whole Wheat Pretzel Dogs
Ingredients
Pretzel Dog Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups water warm
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast (1 packet)
- 2 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 2 ¼ cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter melted and cooled
Water Bath Ingredients
- 10 cups warm water
- ⅔ cup baking soda
- 8 hot dogs ¼-pound each
Egg Wash Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon water
Garnish Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the hook attachment, combine 1 ½ cups warm water, sugar and kosher salt. Sprinkle yeast over the water and let sit for 5 minutes, until foamy.
- Add in flour, whole wheat flour and cooled, melted butter. Mix on low speed until combined, then increase speed to medium and mix until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes.
- If dough is crumbly and not holding shape, add water 1-tablespoon at a time until it is smooth and soft.
- Work dough into a ball. Coat a large bowl with non-stick spray or vegetable oil and place dough ball into the greased bowl.
- Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let it sit in a warm place for approximately 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 450ºF.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat and set aside.
- Combine remaining 10 cups water and baking soda in a large pot over high heat and bring to a rolling boil.
- In the meanwhile, place dough on a lightly greased work surface or silicone pastry mat and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a long rope, about 24-inches long.
- Wrap each rope piece around one ¼ pound hot dog.
- Tuck the ends of each rope into the folds and place the dough wrapped dogs on the prepared baking sheet, seam side down. Cover with a damp paper towel while you work.
- Boil the pretzel dogs one at a time in the hot baking soda water for 30 seconds each. Use a slotted spatula to remove from the pot and place back onto baking sheet.
- In a small bowl, whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon water.
- Brush each boiled pretzel dog with egg wash and sprinkle with kosher salt.
- Bake until browned, about 13-15 minutes.
- Allow pretzel dogs to cool on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
PS If you try this recipe, why not leave a star rating in the recipe card right below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page? I always appreciate your feedback.
You can also follow me on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram. Sign up for my eMail list, too!
Written by Laura Bashar
Hi, I’m Laura, a certified professional cook and cookbook author living in San Diego. I have been sharing my family’s favorite recipes inspired from all over the world since 2008. Let’s cook up something fun!
Have you tired freezing and/or reheating?
I have not, but you should be fine freezing them. Just let them cool completely, wrap tightly in foil and freeze. Should keep for a couple of months. Try reheating them in a 350°F oven for about 5 minutes, or for 10-12 minutes if frozen.
Hi there,
LOVE the idea of the pretzel dog. When we first went to make them, the dough was almost soupy. After referring to the link to Alton Brown, I noticed that your listed flour amounts were 2 cups under what he used.
It did work the following time when we increased the flour. Is that a typo or did the limited flour really work for you? Ours was way too soupy to knead, let alone roll out. Figured I would mention it in case it was an error.
Hi Susan,
Thank you so much for catching this mistake. Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me when I proofread my notes! The mistake has been corrected!
I LOVE pretzels. I go to auntie annes at the mall sometimes, but i know i’m killing myself slowly by eating the crap they put in there.
this looks soooo…advanced. haha. very intimidating. but since your kids were involved, i feel like i should take the challenge too. I can’t be out-cooked by your kids! 😛
I hope you are enjoying your summer!!!
Oh you have no idea what a big hit this would be at my house! Its such a brilliant idea and has been so perfectly executed!
Wow Laura, these Pretzel dogs are so good!!!! I am sure my kids would love making this. It’s great that you involve kids in cooking. 🙂
Oh I love pretzel dogs! Glad to see you made the dough completely from scratch. Usually people cheat on that part.
These dogs look amazing! I guess the boiling with baking soda trick works really well. I never heard about it, but now I can’t wait to try. I also love watching the dough in the stand mixer, so I completely understand your kids :-). And seeing those little precious hands working with the dough is also very sweet!
Wow! I love the way you wrapped the hotdog, very unique.
I love the way those look. The spirals are perfect. I bet my kids would like to make those, too.
Oh my husband is going to love you for posting these! He loves pretzel dogs but I haven’t yet seen a recipe to make them. I better get it on the menu plan this week.
Strange, I’ve never had a pretzel dog! Your whole wheat variant sounds amazing though!
These pretzel dogs look SPLENDID!
These look incredible! And how much fun for kids to make!
These look awesome! We make “mummy dogs” at Halloween that look similar to these but use all the store-bought stuff. 🙂 I love that these are a bit healthier—we’ll be giving these a try soon!
These look wonderful. I absolutely love pretzels but my husband has never been a fan. I think I could win him over with this recipe.
This is wicked cool. I think I might be in love with you now. It looks like a deep fried hot dog. So cool.
I think they need to start making these at wetzel pretzel! ha They look way better than anything they’ve got! 🙂 So glad I found your site–loving all your delicious recipes!
xoxo
Aarean
colorissue.blogspot.com (come on over and follow along…I think you’ll enjoy the colorful inspiration!)