Search This Blog

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Better Than a Corndog, Dear Readers



Yup, it's a bageldog. Actually, 12 bageldogs, and right now they are lounging on the cooling rack before I formally introduce them to my freezer. Lately I've been dealing with the all too familiar "what's for dinner?" conundrum. Being a broke college student, I've been trying to spend less liberally, which generally entails driving to my parents' house for dinner (guess where I am now!). However, I decided the other day to cook up some food that I can stick in the freezer until I'm hungry, hot pocket style. So to kick off this phase, I give you the BagelDog from Food People Want. (One day I will post a recipe of my own that I didn't snag from another blog, but in the meantime... is anyone complaining?)

BagelDogs
from Food People Want
makes 12

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water
2 packages active dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons table salt
5 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
12 quality all-beef hot dogs (I used Hebrew National)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 egg yolk plus 1 tablespoon water, lightly beaten
Sesame seeds, poppy seeds and/or coarse salt for garnish


Method:

Pour the water into a large bowl and sprinkle with the yeast. Let the mixture stand about five minutes or until foamy, then stir in the sugar and salt.

Gradually add the flour, mixing until the dough comes together. Turn dough out onto a well-floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Form the dough into a ball and place it into a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to grease all sides (and hold onto that floured work surface, you'll need it again). Cover loosely with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down and knead briefly to eliminate air bubbles and turn the dough out onto your floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangle until it’s about a 1/4-inch thick, adding flour as necessary to keep it from sticking. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut 12 1-inch pieces of dough.

Dry the hot dogs thoroughly. Starting at one end of a hot dog, wrap the dough around, overlapping slightly as you make your way to the other end. Tuck in the ends to keep them from unraveling. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet (you will need two of these) and repeat with remaining hot dogs and strips of dough. Cover loosely with kitchen towels and let stand in a warm place for about 30 to 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400°. Fill a deep, heavy pot with water and add the baking soda, then bring to a boil. Working 2 to 3 bagels at a time, carefully drop the bageldogs into the boiling water. After 30 seconds turn with a slotted spoon and boil for another 30 seconds. Lift out of the water and dry each bageldog well on a kitchen towel before returning to the parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining bageldogs.

Brush the bagels with the egg glaze and sprinkle on your garnish of choice. Bake for about 35 minutes or until nicely browned and crusty. Make sure to check on the bageldogs every 5 to 10 minutes, switching out or turning the baking sheets as needed. Mine cooked quickly and very unevenly, and I had to rearrange the pans every few minutes. Serve warm or let cool on a wire rack.


Yeah, these were quite a bit of work, but it's raining out and they are well worth it! And as an added bonus, I had some leftover dough so I fixed up a couple of bagels topped with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and a little onion powder. My Jewish, New York mother approves, so you know these are good!

2 comments:

  1. This deserves a comment. Holy crap these look good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Damn those look delicious!

    ReplyDelete