The Rising Life
Recipes
a New Challah Recipe from rebbetzin Rochie's Kitchen!
It’s Lag B’Omer - the sun is shining - and the mood is joyful and BBQ-ish (is that a word?)
I was thinking of what could be a great challah recipe to post for Lag B’Omer, a holiday in which we all get very much into the BBQ spirit. (But not much challah happens...)
The holiday does kind of revolve around a bonfire, so we’re really one very short step away from throwing things on that fire, things like hot dogs, for example.
My brilliant idea was to take my pretzel challah recipe (check it out in my cookbook RISING: The Book of Challah) and wrap it around a hot dog… and voila!
Franks ’n blanks have been elevated to near-holy status.
So, it seems I’m not the first to come up with this idea! A quick search revealed that a bunch of my favorite food bloggers have already done this… and obviously this is a sign that it is indeed a very good idea.
In researching this idea - I actually learned something new about making pretzel challah in general…
Basically, while lye is the ideal thing to use to make pretzels, it is a super dangerous chemical, and people like me (who regularly burn stuff including myself) should not be using it - ever.
So, I took the next best thing for making pretzels, that is—baking soda—and used that in my pretzel challah recipe instead. And all was well.
Or at least I thought it was, until I read Molly Yeh’s post about this, which took me to a New York times food article about this.. (you see how fast I can fall down the foodie rabbit hole?)
Anyhoo, it turns out that you can get even closer to the lye effect, by BAKING the baking soda. What?! yup. Just like that the pretzel challah has been elevated even further… it’s pretty much transcendent at this point.
So, even though I have pretzel challah in my cookbook, I’m going to give it to y’all here, with a new method, in the spirit of Lag B’Omer and Brotherly (Sisterly!) love :)
To learn more about Lag B’Omer, watch Rav Dovber Pinson speak on Lag B'Omer here
(disclaimer, he is my husband ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMsO8LK5CX4&t=519s
To read about Lag B'Omer click here
http://iyyun.com/holidays/featured-teaching-lag-bomer-liberationbalance
To learn more about making stuff like pretzels with baked baking soda, and why that works click here
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/dining/15curious.html
Mini-Challah Pretzel Dogs
Ingredients:
One pkg of standard hot dogs, cut in half
About 1 lb of classic challah dough
1 egg, beaten with a tsp water (for the egg glaze)
Pretzel Salt (or coarse Sea Salt)
1/2 stick margarine, melted
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 250
Prepare the baking soda:
Spread a thin layer of baking soda on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Bake at 250 for 1 hour.
While baking soda is baking, divide the dough and roll each piece into a long, skinny snake.
Press one end onto the halved hot dog, and wind around, pinching off the extra dough.
Place all ready dough wrapped dogs on a lined baking sheet.
Remove the baking soda carefully from oven, careful, it can irritate your skin!
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Turn up the oven to 350 now.
Place 2/3 cup of baked baking soda in a bowl with 2/3 cups brown sugar.
Stir well.
Prepare another bowl with plain water.
Dip each wrapped dog into the baking soda/brown sugar water solution, allowing it to swim for a few minutes.
Remove carefully using tongs, and rinse off briefly in the second bowl of plain water.
Place on lined baking tray, and paint with egg glaze.
Sprinkle on Pretzel Salt - go easy with the salt - a little goes a long way!
Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes or until the dough looks dark brown and pretzel-like.
Remove from oven and glaze with melted margarine while still warm.
Enjoy!!Happy Lag B’Omer!