Wrap That Weenie: A Tale of a Cozy Sausage

Creating and writing new recipes is one of my favorite jobs here at The Chopping Block. It's an extremely enjoyable and creative process, but sometimes I feel challenged when I come across a dish I am unfamiliar with. It's my job to ensure all of the recipes in our cooking classes are delicious and user friendly. So every chance I get, I make time to test new recipes to make sure I'm giving you great product.

We have a class coming up called Oktoberfest and one of the menu items includes Homemade Pretzel-Wrapped Sausages. I have eaten and enjoyed dozens of these delicious little porcine pleasures, and I have also assembled many using store-bought crescent rolls, but I have never made them entirely from scratch.

Putting together the recipe for this appetizer took a lot of thought. Some considerations included the yield of dough versus how many weenie wraps I wanted the recipe to produce. Another detail I needed to think about was the rolling out of the dough.

• What size did the initial rectangle need to be?
• How wide should the base of each cut triangular piece be?
• Did the dough have enough salt?
• How long did they need to bake?
• How long did it take overall to make the wraps?

In order to find the answers to these questions, I gathered up the ingredients I would need to test this recipe at home. It was a fun process comparing my findings to my rough draft of the recipe. I made a few adjustments here and there and ended up with a terrific and incredibly tasty recipe that I will without a doubt make again and again. What's most important is that I also won the mom-of-the-year award by presenting my kids with the best after-school snack ever!

These tasty morsels are featured in our Oktoberfest class, but you can also prepare them for football food for your next party. We have a cooking class for that too. You will be the talk of the town if you serve these!

Homemade Pretzel-Wrapped Sausages     

Yield: 10 wraps

Active time: 45 minutes

Start to finish: 2 hours, 5 minutes

1/2 cup pilsner-style beer, room temperature

1/2 cup water, about 110°

1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 tablespoon kosher salt

2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

5 smoked knockwurst sausages, cut into 3- to 4-inch pieces crosswise

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1/2 cup sauerkraut

1 large egg white beaten with 2 tablespoons water

Sea salt

Caraway seeds

Poppy seeds

Dijon or whole-grain mustard 

• Place the beer and water in a large bowl, and stir in the sugar and yeast. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes to ensure that the yeast is alive. It should look frothy.  
• Stir in the salt and 2 1/2 cups of the flour. Using a wooden spoon, stir the dough until thick.

• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead until smooth, 6 to 7 minutes, adding more flour if the dough is too sticky.

• Place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise at room temperature for one hour or until doubled in size.

• Preheat the oven to 375° and line a sheet tray with parchment paper.
• Place the proofed dough on a floured surface, and using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 10- by 18-inch rectangle.
• Using a pizza wheel or a chef's knife, cut the dough into triangles that are about 2 1/2-inches wide at their base.

• Brush each triangle with about 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard followed by about 1 tablespoon of sauerkraut.

• Place the smoked sausage at the wide end of the triangle and roll the dough entirely around the sausage. Use a bit of the egg wash to seal the dough.
• Set the wrapped sausages on the prepared sheet tray.
• Brush the tops and sides of the dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with the salt, caraway seeds and poppy seeds.

• Bake until the dough is golden brown and crisp, about 35 minutes.
• Serve warm with your favorite mustard.

Oktoberfest is just one of the many fun cooking classes we have coming up in October. Those calendars were just released this morning, so be sure to check them out!