Week 4: Chicago vs. Dallas

Torn between CHicago-style hotdogs and deep dish pizza, I made Chicago-style hot dogs baked inside pizza dough. So, like a giant pig-in-a-blanket with all the condiments baked in.

THE RECIPES:

For the Chicago dog, we used a kosher hot dog, pickles, sour kraut, and hot peppers. I made the dough recipe below (halving the recipe) and this was more than enough for 3 hot dogs. We could have easily stretched it to 4, but probably not more.

Before placing the pickles and sour kraut on the dough, I squeezed them out and let them dry a bit in a cheese cloth so the dough wouldn't get too wet.

I separated the dough, worked it into a rectangle, placed the hot dog and condiments in, and folded the dough around it. I baked it at 425 for about 20 minutes.

I used the following pizza dough recipe since we make our dough in the breadmaker.
http://www.food.com/recipe/my-best-ever-breadmaker-pizza-dough-50101

1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour or 4 cups bread machine flour
1 tablespoon of your favorite pizza seasoning (mine is Wildly Delicious Italian)
4 teaspoons fast rise yeast
2 tablespoons cornmeal

Directions:

1
MEASURE all ingredients except cornmeal into bread pan in order listed; Select dough setting.
2
REMOVE dough to lightly floured surface and cover with plastic wrap; Let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
3
SPRINKLE cornmeal on large 16 inch pizza pan or on a pizza stone and press dough into pizza shape; Cover with a towel and let rise for another 30 minutes.
4
SPREAD with desired sauce, seasonings and toppings.
5
BAKE at 425F for 20-30 minutes; I like to partially bake the pizza on a pan for about 8 minutes and then transfer it to a hot pizza stone sprinkled with the cornmeal for the remainder of the cooking time.
6
I find by baking it initially on the pan it is easier to transfer to a pizza stone thus maintaining its large size.

THE RESULTS:
We had too much dough for the hot dogs, so there ended up being a LOT of dough around not much filling. However, baking the dogs in the dough surrounded by moist toppings made the hotdogs extra juicy! I'd definitely make this again and even cut it into thirds for a party treat. The hot dog and toppings sit fairly loosly in the "bun" so a toothpick might be needed for party purposes.