Fairly often, I’ll open the fridge, stare at the shelves and wonder what to make. Elaborate menus ideas will fly through my mind before I snap back to reality and remember I just about have time to grab a peanut butter sandwich before I run out of the door. When I saw a pound of ground beef sitting, waiting to be transformed into a meal-for-two, I started thinking bar food! Bar’s serve pretzels, bars server slider buns, I server pretzel slider buns!
Fish and chips, buffalo wings, Leffe Blonde on tap and mouth-watering beef sliders – on soft, freshly baked slider buns. That was it… we were going to have sliders for dinner! We didn’t end up recreating our bar hopping days at home, I didn’t even make the sliders, but these slider buns, made from pretzel dough, are well worth sharing with you nonetheless!
This recipe will make twelve slider buns (Weightwatchers, these are 2 pointsplus each). I made this in a bread machine and it makes the process very simple. I have successfully doubled the quantities for a larger batch.
Gather the following ingredients:
- 2 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
- 7/8 cup water
- 2 tablespoons coarse salt
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1 egg, for egg-wash
- 1 teaspoon of hone, optional
- Sesame seeds, optional
Start by putting the whole wheat flour, yeast, salt, sugar and water in to the baking pan of your bread machine. Then add the egg and coarse salt to the mixture. Set your bread machine to the “dough” setting, this is likely a 1.5hr process that mixes, kneads and allows the dough to rise.
Now you have time to read a book, watch a movie or browse my recent recipes until your dough is ready. Once the dough has risen, pre-heat the oven to 450 and remove the dough from the bread machine.
Cut it in to twelve similar-sized balls and don’t be afraid to re-shape the dough with your hands if it’s not a perfect ball. Lightly grease a cookie sheet so the slider buns do not stick, and place your dough-balls on the sheet roughly 1 inch apart.
Score an “X” in the top of each ball with a sharp knife and sprinkle sesame seeds over them. Beat the egg, and if you like a little extra sweetness, add a teaspoon of honey to the egg and mix. Lightly brush the top of the scored buns with egg-wash and put in to the oven for 12 minutes. If you like a harder crust, you can bake them for 15 minutes. Any longer and I fear you will regret it!
Given that these are pretzel-dough slider buns, they are best served fresh from the oven, in fact, they are delicious when fresh from the oven! I urge you not to let them cool and serve later.
If you are looking for a whole wheat pretzel recipe then this dough makes excellent mini-pretzels. Flatten your dough and cut in to strips, then roll them in to a tube. Shape the pretzels, place on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt. Turn them, and sprinkle again. Bake for 12 minutes then serve with Dijon mustard. I did this with the second batch of dough I made, so in a round-about way, I did get a taste of bar food on Saturday night!
