Frankfurter rolls, as a member of pigs in a blanket type foods, are very popular in Hungary. Stores supply a wide range of virsli (that’s how we call hot dog in Hungarian), you, however, have to choose carefully because you can easily run into products of poor quality.
The original frankfurter (Frankfurter Würstchen in German) is a thin boiled sausage of pure pork in a casing of mutton’s intestine. Frankfurters is named for Frankfurt am Main, the city of their origin, where they were sold and eaten at beer gardens. They have Protected Geographical Status in Germany, which means the term can only be used for sausages that are de facto produced in the area of Frankfurt am Main.
Frankfurter rolls are usually made from yeast crescent dough or puff pastry. This time I decided to make my own puff pastry instead of store-bouhgt. It’s not difficult at all, the preparation time is a bit long, but most of that time the pastry sits in the fridge chilling, the effective work takes only 20-30 minutes. You need to keep the dough as cold as possible, so you have to work quickly in order to prevent butter from melting.
Ingredients:
- 250 g (~9 oz) flour
- 250 g (~9 oz) butter
- 2 pinches of salt
- 100 ml (~1/2 cup) water
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 8 frankfurters
- 1 egg
- 100 g (~3,5 oz) cheese, grated
Combine 50 g/2 oz of flour and 200 g/7 oz of butter, shape into an oblong, wrap and put in the fridge.
Put 200 g/7 oz of flour in a bowl and rub in 50 g/2 oz of butter. Add salt, water and vinegar and knead into a smooth dough. On a floured surface roll out the dough thin, place the butter block in the middle and wrap in the dough. Put it in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Roll out the dough thin, fold the left third to the centre, then fold the right third over that. Rotate the dough 90 degrees. Roll it out. Fold 1/4 of the dough to the middle both on the left and right side, then fold them over each other. Wrap and leave it to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
photos: zserbo.com
Repeat roll and fold two more times. Chill for 20 minutes before using.
Cut the frankfurters into 48 pieces (first cut a sausage into 3 pieces, then cut those 3 into half lengthwise). Roll out the puff pastry thin, cut into half, then cut into 2×24 strips. Wrap strips of puff pastry around each halved sausage. Place them on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Brush tops with beaten egg and sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake them in an oven preheated to 210°C / 410°F for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.
