Review: Auntie Anne's at Home - Classic Pretzel Dog

Auntie Anne's at Home Classic Pretzel Dog features an all-beef hot dog wrapped up in an Auntie Anne's soft pretzel.

I spent $5.99 for a 16-oz box of four Pretzel Dogs.

With all the Auntie Anne's being mall locations that are all shuttered indefinitely, the frozen at-home version of the Pretzel Dog seemed like the next best thing.

There's a bit of clever design to the way the pretzel is wrapped around the hot dog. There are several slits on the bottom where the juices from the hot dog can escape when cooking rather than soaking into the pretzel bread and making it soggy.

The hot dog turned out well. It was salty, juicy, and nicely seasoned.

The pretzel portion, on the other hand, was a bit lacking. While I expected some shortcomings from baked and then frozen pretzel bread, I figure it would be something like maybe it was stale and a little chewier than regular pretzel. Here, the pretzel was dense and closer to tough than chewy. The first bite I took jetted my hot dog right out of the pretzel coils and onto my plate. I ended up holding my hand against the end to keep the hot dog in to finish eating (although doing so left my hand covered in hot dog juices and is a "why the bun?" situation).

I found that following the cooking instructions, which calls for microwaving the pretzel dog and then giving it a turn in the toaster oven, yielded a worst result (chewier but somehow not crisper) than just microwaving it (softer and more pliable).

Overall, Auntie Anne's at Home Classic Pretzel Dog made for a very poor substitute for a pretzel dog from any pretzel shop. At least the hot dog portion was nice.

Nutritional Info - Auntie Anne's at Home Classic Pretzel Dog
Serving Size - 1 pretzel dog (113g)
Calories - 320 (from Fat - 150)
Fat - 17g (Saturated Fat - 7g)
Sodium - 680mg
Carbs - 31g (Sugar - 4g)
Protein - 11g