The Chinese Hot Dog Bun. The Asian bakery classic, the food of my childhood, and the inevitable result of years of cultural assimilation.
As I got older, I came to realize how…actually disappointing these Chinese hot dog buns often are. After a long car ride from Chinatown, a cold hot dog of questionable origin wrapped in bread that has gone slightly soggy is not good eating. Very quickly, the hot dog bun went from being all I wanted from the Chinese bakery, to the last thing I wanted…replaced by the likes of the much more palatable coconut buns and pineapple buns.
Until this past weekend (when we baked these suckers), I hadn’t had a hot dog bun in over 10 years. After my mother discovered her cousin’s brilliantly easy Asian milk bread recipe, however, it was time to revisit this classic, and really do it up right.
As I see it, there are three main problems with the typical Chinatown hot dog bun:
1. The quality of the hot dog: not good.
2. The dough is usually wrapped around an uncooked hotdog before baking. The result? A total lack of flavor and a rubbery texture.
3. If they put them out in the morning, and you get there at 3:00 in the afternoon, you’ve already lost.
Alas, the Chinese hot dog bun was long overdue for redemption. In our version, you choose what brand of hot dogs you want to use. We sear them before they get wrapped in dough, and it makes all the difference. The result is a what I’ve always wanted a hot dog bun to be.
One can also get pretty creative with this concept, add some ingredients and make some cool hot dog recipes – maybe just some foreshadowing but for now, on with it!
You’ll need:
- 2/3 cup heavy cream (at room temperature)
- 1 cup, plus 1 tablespoon milk (at room temperature)
- 1 large egg (at room temperature)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup cake flour
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 12 hot dogs
- Egg wash: whisk together 1 egg with 1 teaspoon water
- Simple syrup: 2 teaspoons of sugar dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water
In the bowl of a mixer, add the heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour, yeast, and salt (add it in that order). Using the dough hook attachment, turn on the mixer to “stir.” Let it go for 15 minutes, occasionally stopping the mixer to push the dough together.
After 15 minutes, the dough is ready for proofing. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm spot for 1 hour. The dough will grow to 1.5X its original size. Check out our original milk bread recipe for photos of this process!
In the meantime, heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the hot dogs, and allow them to crisp slightly and get some color on them. Set aside on a plate to cool.
After the hour of proofing, put the dough back in the mixer and stir for another 5 minutes to get rid of air bubbles. Dump the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into 12 equal pieces.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Take each piece of dough and roll it into a 10-12 inch rope, keeping the middle thicker than the ends.
Roll the rope around a hot dog, tucking in the ends. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (keep the buns 2-3 inches apart).
Repeat until all the buns are assembled.
Cover the baking sheet with a kitchen towel and allow the buns to rise in a warm place for another hour. The buns should close to double in size.
Brush with egg wash, and bake the buns for 14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking.
Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and immediately brush your Chinese hot dog buns with sugar water. This last step gives them that signature Chinese bakery shine.
Enjoy these Chinese Hot dog buns!
- ⅔ cup heavy cream (at room temperature)
- 1 cup, plus 1 tablespoon milk (at room temperature)
- 1 large egg (at room temperature)
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ½ cup cake flour
- 3½ cups bread flour
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 12 hot dogs
- Egg wash: whisk together 1 egg with 1 teaspoon water
- Simple syrup: 2 teaspoons of sugar dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water
- In the bowl of a mixer, add the heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour, yeast, and salt (add it in that order). Using the dough hook attachment, turn on the mixer to “stir.” Let it go for 15 minutes, occasionally stopping the mixer to push the dough together.
- After 15 minutes, the dough is ready for proofing. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm spot for 1 hour. The dough will grow to 1.5X its original size.
- In the meantime, heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the hot dogs, and allow them to crisp slightly and get some color on them. Set aside on a plate to cool.
- After the hour of proofing, put the dough back in the mixer and stir for another 5 minutes to get rid of air bubbles. Dump the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into 12 equal pieces.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Take each piece of dough and roll it into a 10-12 inch rope, keeping the middle thicker than the ends. Roll the rope around a hot dog, tucking in the ends. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (keep the buns 2-3 inches apart). Repeat until all the buns are assembled.
- Cover the baking sheet with a kitchen towel and allow the buns to rise in a warm place for another hour. The buns should close to double in size. Brush with egg wash, and bake the buns for 14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking.
- Remove from the oven and immediately brush the buns with sugar water. This last step gives them that signature Chinese bakery shine.
Eunice says
I am so excited to make this along with the cinnamon raisin buns (going to do a half and half with the dough so I have 6 of each)! Just had a quick question about this. Is it possible to refrigerate the dough overnight after the first or second rise, and then bake it? What would your suggestion be? I ask because I want to take these to a church gathering but won’t have all 3 hours before the event to make the breads. Thank you!
Judy says
Hi Eunice, I have never tried that, but I have heard from other readers that it works. Then again, they did not give me too much details to share with you.
Jennifer says
Hi! I tried your recipe the other day and I found that after kneading the dough, I still had little bits of yeast all over. It also didnt rise much. I baked it and it rose a little bit. It tasted great, but it was a bit too dense for my liking. Please help troubleshoot!
Thanks!
Jennifer Bang says
Also, can I substitute the bread flour for all purpose flour?
Sarah says
Yes, that should be fine, Jennifer!
Sarah says
Hi Jennifer, hm, did you add all the ingredients in the order that they were listed in the recipe? Sounds like the yeast wasn’t properly incorporated into the dough, which is also why it didn’t rise enough and turned out dense. Because all the ingredients are added in an “all-in-one” method, where everything is added to the bowl at once, you need to give the mixer time to incorporate all the ingredients on low speed, which is why we specify using the “stir” setting. Hope that helps! Thanks for giving our recipe a try, and I’m sure the next batch will turn out great. :)
Renee says
Hi, I’m so excited to make these and am hoping to do so tomorrow. I’m wondering if I am able to just use milk rather than a mixture of milk and heavy cream? All I have on hand is lactose free milk and soy milk, and I don’t want to go out to buy cream just for the 2/3 cup in this recipe. Thanks.
Sarah says
Hey Renee, the heavy cream is pretty important to this recipe, as the enriched milk bread dough requires fat!
Cherry says
I”ve made this recipe several times now and every time it turns out great – tastes great and keeps pretty well even the day after. My only problem is that – they don’t actually take any color even with the egg wash. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong or maybe my oven is just funny, but my buns just look slightly yellow and not the pretty brown glaze like yours. I’m even putting them on the top rack so I’m not sure if it’s my egg wash that’s the issue or my oven. Any ideas?
Sarah says
Hey Cherry, it’s probably related to your oven––the top of our oven is probably hotter than yours, browning the tops of the buns more readily. You can try turning up the heat and baking them in a hotter oven, or perhaps turning on the broiler (just make sure to watch them like a hawk and put them on a rack far away from the broiler while doing this step).
xenia says
great recipe <3
Sarah says
Thanks!!
Teresa says
Love this recipe! One question though, is it possible to make the dough with a bread machine? And if so, will the amount of ingredients still be the same?
Sarah says
Have never tried this in a bread machine, Teresa, but as long as the machine just kneads the dough the same way a mixer would, I don’t see why not.
Lea says
Very good recipe ♡
Sarah says
Thanks Lea!