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!
Chinese Hot Dog Buns: Recipe Instructions
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).
DON’T HAVE BREAD FLOUR OR CAKE FLOUR?
Feel free to substitute all-purpose flour for both! We have since extensively re-tested this recipe, and have not found that using 100% all-purpose flour in this recipe makes a meaningful difference to the result.
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 60-90 minutes. The dough will grow to double 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!
Chinese Hot Dog Buns
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup heavy cream (160 ml, at room temperature)
- 1 cup milk (plus 1 tablespoon, at room temperature; total 250 ml)
- 1 large egg (at room temperature)
- 1/3 cup sugar (75g)
- 1/2 cup cake flour (70g)
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour (500g)
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast (11g)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (7g)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 12 hot dogs
- Egg wash: whisk together 1 egg with 1 teaspoon water
- Simple syrup: 2 teaspoons (8g) of sugar dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water
Instructions
- 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 60-90 minutes, until the dough doubles in 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.
Hi Sarah! Thank you for the awesome recipe! I made the hotdog buns just as you detailed but then did a ketchup wash, cheddar cheese, and dried parsley a la 85C (a Taiwanese bakery with multiple locations in So. Cal)The dough was a bit wet to work with but I floured my hands and rolling surface well when cutting and shaping the buns. The buns came out beautifully and tasted delicious. Thanks to you and your family for the awesome blog!
PS I used APF instead of cake flour.
You’re very welcome, Dee! Thanks for sharing your experience!
I’m giving it 5 stars bc I truly love this recipe and Hot Dog buns. In Texas there’s these things called sausage kolaches and they are almost exactly the same except Hot Dog buns are WAAAY prettier! As for the recipe, I’ve made it about 5 times and every time I’ve had to add way more bread flour than what’s called out. They come together in the end but I figured I’d share, love what you and your family are doing here!
Thank you so much! I’ve heard of kolaches, but have only seen sweet ones—I didn’t know they made them with sausages too!
I wonder…
Can we use Footlong Hotdogs for this recipe? ;-)
Sure, you can cut the footlong into the length you want :-)
This was such a nice treat for me and my family. I live quite far from any bakery that offers these childhood favorites and now I don’t need one to enjoy them. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
You’re welcome Jonathan!
Hihi!
This works wonderfully!
However can I check if I’m make mini buns as in half the size of the bun do I lower the cooking time by half as well?
Hi there, I actually don’t think you need to reduce the baking time!
Made today and only had to knead for a lot longer with a few tablespoons extra flour (I think that is kind of normal in my kitchen, so I’ve noticed with other bread recipes I’ve been making). They are so good and pretty. Better than the bakeries back home! Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome, Melissa!
Thank you for this recipe. I live in the UK and Chinese bakeries are quite far away and pricey! I tried this recipe for the first time today and it was fabulous. I split the dough for hot dogs and cocktail buns. My husband had 3 in succession. I’m going to try the pineapple buns next❣️
You’re very welcome! :)
Hi there
Your recipes are normally bang on the money but this sausage bun was really more bread like texture than soft and fluffy. I followed it step by step and whilst the dough was nice and smooth the end result was more like a bread texture ?
Hi Elle, the bread really should be soft and fluffy if you followed the recipe! Could be that the ingredients weren’t quite at room temperature at the start, or that the dough didn’t quite double in size during the first proofing? Or perhaps that the yeast was on the older side?
I’m proofing as I type this reply and hope to add a comment on how quickly my family devours them. Reason for this reply is that you indicate in the recipe to allow dough to grow 1.5x in size but advised this fellow CHB enthusiast that a root cause for not so fluffy buns may have been not allowing the dough to double in size. Suggest updating the recipe if that is what is required for best results. I would normally allow dough to double in size and will do so for this bake. Cheers and thanks for sharing your recipe with the world!
Thanks for that reminder, Jonathan! Will update the recipe accordingly.