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). 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!
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 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.
I don’t have a mixer – sad! Can I knead this with my humble hands?
Yes, definitely, Deborah! It will be a little sticky, but you can definitely do that (it should stick to the bottom of the bowl, but not the sides). I would extend the initial kneading time by 5-10 minutes if kneading by hand.
Ah thanks! I tried it out, hand-kneaded – and it turned out beautifully! Dough was a little sticky though, as you pointed out, and think I added too much flour to counter it – but it was still a success! Thank you!
i just made these and my family LOVES it. My daughter says they taste better than than those in the SF bakery . I will definitely make these again. I love your recipes. Glad I found your website.
Thank you so much, Lisa!
Really good! Stick it through! Here’s my experience:
Took 1.5-2hr for 1st proof (on counter). Also took 1.5 hr for 2nd proof (on counter). Also once buns were in the oven, after the 14 minutes, I had to set to the lowest broil setting and place buns on middle/lower rack in order to brown like the photo. But they did brown like the photo! Beautiful, tasty little buns! Such a keeper recipe!
Thank you so much!
I made these for my family and they turned out just like the bakery versions. Browning the hot dogs on the skillet definitely made it taste so much better. With this recipe, I was able to use about half the dough for the hot dog buns, and the rest of the dough I made small pineapple roast pork buns. Thanks Sarah!
So happy to hear you enjoyed! 2 kinds of buns sounds great! You’re very welcome. :)
Love the recipe! I’ve made the ham and cheese and the pineapple bun too but not able to get the color like yours. Do I need to increase the tempt?
Hi Amy, yes your oven may run a bit cool. We buy separate oven thermometers, because we find our ovens can be super inaccurate—like 25 degrees off the mark! Try increasing the baking temp by 25°F.
Hi! Do you think this would work with lap cheong instead of hot dogs? I read your other recipe on steamed lap cheong buns but craving them baked instead! – https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-sausage-buns/
Hi Jinn, I’ve never tried that, but could be worth a shot!
Hi Sarah, I am planning on making these on Saturday for my nephew’s birthday and hoping to get a reply before then. I bought cocktail hot dogs rather than normal size hot dogs so they are about half the size of a normal hot dog, probably 6-7cm long. Due to the smaller size, I asssume that I will need to cut the dough into 24 pieces instead of 12 and reduce the cooking time to half (7 mins) and rotate pans at 3 and half mins to accommodate? Thank you
Yes, Sharon! I would make mini buns! 24 pieces sounds good. I don’t know that they would bake through in 7 minutes. Perhaps 9-10 minutes? It also depends on your oven. You could set a timer to start at around 8 minutes and just watch from there. I love the idea of mini hot dog buns for a birthday party!
I just made them and they tasted great, although I think I would have liked the bread to be even a little bit sweeter. One problem I had was that at 14 minutes the tops weren’t very brown so I left them in a few minutes longer, and then the bottoms got burnt 😭 I’ll definitely try again next time and figure out how to get the tops more brown without burning the bottom! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
You’re welcome, Stephanie! Ovens can be finicky. I think it’ll go better the second time around!