bread/chinese food/recipes/snacks

Hot Dog Bun Recipe

Posted April 18, 2012 by Stephanie

If you’ve ever had Asian style baked goods, you’ll notice that they taste a bit different from regular-style bakery offerings. Their bread tends to be a little bit sweeter and they’re a lot fluffier and softer. I love buying loaves of bread from Asian bakeries because a.) they’re square and b.) they stay soft for ever.

The secret of the soft bread is due to tangzhong, a flour-water roux. I don’t bake bread a lot, so I don’t know the science behind it, but apparently the flour-water roux helps with the gluten development. Breads made with tangzhong tend to be fluffy, bouncy and soft. There are quite a few sites that extol the virtues of tangzhong, and after obsessively visiting them for a week, I decided to take the plunge and make some Hong Kong style hot dog buns.

Hong Kong style hot dog buns are fantastic. They’re one of the buns we consistently buy so I knew I had to try them at home. Fresh out of the oven these buns are the perfect snack: warm, slightly sweet airy bread wrapped around a juicy hot dog. Mike ate about 6 in a row straight out of the oven. I’d say they were successful.

i am hot dog, i am a fluffy bread blanket: i am hk hot dog bun!

Hong Kong Style Hot Dog Bun Recipe from christinesrecipes.com
yield: 18 mini hot dog buns

Tangzhong Recipe

  • 50 grams bread flour
  • 1 cup water

Bun Recipe

  • 6 hot dogs, patted dry and cut into threes
  • 350 grams bread flour
  • 55 grams sugar
  • 5 grams salt
  • 56 grams of egg*
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 120 grams tangzhong (flour water roux)
  • 6 grams instant yeast
  • 30 grams butter, at room temperature cut into small pieces

Make the tangzhong: Mix the flour and water in a small sauce pan. Make sure there are no lumps. Cook over medium-low heat while stirring consistently with a wooden spoon to prevent burning. As you’re cooking, the mixture will become thicker and thicker. You want the mixture to become so thick that when you drag the spoon across the bottom of the pot, there will be a line left behind. Remove the pot from the heat and cover with saran wrap placed directly on the surface of the paste. Let it chill until room temperature. Take a look at this page for more detail on tangzhong.

Combine all the dry ingredients in your stand mixer bowl. In a separate, small bowl, whisk together the milk, egg and tangzhong. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet to the dry. With the dough hook, knead until the dough comes together and then add the butter. Keep kneading the dough until smooth, not sticky and elastic. (I kneaded for at least 10 minutes with my Kitchen Aid).

When you think the dough is ready, take a small piece of it and stretch it. It should form a thin membrane the is very elastic. If you use your finger to poke a hole through it, the hole should be a perfect circle. If the hole is irregular you still need to knead.

When your dough is ready, shape it into a ball and place it in a greased bowl and cover with saran wrap. Let it proof in a warm, un-drafty area until doubled in size, about 40 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a clean, floured surface. Deflate and divide the dough into 18 equal parts. Roll the parts into balls, cover will saran wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll each part into a long tube and wrap around a hot dog part. Place the roll, seam-side down on a tray lined with parchment paper. Be sure to leave some space between the rolls and they need to proof again. Cover the rolls and proof for an hour or until about doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 355F. Brush the tops with whisked egg. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool and enjoy!

*lightly beat the egg before weighing it out. Save the remainder to use as the egg wash.

15 Comments

  1. Lynna says:

    i love bread from asian bakeries as well! they really are delicious! & i have to try out this recipe! thanks for sharing!

  2. Anders says:

    I’m totally going to make these!! They look fantastic.

  3. Those remind me of the wiener wraps from elementary school, which I loved! This looks amazing!

  4. These sound delicious, thanks.

  5. Carolyn Jung says:

    Perfect party food. Or even better, a great late-night nosh. ;)

  6. Justin says:

    These look great, like asian sausage rolls!

  7. Jennifer G says:

    I’ve been wanting to try making these for a while and I saw this on foodgawker the other day and bookmarked it. Woke up today and thought “it’s the perfect day for hot dog buns!” Just finished up with the tangzhong and am letting it cool. Thanks for the easy to follow recipe and beautiful pictures!!

  8. Roberta says:

    Mmmmmmm they look “gustosissimi”!! I’m going to make these!!

  9. Mary H says:

    Tried this recipe with my children. I like the taste. But the buns didn’t turn out as fluffy an moist as what I imagined them to be. I even cut down the baking time to just 15 mins. Any reason why it’s like this?

  10. alexandra says:

    that is a very good idea

  11. I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you
    design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
    Plz answer back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know where u got this from. kudos

  12. ASM says:

    Water roux or tangzhong is not really so much about “supporting gluten development” as it is bringing trapped water to the loaf. The small amount of flour sacrificed to the roux becomes worthless as a gluten producing meal, but has absorbed far more moisture than most of your baking flour and has gelatinized its starches to trap it. The rest of your flour produces the gluten network as planned if it is sufficiently kneaded, while the roux brings a long-lasting moisture that won’t evaporate out of the crumb quite as easily as it will in a typical loaf.

    Meanwhile, most tangzhong products carry a great deal more sugar (usually just white sugar) and fat (butter, milk, egg), both of which aid in keeping the bread from becoming stale as fast as well as lending more cakey flavors. Most Hokkaido milk loaves are made in a pain de mie or pullman pan to achieve the gorgeous square shape and compact crumb that makes them so good for sandwiches.

  13. Louise says:

    They make these at an Asian supermarket near me in the UK and I absolutely LOVE them, but I’ve never found a recipe! Can’t wait to try these out – thank you!

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