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Chinese hot dog buns

Chinese hot dog buns are soft, sweet and savory. They are perfect for breakfast, lunch or as a quick snack
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Prep Time 3 hours
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 3 hours 15 minutes
Course Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine Chinese
Servings 10

Equipment

  • 1 stand mixer
  • 1 Saucepan

Ingredients
  

Tangzhong

  • 125 ml water
  • 25 grams bread flour

Dough

  • 300 grams bread flour
  • 100 ml milk
  • 1 egg (room temperature)
  • 5 grams instant yeast
  • 20 grams unsalted butter
  • 40 grams white granulated sugar
  • 2 grams table salt
  • 6 grams milk powder
  • 10 hotdogs

Egg wash

  • 1 egg

Garnish

  • sesame seeds

Glaze

  • 1 tbsp melted butter

Instructions
 

Making the Tangzhong

  • To make the Tangzhong, in a small sauce pan, add in your water and bread flour and mix everything well together. Heat this mixture over low heat while constantly stirring everything to prevent it from burning and clumping up. Try to break apart any flour bits that you see.
  • Continue stirring the mixture until it becomes nice and thick. It should take you a good several minutes of cooking the Tangzhong before it arrives at a thick consistency.
  • Once the Tangzhong is ready, remove it from the stove and transfer it to a small bowl or dish. Cover it with plastic wrap, making sure to press down on the plastic wrap so that it touches and engulfs the Tanzhong to prevent it from drying.
  • Chill the Tangzhong in your fridge for at least 20-30 minutes, or you can make the Tangzhong overnight and use it the next day as well. Once the Tangzhong has cooled down, we can start making our dough.

Making the Dough

  • In a large mixing bowl, add in your flour, sugar, salt, milk powder, instant yeast, an egg, and the Tangzhong and turn on the stand mixer and let it mix for a few seconds to mix all of your dry ingredients together.
  • Then turn back on your stand mixer and let it mix while slowly adding in your milk. Let the stand mixer knead the dough for 3-4 minutes.
  • Then add in your room temperature butter and continue kneading the dough for an additional 8-9 minutes until the dough is very smooth.
  • You can check and see whether or not your dough is done kneading by applying the window pane test. Take a small piece of the dough and then stretch it out until it becomes somewhat translucent. If the dough doesn’t tear, then your dough has been sufficiently kneaded. If it tears, on the other hand, you will need to continue kneading it.
  • Once done, transfer the dough to a lightly oiled large bowl. Use a spatula or add some oil or water to your hands, and then shape the dough into a round ball.
  • After shaping the dough, place it back into the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap or a towel, and let it proof in a warm place until doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.

Cooking the Hot Dogs

  • Now, while waiting for our dough to proof, we’ll cook our hot dogs ahead of time.
  • In a large or medium-sized pot, cook your hot dogs in boiling water. Usually, the hot dogs will start to float to signal they are done cooking. Once done, drain the hot dogs and let them cool down in the kitchen before use.

Making the Buns

  • Once the dough has finished proofing, transfer it to a floured countertop. Punch out all of the gas in the dough and then shape it into a round ball.
  • Then weigh the dough. We’re going to divide it into 10 equal pieces, hence why we weigh out the dough.
  • Next, we’re going to divide the dough into ten pieces and weigh out each piece. You can of course skip this step if you want to eyeball it and don’t care whether or not you get equal portions.
  • Once you’ve divided and weighed out each piece, we’re going to start shaping our dough into round balls.
  • Take 1 piece of the dough, and then using one hand, slide the dough downwards towards the center while the other hand will help rotate the dough around and pinch the bottom.
  • We will then follow up by turning the dough over once it starts to resemble a ball and pinch the ends of the dough to seal it. Now, place the dough on your countertop and, using the palms of your hands, rotate the dough in a circular motion until the dough resembles a round ball.
  • Once done shaping all of your buns, cover them with some plastic wrap or a towel to prevent them from drying out.
  • Let the dough rest for 15-20 minutes on your countertop to relax the dough.
  • Then take each piece of the dough, apply some flour to it to prevent it from sticking, flatten out the dough, and roll it out.
  • Afterwards, start rolling the sides of the dough from the long end to the other side so that it resembles a long strip or log. Pinch the ends to seal it.
  • Now roll the strip until it becomes longer (about 12-14″ long or about 2x the size of the hot dog you are using).
  • Then take 1 piece of hot dog and wrap the strip around the hot dog in a circular motion, making sure to tuck the ends inside of the dough.
  • Repeat this process for all of the other pieces. Once done, place all of the hot dog buns onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Then cover it with plastic wrap or a towel and let it proof in a warm place for about 40 minutes. If you don’t have a warm place, you can place the buns in your oven with a bowl of hot water.
  • Once the buns have finished proofing, preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C).
  • Now we’re going to apply an egg wash to the buns. To make the egg wash, simply take 1 egg and whisk it for about 30 seconds.
  • Apply the egg wash to your buns, then sprinkle some sesame seeds on top, then bake the buns in your preheated oven at 350°F (180°C) for about 12-15 minutes until the top is golden brown.
  • Once the buns have been baked, apply some melted butter on top as a glaze.
  • Let the buns cool down for about 5-10 minutes and then serve while still hot.

Video

Notes

Tip: Cover the round balls that you have shaped with either plastic wrap or a towel to prevent them from drying out while you are shaping the dough.
The dough is very sticky due to the high water content, which makes the buns extra soft and fluffy when baked, therefore it is highly recommended that you use a stand mixer when kneading the dough. With that being said, however, you can still hand knead the dough if you don’t have a stand mixer. Just expect it to be very sticky to knead and may require a bit more time when kneading.
The oven temperature will vary between ovens so you may need to readjust the temperature.