2015 Cooking Club Week 24: Chinese Hot Dog Buns

I had never heard of Chinese Hot Dog Buns before I came across this recipe one day by accident. I bookmarked it because it looked nice, and eventually got around to trying it.

Apparently they're a popular snack you can get in Asian bakeries. They're similar in concept to sausage rolls, but with a lovely soft, chewy dough.

The recipe is straight forward, but there is some downtime between steps to allow yeast and dough to do their thing.

Ingredients
10 Smoked Hot Dogs
1 egg
Sesame seeds
370g Plain Flour
240ml Milk
3 tbsp Sugar
2 tsp Active Yeast (1x7g sachet)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Sea Salt
45g Unsalted Butter (if you only have salted butter, use 1g less sea salt)
Mustard and ketchup (optional)

Method
Heat the milk for a minute in the microwave. It should be warm, but not overly so. Stir the sugar into the milk, making sure it dissolves. Add the yeast and stir. Leave to stand for 15 minutes; the yeast will froth up.



Mix the flour, baking powder, and sea salt together. Melt the butter. Add the milk and butter to the flour, and knead for 10 minutes. It will be quite a sticky dough, so make sure you have an escape plan Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film, and leave it to prove for an hour. It should double in size.



Divide the dough into 10 and roll into balls. Let them stand for 20 minutes to expand.

The dough is springy, so you'll need to do the following one at a time. Roll a dough ball into a rope roughly 2.5 times the length of a hot dog. Wrap the dough at an angle around the hot dog, leaving the ends of the sausage exposed. Keep the ends of the dough underneath to keep it from unravelling. Repeat for the remainder of the hot dogs.



Preheat your oven to 200°C, and cover a baking tray with baking paper. Place the hot dogs on the tray, making sure to leave enough room for expansion. Whisk the egg and brush the hot dogs with it. Sprinkle some sesame seeds over the dough. Bake for 15-18 minutes.



They'll be too hot to eat right away, so allow to cool slightly. I like them just a couple of minutes from the oven, but room temperature is nice also. If you're reheating in a microwave, 30 seconds on high should be enough.

If you're a fan of ketchup and/or mustard on hot dogs, by all means have some at the ready for dipping. I have experimented with adding sauce to pre-wrapped dogs (like hot dog lattices), but wrapping the dough was slightly more difficult, and the result not worth the effort.