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Homemade Hot Dog Buns

June 15, 2012 by Nicole 28 Comments

Homemade Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns

Yesterday I had a craving for grilled hot dogs.  It doesn’t happen often, but when a craving for a childhood treat comes on, sometimes it’s very difficult to shake.  So, yesterday afternoon I decided we would grill hot dogs for dinner.  The problem was that I didn’t want to eat store-bought buns.  I don’t eat bread as often as I used to and if I was going to splurge and eat a hot dog bun (or two), I wanted them to be good ones.  The obvious choice was to make some from scratch, but I only had a few hours and most of the bread I make at home takes much longer than that.  I needed to find a recipe that was both delicious and quick, so I turned to my trustworthy baking friends on Twitter and asked for recommendations.

My friend Bonnie directed me to a recipe for Beautiful Burger Buns from King Arthur Flour.  It was a simple recipe that used a lot of yeast to ensure a quick rise, so it definitely worked within my time frame.  I generally like recipes from King Arthur and this one also came with recommendations from a few other friends who had used it before.  Since I had all the ingredients on hand, I went ahead and tried it.

I was only planning on having hot dogs once this week, so I shaped half the dough into hot dog buns and made the rest into hamburger buns, which can be used this weekend or frozen for another time.  The dough was simple to put together and easy to work with once it was mixed.  I followed the recipe almost exactly as written, although I think I added a couple extra tablespoons of butter, since I just tossed in the remains of my open package of Kerrygold.  I also had to add just a touch more water than the recipe suggested to get a dough that wasn’t too stiff.  The only other change I made was to brush the risen rolls with an egg wash (one egg beaten with 1 teaspoon of water and a pinch of salt) and I baked them at 400 degrees rather than 375 because I wanted buns with a deep golden color.

The hot dog buns were delicious!  This recipe contains more sugar than I would normally put in a batch of buns, and I’ll probably cut it a little bit next time I make them, but the butter, sugar, and salt worked well to give these quick-rising buns a great flavor.  I’d suggest trying the recipe once as written, then adjust the next time if you’d like.

To ensure the buns were all the same size, I used a scale to weigh out 2.5 ounce portions of dough.  The size was perfect for 1/4-pound hamburgers or hot dogs and I ended up with 11 buns.  If you’d like to make bigger buns, you could weigh out larger pieces or just divide the dough into 8 equal pieces as the original recipe suggests.

One of these days, when life slows down and I have more time in the kitchen for recipe development and step-by-step photographs, I’ll share my own hamburger and hot dog bun recipe with detailed shaping instructions.  For now, I’ll be sticking with this quick one, and have no reservations about recommending it to all of you.  Enjoy!

You can find the recipe for these buns here:  Beautiful Burger Buns at King Arthur Flour

Although I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like, I still talk about food on both twitter and facebook as often as I can.  If you’d like to join the conversation, follow me!

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Filed Under: Adventures in Baking, Breads

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kelsey says

    July 18, 2012 at 9:05 pm

    Awesome idea. I wouldn't have even have thought of making my own hotdog or hamburger buns at home. Usually I just eat them without the bun because I never really enjoyed store bought, but this is such a great idea and I'm sure that they taste good! It also turns a really simple, classic meal into something that people can get excited about!
    Reply
  2. Dad says

    July 25, 2012 at 11:21 pm

    Very nice! I have friends that introduce me to friends as, " this is Dad, he makes his own hot dog buns..." lol... It just makes good sense that if one buys premium (uncured organic) Hot dogs, that they should be comfortably nestled in premium buns, too! Luv yer buns, hon! lol...
    Reply
  3. Nerdswithfood says

    August 4, 2012 at 1:16 am

    Wow! Those buns look amazing! I'm definitely going to try my hand at this recipe when I feel like grilling. I love that you sprinkled them with sesame seeds. How easy were they to split open for hot dogs? How much do they puff up when they bake? I'm afraid if I shape them too close to the size of the hot dog, it'll come out monsterous out of the oven. Great pictures of the buns!
    Reply
  4. John1 says

    August 8, 2012 at 8:56 pm

    I recommend Diamond Crystal Salt. It seems that it would be perfect for this...so flavorful and so easy to control the pinch too!
    Reply
  5. Laura Dembowski says

    August 20, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    Those buns look awesome! I've always wanted to make homemade hot dog buns because the ones in the store just seem to blah. Nice to see that it can be done and with such great results!
    Reply
  6. whilehewasout says

    September 12, 2012 at 6:47 am

    Really good looking buns!
    Reply
  7. Melissa says

    July 2, 2013 at 2:52 pm

    Did you use any special pans to form the hot dog or hamburger buns, or did you just shape the dough by hand and bake it on a cookie sheet?
    Reply
  8. Nicole says

    July 2, 2013 at 3:13 pm

    Melissa - I shaped them by hand and baked on a cookie sheet. I just kind of guessed on the size!
    Reply
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