Homemade Hot Dog Buns
Soft and delicious homemade hot dog buns aren’t hard to make, and taste so much better than store-bought!
Hot dogs or brats are a summer staple at our house, but buns from the grocery store are so bland and boring. So I’ve started making my own!
Homemade hot dog buns aren’t more difficult that any other yeasted dough recipe. If you’ve ever baked a loaf of bread, you can certainly bake a batch of these buns. And you should! Because they’re awesome.
I borrowed the recipe for my homemade burger buns because I love it so much, and it made the crossover from hamburger to hot dog quite easily. These buns are soft and tender, with so much more delicious flavor than most store-bought options.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Let’s get baking, shall we? Here’s everything you need to gather to get started:
- Bread flour
- Eggs
- Whole milk
- Granulated sugar
- Butter
- Active-dry yeast
- Salt
- Poppy seeds (for topping, optional)
How to Make the Best Homemade Hot Dog Buns
Don’t be intimidated, these hot dog buns are actually quite basic to make:
- Prepare dough. Heat butter, water and milk, then add to 2 cups of the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and eggs. Add remaining flour a little at a time till you get a dough that mostly clears the sides of the bowl and is sticky to the touch but doesn’t fall apart when you grab it.
- Let rise. Here are a few suggestions for ways to let dough rise.
- Portion and shape buns. See below for tips on shaping!
- Let rise again. Cover shaped buns with greased plastic wrap and let rise until puffed a little more, about 30 minutes. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven.
- Add egg wash. Brush with 1 egg + 1 tablespoon water and sprinkle with poppy seeds (if using).
- Bake. Bake the hot dog buns at 400°F until golden brown, about 12-15 minutes.
Then enjoy with a grilled hot dog or brat and your favorite toppings!
How to Shape Homemade Hot Dog Buns
- Divide the risen dough into 10 equal pieces (use a digital scale for accuracy).
- Gently use your fingers to gather each piece into a ball, gathering and pinching dough together at the bottom so the top is smooth.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the ball into a log about 5 inches long. This will yield a bun perfectly sized for a standard hot dog.
- Place the bun on a sheet pan lined with parchment. Gently pat the tops of the buns to flatten. The buns rise the most in the center during baking, so this keeps them more traditionally shaped.
Recipe Tips
- You can use instant yeast in this recipe. Reduce amount to 1 ¾ teaspoon.
- The amount of flour you’ll need for your hot dog buns will vary! There are different variables like climate and how you measure flour (psst, this is how I measure flour) so I’ve given you a range. Stop adding flour when the dough starts to the clear the sides of the bowl towards the top, but still sticks towards the bottom of the bowl. It will still be sticky and you’ll need floured hands to work with it, but you should also be able to stretch it a bit without breaking. The softer the dough is, the softer the rolls will be so error on the side of too wet to too dry.
- You can use all-purpose flour in place of the bread flour, but know you’ll likely need to add more than the recommended 3-4 cups, possibly up to ½ cup more, but again the amounts will vary.
- Don’t worry if your hot dog bun shapes come out a little funky. That happens to me sometimes! They will still taste delicious.
- These hot dog buns can be made ahead! They’re at their best the day they’re baked so plan accordingly. Store unbaked shaped buns in the fridge for up to 12-18 hours before baking. Or freeze baked buns in the freezer for 1-2 months and thaw at room temperature for several hours before using. They taste just as good as fresh!
Skip the Store! More Homemade Buns to Try
Shop Tools for this Recipe
This recipe was originally published June 2014.
Homemade Hot Dog Buns
Soft and flavorful homemade hot dog buns, much better than store-bought!
Ingredients
- ¼ cup whole milk (60 ml)
- 1 cup water (237 ml)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (28 grams)
- About 3-4 cups bread flour (420 grams, amount you'll need will vary)
- 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 envelope, 7 grams)
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (25 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs , lightly beaten
- 1 large egg + 1 teaspoon water , for egg wash
- Poppy seeds , for sprinkling (optional)
Instructions
- In a small saucepan set over medium low heat, warm the milk, water and butter until butter is melted. Set aside to cool slightly to 120-130° F.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine 2 cups of the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add the warm milk mixture, followed by the eggs and mix until combined.
- With the mixer on medium low speed, continue to add more flour ¼ cup at a time until the dough clears most of the bowl but is still sticky to the touch. Continue to knead dough on medium speed until smooth and elastic, a few minutes more.
- Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
- Gently punch down dough and knead a few times. Cover with plastic wrap to keep from drying out and let rest for about 10 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces and roll into an oblong roll 4 ½ inches long. Place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Let rise until doubled again, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400° F.
- Brush rolls with egg wash and sprinkle with poppy seeds, if desired. Let bake until golden, about 10-12 minutes.
- Buns are best the day they are baked but will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Calories: 219kcal, Carbohydrates: 36g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 5g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 56mg, Sodium: 374mg, Potassium: 96mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 151IU, Calcium: 21mg, Iron: 1mg
Have you tried this recipe?I’d love to hear about it! Leave a review below or take a photo and tag it on Instagram @completelydelicious with #completelydelicious.
Home made hot dog buns always remind me of summer even on the coldest day. They look perfect and I love how you made them so traditional. No fancy bun for me please!
Ha ha! I JUST made hotdog buns for the first time on Saturday! We never eat hot dogs (Why? I don’t know! They’re delicious!) but I bought a pack of Nathan’s on sale last week and was a little repelled by the cheapo grocery store buns. Mine were a King Arthur recipe but were remarkably similar to yours. Not as beautiful, though. If I ever buy hotdogs again I’ll give this recipe a bash. Thanks!
Yeah, the stuff at the grocery store sucks. It’s fun to make your own, huh? You’ll have to let me know if you give this recipe a try!
Sounds like a great idea! I’ve made hamburger rolls for the same reason and have never tried hot dog rolls. Why not? I know my boys will love these buns!
Thanks ever so much!
Awesome and tasty recipe!!! I’ll try it in this week. I love healthy food which looks like unhealthy!
These came out great but I had to use much more flour. About another 1-1.5 cups to get the dough to form into a cohesive ball.
The hot dog bread was awesome…this is the best recipe I have found in a long time…..but i also agree with Lindsay, I had to add more flour to it….
My go to recipe since I tried it! Lovely and light.
My best results ever for bread with this recipe but also had to use more flour (Almost 200g more!)
My best results ever for bread with this recipe but like other comments, I had to use more flour, approx. 200g extra!
Made the dough, metric… the dough is extremely sticky and could not roll into a nice ball. I think it will end up in the bin….
Ton, this is a very high-hydration dough, 71% hydration, with milk and water; 93% hydration, including eggs.
As such, some may find a high-hydration dough a challenge with which to work and a bit time-consuming, but it’s so worth it. The key is extensive kneading, either by machine or hand, until dough is truly soft, supple, and silky.
The upside to a high-hydration dough is that bread or any pastry is tender, light, and fluffy. Shelf-life is also extended, as bread does not dry out quickly. Adding too much additional flour only toughens bread and makes it dense.
Several techniques exist for working with a high-hydration dough. One is to allow the dough to sit in the fridge 2 – 3 days (yes, you read that right) to develop gluten. Not longer in this case, due to the eggs.
It then requires 4 – 6 “stretch and folds” by hand and rest of 15 – 30 mins in between until dough is silky smooth and tacky to touch, but not sticky.
My personal favorite is to mix only flour and water initially (autolyse/sponge) and allow flour to fully hydrate — this develops gluten without interference from other ingredients (eggs, salt).
Then, add yeast and sugar (since sugar is a small amount), which does not have to compete with flour at this point, and rest mixture ~1 hour. Add remaining ingredients and knead until smooth. Kneading time is greatly decreased.
Also, an overnight cold-ferment, once dough is properly kneaded, is fantastic for additional flavor.
Hope this helps you and/or any other reader.
Made this recipe today and though they haven’t made it to the oven I felt I had to come back and post. Definitely wayyyy too wet! With the amount of flour listed I couldn’t even get it to come off of the bowl, my hands, the dough hook, or spatula! Wowzer! There is no way to shape this dough let alone get it out of the bowl! Added about 1 1/4 c. more flour just to get it to come together just shy of sloggy. Managed to get it out of the bowl and onto a floured board to knead by hand for a few minutes so it was still tacky but not super sticky. It is rising in the greased bowl so we shal see how it does! 🙂 Definitely have to up the flour with this one though unless you are pouring it into molds! On a really good note, it smells divine!
Update!! These were absolutely yummy but huge! Next time I think I could make them a little smaller and get a few extras out of the recipe! Definitely going to make them again!
The recipe is very contradictory. You say only to add enough flour that it pulls away from the sides of the bowl and does not stick to your fingers. That takes a lot more than 420 grams of flour!
Then you say in the Comments it’s a high hydration dough, which is very wet and sticky, and not possible to knead.
Please fix your recipe so people don’t have to read through the comments to figure out what’s wrong!
Regards
Hi Michael! The comment about hydration did not come from me, but from another reader. Lots of factors go into how much flour will be needed when making bread. How you measure ingredients, where you live, the weather that day. Sometimes you’ll need more flour, sometimes less. I’ll see if I can make the instructions clearer, thanks for the feedback!
Recipe is confusing. It says to use 3 and 1/2 cups flour but then stipulates use age of only 2 and 1/4 cups. Used all 3 and 1/2 cups but still needed more as was so wet.
After you add the 2 cups, you add the rest of the flour 1/4 cup at a time until you’ve added all 3 1/2 cups of flours. I’m sorry if that was confusing, I tried to make it more clear. Also, this is supposed to be a very soft dough. It should still be sticky, but not come off on your fingers when you touch it. I hope that helps!
Definitely try this recipe! Thank you so much!
We love this recipe! It’s not too difficult to make – but the results are always great. The rolls/buns are light, airy and with enough structure to hold fillings without disintegrating into a crumbly mess. The bread flavour is also superior to anything you will buy in the supermarkets. It’s actually as good as a brioche – but quicker to make.
Thank you !
120 – 130 degrees f. will kill the yeast! . 105 – 115 f. is the safest.
Hi Keith! Yeast dies at 140°F. 120-130°F is safe and perfect for a quicker rise. I learned this from the bakers at Red Star Yeast and it’s how I make all yeast recipes in my home.
These are amazing and such an easy recipe to follow! 10/10! Husband said we’re not buying cardboard grocery store buns anymore!
Hi! I looking forward to making these nice buns. Question: can I freeze unbaked buns after the second rise, then completely thaw them out before baking? Also, why, if using instant yeast, do you use 1/2 teaspoons less?
Thanks for your help! MC
Yes, freezing after the second rise will work just fine. Freeze on a parchment lined baking sheet until frozen, then transfer to a ziplock bag, etc for longer freezer storage. Or if you place to thaw and bake in the next few days, simply double wrap the baking sheet with plastic wrap and store that way. You can sub instant/quick-rise yeast 1:1 for active-dry yeast just fine. Note that rising times will be shorter, that’s the only difference.