This recipe is a variation of our existing hot dog bun recipe, using the same dough, but crafted into the shape of a flower. Hence the name, flower hot dog buns!
Flower hot dog buns have grown more popular in Chinese bakeries in recent years.
Instead of having the hot dog running through the middle of the bun, it is distributed throughout the bun. We also dot the top of these buns with scallions for extra flavor and color.
A Surprisingly Easy Method
While these hot dog buns are more visually striking than the traditional version, there’s also a practical reason to make them.
The hot dog is sliced into several pieces and gets distributed throughout the hot dog bun!
While in our other hot dog bun recipe, we lightly fry the hot dogs before putting them into the dough, there is no need for that with this recipe, since the hot dog is divided into smaller pieces and exposed during baking.
It’s a lot simpler than it looks to make. You simply roll the hot dog into the dough, and then make cuts in it (without cutting all the way through).
Then you flatten and fold out the pieces to make either a round floral shape, or a more vertical shape. We have step-by-step photos below to show you how it’s done!
Note ON THE DOUGH RECIPE:
We are again using our go-to Milk Bread recipe to make these flower hot dog buns. If you’ve made that recipe before (or the dough for any of our other Chinese Bakery bun recipes), you know it calls for a mix of bread flour and cake flour.
Of course, many of you have asked if you can substitute all purpose flour in that recipe. After much experimentation on our end, we have found that using 100% all purpose flour also yields great results. To streamline this recipe, we have included the 100% all purpose flour version.
Recipe Instructions
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add the room temperature heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, flour, yeast, and salt (in that order).
Turn on the mixer to “stir.” Let it go for 15 minutes.
You may want to stop the mixer once to push the dough together, though this isn’t always necessary. The dough should stick to the bottom of the bowl, but not the sides.
