Hot Dog Buns

I have been baking bread from scratch for several years now, and I love the aroma and flavor of fresh baked bread, buns, rolls, pizza, etc.  Hot Dog Buns, however have been more of a challenge than other breads.  Either the consistency is wrong and they fall apart while eating, or they are too long, too big, or otherwise too much bun for the dogs.  

Flavor wise I have found this recipe from King Arthur Flour to be the best.  I just cannot seem to shape them properly.  As we are downsizing and getting rid of things I do not want to purchase a special pan for making these buns, which we only use a couple times a year.  

I’ve tried the method where you roll out a rectangle, then partially cut between each “bun” and then bake as a whole before cutting apart.  This turned out miserably both times I tried, and the buns would not stay together to hold the dogs inside.

I’ve tried rolling out separately and find they expand too much during rising and the buns are oversized for the dogs.

Yesterday I tried a hybrid approach…I rolled out the buns to just exactly the size of the dogs, then placed them closely on the pan so each was touching another at the sides, and the pan kept them bound from expanding sideways.  Some expanded a little too much in length, but overall this method seems to have worked.  The buns were appropriately sized for the dogs, and held together while eating, and tasted great too!  

I will try this method again in the future and hopefully I have found my solution to this bread making dilemma.  

Note: this recipe makes a lot of buns, so if making the entire recipe I usually form half into burger buns and half into hot dog buns.  You can also easily just make a half batch.  To get the size buns I desired I cut my half batch of dough into 12 buns.  

I usually top my buns with egg wash then sprinkle on sesame or poppy seeds.  Sometimes I use my Everything Bagel Mix too!