Soft and fluffy hot dog buns made without a mixer and using pantry staple ingredients. Make these and load with your favourite fillings and toppings for a delicious yeast raised bread bun.

Hot dogs are one of my favourite foods. I can eat them anywhere and at anytime. They were one of the foods that I ate the most as a kid and to this day I’m always eating one at BBQs or outings. This recipe for hot dog buns is so simple and delicious and it uses minimal pantry staple ingredients.

They’re such a classic quick meal with so many ways to make them and toppings to add to them. So many veggies and sauces, add-ins and condiments. I love a mix of everything, ketchup, mustard the works!

Since I recently shared my favourite burger buns recipe, I figured I definitely have to share my favourite hot dog buns recipe. This recipe is from Joy the baker and I was hooked from the first time making them. I love the simplicity and the taste. The texture is wonderfully soft and fluffy yet sturdy enough to hold the sausages along with all the extras.

It’s an easy, yeasted dough recipe that is made by hand without a mixer. I always use instant yeast (sometimes called fast acting yeast or rapid rise yeast) and it never fails me. I like making my dough at night so that it can rise slowly overnight in the fridge. The ingredients listed in the recipe card below make 18 large buns but you can easily half the recipe to make less.

Key Ingredients

Water & Milk: using milk as the main liquid guarantees a fluffy dough. Adding water makes the dough light and allows the yeast to activate well.
Instant yeast: I always use instant yeast (fast rising or rapid rise) as it gives me great results and you don’t need to proof it beforehand. I usually start all my doughs mixing yeast with a liquid but that’s more out of habit than necessity.
Sugar: a small amount is used to help activate the yeast and round up the flavour of the hot dog buns.
All purpose flour: this is a bread but all purpose flour works perfectly here. For this type of dough you want a nice and tender bread so use all purpose flour. It can be called plain flour, take care not to mistake it for self rising flour.

The buns are brushed with an egg wash before baking. It does add a nice touch to the end result but I have made these without it and they are delicious too. Don’t skip on brushing the buns with butter once they’ve come out of the oven though as that is great for flavour.

Risen dough. Overnight in the fridge recipe.

Once the dough has risen, quite big and pillow-y, punch it down and divide into 18 balls. Roll each one into a log and place onto a floured baking tray to rise. There are two ways to make these buns, either soft or crispy sided.

Soft sides: place the rolls close to each other about 1 inch apart. As they bake they will touch one another and rise upwards becoming tall and soft.

Crispy sides: keep them at least 3 inches apart from each other. The heat will touch the outer edges making them more crunchy.

Let them rise for about an hour if you are not leaving them over night (above picture) then brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle some spices on top. This was a total game changer for me, even a sprinkling of ground black pepper makes such a difference to the baked hot dog buns.

Once you’re ready, bake them and enjoy, super delicious!

I have to tell you that these buns disappeared fast! Try them for yourself and see.

Substitutions & tips

I recommend using whole milk for the dough as it’s the best for structure and flavour. A nice trick I do is to use MILK POWDER instead of actual milk. We have milk powder often as it’s good for long term use and I’ve come to realize that it works wonders in breads and buns even for Cinnamon Rolls. The breads turn out so soft, fluffy and delicious. All you need to do is mix the milk powder with water according to the instructions shown on the back of the container and use in the same way as stated in the recipe.
Have fun using different spices to sprinkle on top of the hot dog bun dough before baking. Some of my favourites are; sesame seeds, oregano or Italian seasoning, sumac, paprika, sea salt and ground black pepper.
Freezing dough. As I mentioned in the post, this recipe does make 18 hot dog buns. Instead of halving the recipe, you can make the full recipe up to the step where you have let the dough rise. At this point you can punch it down then divide the dough into smaller sizes, cover really well with clingwrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Whenever you need bread, just take out some balls of dough, let them come to room temperature and bake as you normally would. You’ll have fresh hot dog buns before you know it!

Have fun making these buns, they really are easier than you think. Tag me with all your Dutch Baker bakes on Instagram & Facebook. I would LOVE to see how they turn out!