mini hot dog buns

as i was falling asleep last evening, i started thinking about hot dogs… i wanted to sink my teeth into a big hot dog bun…. come to think about it, i haven’t eaten hot dogs for 5 years! i was thinking it will be cute if i incorporated the hot dog into the body of the puppy…. but after i baked these, i couldn’t bear to eat them!!!!

Hot Dog buns 

Dough (makes 10 mini hot dog buns)
250g bread flour
25g sugar
3g yeast
2g salt
8g milk powder
25g butter (softened)
30g egg (lightly beaten)
131g water
10 mini hot dogs

Directions
– mix all ingredients and knead till you get a pilable and soft dough
– incorporate butter and knead till you achieve window pane stage
– proof till dough becomes 2-2.5x
– punch down dough, and divide into 10 equal portions and rest for 10 mins
– i did not weigh the portions for head and body (as i was also figuring out the “ideal” weightage), but the head and body are around the same weight. From the head portion, i cut off a very small dough, rolled, flattened slightly and attached it to the face of the pup
– from the body portion, i cut off another portion of dough, and further divided this portion into 4 equal portions (they should not be too small). These will form the legs (i rested the head of pup on the 2 front legs.. but as you can see, the legs on my pup are too small so you can hardly see them.. so don’t make the same mistake I did). I then rolled the rest into a long rope, and wrapped it around the circumference of the hot dog.  Cut away the extra dough hanging after the “wrap”, and then seal seams
– Roll out the “extra dough” that has been cut away till very flat. I then used a leaf cutter (please use a big one) to cut out the ears then attach it to the head. the remaining dough will form a short tail
– cover pups and proof for another 45 mins
– egg wash pups, then bake in preheated over of 180 degrees C for 12-15 mins (I baked for 14 mins)
– after pups have cooled down, I used melted chocolate to pipe eyes and nose
– feel free to add cheese/tomato sauce as desired

Enjoy 😀

Pollution index: 177 (unhealthy)