June 17, 2009 - 9:13am
Hot Dog Bun Pan
We don't eat hot dogs very frequently, but with the 4th of July coming up I was thinking about making some buns. I noticed that King Arthur sells a hot dog bun pan. It is kind of pricey but could be used for lobster rolls too (I guess we eat those even less frequently than hot dogs!). Does anyone have any experience with this pan?
--Pamela
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Hot dogs, lobster rolls, hoagies, meatball subs... There's a lot of potential uses.
I have one and love it. I hated buying hot dog buns. Why buy them when I can make them with no HFCS. So yes it is pricey but it works really well and no more store bought bread products.
Thanks, Jan.
I order one.
--Pamela
I made hot dog buns at a bakery and we didn't use a special pan. We just made little 6 or 7 inch batards and laid them parallel to each other about an inch apart in little trays (that we also used for brownies) with 1.5" tall sides.
As the buns proofed they squished into each other. We pulled them apart after cooling. Looked great...just like the packages in the store.
Allen
Hi Allen. I've made the buns in the way you describe as well, and they turned out very nice. I should have changed the title of my original post to say "New England style hot dog bun pan". It is that type of bun that I desire to make. If anyone has an idea on how I could achieve that style without buying a special pan, I'd love to hear about it.
--Pamela
Hi Allen---it's good to see you here :-) I'm making hotdog buns today for the first time. How much dough do you think would make a typical grocery-store-sized bun? I'm using what I think will be a light egg bread, 50% whole wheat. The brats these are for, are no longer than six inches, uncooked. I think I will use my hearth bread pan, which is 6" wide (curved sides) and 11 1/2 inches long. If I squeeze in six, maybe they will come out more like lobster rolls---hotdog buns, lobster rolls, either way will work. I'll wait and see how they come out before deciding which way to cut them. Thanks for any adivice you can give me.
BTW, PR fans may recognize Allen as the main character in Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. He enters on page 6 and throughout the book. He's a great guy; I'll vouch for him :-)
Please - if any of you have success with these rolls, post pictures and recipe for good buns - I have tried - while better than storebought - I don't like all the work required for shaping individual batards.
Well, I decided to go with 2 oz of dough, and when I got them in the pan, it looked like I could fit seven for average-sized buns:
Now that I have a starting point, next time I would either use a little less dough---maybe try 1.75 oz per bun---or fit six 2-oz into this pan for regular hot dog buns. For New England style, I might try eight buns, so that they squish a little taller. Either way, I will let them rise more before going into the oven. These are soft and light, but the hamburger buns (the second pan) baked up even lighter, so these hotdog buns could probably have proofed another 20 minutes.
All in all, this pan worked very well, so if you have one, consider it for your hot dog buns.
Hi Debbie. Your buns look terrific. It was just that I wanted those New England style ones.
--Pamela
Pamela, you should buy them :-) I wasn't trying to deter you---just answering Anna's request for pictures. I've had this pan a while now (I don't even think it is available anymore), and this worked out for me. I thought it might give other hearth pan owners (if there are any) another option. It's nice to have an alternate use for it, because I rarely use it for its intended purpose. The loaves are a little too big for us. Besides, "hearth bread pan" is kind of an oxymoron, don't you think?
Best,
Debbie
I'll let you know when I take the plunge and the pan arrives!
--Pamela
Oh, nice looking hot dog buns..they look like some wheat flour are in them?..very nice! What size pan did you use? I usually just use a large sheet pan.
Sylvia
Yes, they are 50% whole wheat, and the pan is 11 1/2 inches long by approximately 6 inches wide. But the sides curve out from 4 inches across the bottom to 6 1/2 inces across the top. It is designed to make a large rye loaf that cuts into oval deli-style slices. But it takes at least 2 pounds of dough for a loaf of sandwich bread! More if it's a dense bread like rye or whole wheat. I'm happy that it will stand in as a hotdog bun pan :-)
I have one of those pans, and only have used it when I needed a large loaf, so I'm glad to hear of another good use for it.
I have used it also for large challah braids -- five or six strands -- if I think the loaf may spread too much. And I always use the hearth loaf pan for sourdough challah (Maggie Glezer's recipe) because it seems to need the support the sides give, and it looks nice. (My family LOVES this bread, BTW -- I make it about 50% whole wheat). I may have to wake up my starter now...
Mary Clare
Hi, Debbie,
Thank you for your kind words.
Sorry, it's been a year since I was at the bakery and I no longer remember what I scaled the buns at. But it like your experimentation has yielded you good results.
Allen
The New England style is quite different from the regular hot dog rolls. I remembers these as the buns at Howard Johnson's when I was a kid. When you separate the rolls you lightly butter and grill them.
The recipe KAF inclues makes a fairly tight but light crumb with a touch of sweetness. I like to use these with crab salad, and I seem to associate them with summertime. Just got the pan out Memorial Day, now the weather's gotta change.
Pamela I think you'll enjoy these. You make so many interesting things (your pot stickers looked wonderful)...ya gotta have this!!
Enjoy. And bake on.
Dosi
Thanks. It always helps me to spend money when other people tell me I should have something :-).
--Pamela
On the Cover of this month's Gourmet magazine...looks like the buns stuffed with Crab...yumm!
Sylvia
Hi Pamela,
Noticed that the pan has five buns. Is this the connection between 10 buns to the package but hot dogs come 12 to the pack?
+Wild-Yeast
That is so funny...always been a complaint..why is there 8 hot dogs buns and more hots to a pack??
We don't have hot dogs very often but when we do I have purchase the Hebrew National brand. Lately I noticed there are only 7 dogs per package. Kind of annoying!
--Pamela
KA states the pan makes 10 buns with only 5 indents... HOW?
I think it is suppose to make 10 buns, but I don't have a good idea of what the pan actually looks like because of the odd, kind of cut off picture.
I even searched for a better picture on google, but couldn't turn one up. Actually, my inability to really see what the pan looks like was part of the reason I made the post on this forum.
--Pamela
Sorry about the crumbs. Haven't finished cleaning the kitchen. But once you turn them out you cut 1/2 wasy thru the buns and then slice the 10 buns apart. Hope this gives you a better idea.
Thanks, Jan. That is EXACTLY what I wanted to see. I really appreciate you posting the picture. Maybe you should submit it to KA! It's a lot better than theirs.
--Pamela
In Wisconsin, long ago in all the bread bakeries (and I suppose still now) they had "brat buns" for the more sausage-type, such as a bratwurst. Not for any hot dog. They were sturdier, slightly more bread-ier, and seemed the same size. So, if I wanted to make these - what can anyone suggest? More baguette type bread or what . . . ? Anet
Does anyone have a recipe for the hot dog buns? I've been using the one that came with the KA new england pan. They're a little dry and don't rise as high as I would like them to rise. However, the N.E. bun pan is great, esp. if you don't like all that crust on a regular bun. Thanks in advance.
The best hot dog buns I've made were from the formula for hamburger buns here --> http://www.sfbi.com/recipes.html
I am not a professional baker, can you break down the hamburger bun recipe for me to understand to use at home? I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
I'm not making a batch to sell, which is what this recipe is for. Is there something a little simpler available?
6 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2tbsp quick rise yeast
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups hot water
Combine dry ingredients , add milk and hot waste, mix until lumpy dough forms. Cover let rise for 2 hours. Form into buns and let rise again before baking.
you can also put this dough intro the refrigerator after the first rise and store for up to three days before baking.
good luck .
There's a local place I get fresh bratwurst from, probably hotter than most people would be able to tolerate, but that's what I really like. I love baking bread and it's a real shame when I have to put them on store bought buns. This looks like the solution I've been looking for.
I'm thinking I'll pass on the KA pan and just use the proof and bake bethod where they grow together and pull them apart. Seems to work fine for me when I make rolls for holiday meals.
Billybob
And just for all of you that are curious, yes, my real name is William Robert, but I'm not from the US south. I grew up a half hour from Chicago.
USA Pans is the maker of the one KA sells (I believe).
www.usapans.com
I bought one of these pans, but oddly enough I don't use it for making hot dog buns. I make hot dog buns like the users above.. rolled out and placed on a baking parchment. What I do use this pan for, however, is to make soft sided buns for sandwiches of all kinds. My family enjoys everything from lobster salad to chicken salad.. even egg salad or tuna. Delish!
Seems the regular poof-dough hot dog bun pans are missing the mark here.
How about a mini-baugette pan that's just a bit wider? A meatball sandwich could be served on pain au levain rolls - ...,
Wild-Yeast