So last week was no-grocery week and I decided to bake hotdog buns instead of buying them. I got out a jiffy recipe from a trusted cookbook and started measuring and rolling. In typical Shari-fashion I made them the day of the cookout so they’d be fresh, pinning everything on one effort without leaving myself time to make a second batch if the first ones failed, and worrying most that I’d crank out these massive beefy buns large enough to engulf turkey drumsticks—you know how yeast is!
I went a little overboard in my efforts to keep small, and when I pulled them out of the oven they were—quite small. Really small. I thought the hotdogs might be able to wedge their paws in.
Embarrassed to serve them, I nonetheless had little choice. I sliced them halfway through with an electric knife and stuck them in the picnic basket with the other fixins.
Up until the moment the first guest put a hotdog in one, I thought “This will never work.”* But it did. Most perfectly.
*I think this a lot while I am creating.
The ladies liked them because they were dainty and low-carb and the men liked them because they were an excuse to eat more hotdogs—more like a hotdog handle, really. We found it refreshing to skip the usual big-hunk-of-extra-bun-on-the-side. Plus they were yummy. I think my brother ate five.
And my daughter ate a s’more. Which is not what this blog post is about.
As I was saying. I asked for permission to share the recipe with you! I’ve made it before as dinner rolls, and I love it because it’s the quickest yeast recipe I’ve made, simple and clean and no-fuss. Rhoda Byler graciously gave permission to share; it’s from her cookbook Kountry Kupboard Kook’n, available for purchase here. Lots more yummy down-home recipes in it too.
Try it?
Jiffy Buns
4 to 4 ½ cups hi-gluten flour (or half wheat)
2 Tbsp. yeast
1 cup milk
¾ cup water
½ cup oil
3 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. saltStir together 2 cups flour and yeast. Heat water, oil, milk, honey and salt until very warm. Pour into flour mixture; beat well. Add rest of flour to make a soft dough; let the mixer knead briefly. Let rest 10 minutes. Roll ½” thick on well-floured surface. For dinner rolls: cut out in circles. For little hotdog buns: use a pizza cutter to slice into 1 x 4-or-5″ rectangles. Let rise ½ hour on greased sheet. Bake at 400° for 12-15 minutes.
Recipe compliments of Enos and Rhoda Byler
What do you make with yeast just for fun?
They were scrum dilli icious!!! Mmmm I cud handle one right now.
They look scrum dilli umpicious! Thanks for the recipe…I want to try them!
and I like the idea of a littler bun, hate all that bread with my hotdog!
Just think of all the people you made happy!
For all the bread I have made through the years – I have always been scared to make hotdog buns – for exactly your reasons that they’d be completely the wrong size.
But I LOVE the look of these! So cute!
I think hotdogs will be coming up this weekend.
Gina
I think they sound perfect! I just pinned the recipe. When I first saw the title of ‘Mini hot dog buns’, I was thinking MINI mini and I thought you were thinking the same thing as I was. I sometimes buy those little smokies to put in BBQ sauce, or slice a crescent roll in threes and wrap them and bake them. Sometimes instead of those, I’ll buy the mini hot dogs (and do the same) and was complaining one day that they sell these mini hot dogs but no buns to match. I thought I’d come up with something, sell them, and call them “Beth’s Baby Buns”, but then I figured that sounded like too much work. I’ll make these buns and make them as small as I want and have my own version of Beth’s Baby Buns, but you won’t find them in your local market. haha Thanks!!
Ooh! Don’t be too quick to give up on that idea. I would buy them. 🙂