Attempted Hot Dog Buns

Also in honor of my brother coming, I am taking some of our venison hot dogs out of the freezer. I've never seen my brother or my husband pass up a hot dog. I don't think I have to get into what my problem is with hot dogs, but these are legit.

So I wanted to make some nice homemade hot dog buns to go with them. I can't think of anyplace where I could buy unprocessed hot dog buns around here, so this is really  my only choice. I figured they were just going to be like making bread only I would shape them into buns!

I used this recipe from Foodie with a Family. It seemed to have everything I wanted. I didn't use the potato flakes because not only did I not have them, I just don't trust potatoes in flake form. So I just left them out.

I warmed up my milk and added the butter right to it to soften it. I also added in the sugar since I was using raw sugar and didn't want it to be too grainy.

I put the flour, salt, and yeast in the mixer and blended, and then added in the wet ingredients, followed by an egg.

This gave me a pretty good looking dough. I set it aside to rise in the kids room, which tends to be the warmest place in the house, and let it sit for a little over an hour.

Well, it didn't rise. Wah-wah. I always have issues with instant yeast. I don't think I'll ever use it again. I always do better with active dry. Anyway, sometimes this has happened and it still rose in the oven, so I carried on.

I divided it into 12 portions. I did use a scale to start dividing when I didn't really trust my eye.

See that cute little hand? Gavyn loves to help in the kitchen

Gavyn helped me roll the pieces into 7 inch long rolls. They then went onto the pan and out to rise again - for about another hour. They rose MAYBE a little bit. Ah well, no going back now. I sprinkled them with some salt for fun, and into a 375 degree oven.

They did rise a little, but not enough to consider them hot dog buns. They ended up being pretty good bread sticks for the leftover soup we had Monday night. I might try to make a bun out of one, but I will certainly need a knife and a fork to eat. So while not all was lost, I didn't really end up with hot dog buns.

I may try again, if I have time. If I am successful, I'll let you know!