Deliciously soft Japanese Milk Bread made with Yudanme method shaped into Hot Dog Buns. They are called "Koppepan" in Japanese. Learn how to shape hot dog buns and also New England Style Hot dog buns without a special mould.
Make yudane the night before. Place bread flour in a bowl and add boiling hot water and mix well. *7 When the yudane has cooled down wrap with cling wrap or keep it in an airtight container to refrigerate overnight.
Place the room temperature milk into a bread machine. *8
Add beaten egg, sugar, instant dry yeast, to the bowl then add the yudane as you tear it into small pieces.
Add the bread flour and salt.
Set the bread cycle for a 20 minute knead.
Add the room temperature butter into the bread machine at about 10 minutes into the cycle.
Roll the dough round and place the dough into a greased bowl. Wrap with cling wrap. Let it rise for about 45 min to 1 hour at about 86°F(30°C) or until it doubles in size.
Test if the dough has risen by dusting your finger with flour and poke the dough. If the dough doesn't bounce back and the hole you poked stays there, it is ready.
Punch the dough down and cut the dough into 8 equal parts with scraper and roll them. *9
Cover the rolled doughs with a wet cloth and let it stand for 20 minutes.
Flatten a rolled dough with your palm and roll out the dough to about 6 inches (15cm) long oval with a rolling pin.
Rotate the dough 90° and fold in 1/3 top edge to the centre. Then fold in the other edge also. Fold them in half and seal it. Roll to shape neatly with your hands.
Do the same shaping for the rest of the rolled dough.
Place the shaped dough onto a baking tray, cover it with a wet cloth and let the dough rise for a second time until the dough double in size. *10
Start to preheat the oven to 392°F(200°C) .
Gently brush milk on each dough.
Bake the dough for about 10 minutes in a preheated oven.
Remove the bread from the baking tray and cool it down on a wire rack.
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Notes
*1 & *6 Choose the bread four that contains around 12% protein. *2 The boiling hot water temperature should be above 194°F (90°C)*3 You can use plant-based milk if you prefer. Read more in Shokupan Japanese milk bread. *4 large egg weighs 50g average. *5 You can substitute instant dry yeast with fresh yeast. You will need x3 amount.*7 At this point, the yudane will not stick to your fingers. *8 I used my bread machine to knead the dough but you can also use a stand mixer or hand knead. *9 If you want to make New England Style hot dog buns, at this point, I divided the dough into 5 equal parts. My Tin size is specified in the above post. *10 Instead of placing them onto a baking tray, place them onto a baking tin equally spaced out. *11 You will get the best result if you measure each ingredient with a scale. However, if you don't have a scale, you can use the following. For Yudane, you need 1/3 cup of bread flour, 8 tsp hot water. For the Bread dough, 1 1/3 cups bread flour, 3/4 tsp instant dry yeast, 1/3 cup milk, 1 large egg, 1.5 tbsp sugar, 1.5 tbsp butter and 1 tsp salt.