Baked Chinese Sausage Buns

Since everyone and their dog seems to be baking and cooking up a storm, I decided to make some Chinese sausage buns. I looked up a couple of recipes and checked to see if I had all the ingredients, luckily I did!

Baby doesn’t like green onion so I made some without.

I actually found it therapeutic making the bread and then twisting it with the sausage, decorating it with green onion and cheese and mayo. It was gone so fast, I had to make a second batch almost immediately. It was much faster, easier and more fun the second time around. Here give it a go yourselves!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup milk 
• 1/3 cup sugar 
• 1/4 cup butter 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 8 hot dogs / sausages
• 1/4 cup shredded cheese
• 1 stalk green onions
• Mayonnaise

Here’s what to do:

1. Dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar and yeast in 1/4 cup of warm milk. Make sure milk is not hot as high heat will kill the yeast. Let it stand for 10min so the yeast can activate. Warm the other 1/4 cup milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in sugar, butter and salt; stir until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast mixture, milk mixture, beaten egg, salt and 1/2 cup flour. Using the mix option on the stand mixer, add in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Once combined, turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
3. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Dough will only rise if it is warm enough and damp enough.
4. Punch the dough and knead. Separate into 8 equal pieces. If you prefer to make smaller buns, separate into 16 pieces and cut the sausages or hot dogs in half.  Flatten each piece by hand or rolling pin. Place a piece of hot dog on the edge and roll to wrap the hot dog completely. 
5. Make 4 deep incisions on the hot dog buns making sure to cut through the hotdog but not the bottom part of the dough. You want the dough to be intact so you can rotate them to face up in opposite directions. Place them on a greased tray and let rest for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
6. Top buns with mayonnaise, green onion and cheese and bake for 20 min or until golden brown. 

Have fun and enjoy!