Steam Bun

In my previous post, I mentioned that I am going to cook something simple this weekend and look this is what I come up with - Chinese steam bun. I have a Vietnamese steam bun flour in my pantry and there are some left over BBQ pork in my fridge. so I decide to come up with char shiu pao for my Sunday breakfast.
I made the dough according to the instruction listed in the package. Overall, it took me about 2 hours from start to finish. The bun taste ok. A little dry and not soft as those you get from the restaurant. I am always curious how people made the bun so soft and tasty... if you have some tips, please let me know..

4 comments:

Lee Ping said...

I am not sure if you read my article on Char Siu Pao. To replicate the restaurant's light and fluffy Char Siu Pao's skin, I had to make the dough starter one day in advance. The result is worth the trouble.

cocoa said...

No, i have not read you article about Char Siu Pao and but will check it out today. I am just wonder even with those 'instants' pao flour, you still need to make a starter?

Lee Ping said...

Dear Cocoa,
You don't need dough starter with your instant pao flour.

Anonymous said...

I never buy those packaged flours because they tend to result in buns that are on the dry side. Try this recipe, I came up with it on my own. The secret to a white and fluffy bun is a lot of sifting of the flour and use shorting instead of oil! Yes, use shortening instead of oil!

This will make 12 medium sized baos or 6 very large baos

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat starch
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup superfine granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
1/2 cup milk

Direction:

Sift the flour, wheat starch, and baking powder about 3 times. Dump the flour, shortening, and sugar into a food processor and pulse for about 10 seconds until the flour, sugar, and shortening are well combined. Slowly add the milk until a piece of dough has formed in the food processor. Take the dough out (it should not be sticky at this point) wrap in plastic wrap and rest for about 30 minutes before shaping the baos and steaming. Use wheat starch when you roll out the dough and you will get beautifully shiny skin on your buns.

After the buns are shaped, steam them in a steamer with a tablespoon or two of white vinegar added into the steaming water. Leave a lot of room in between the buns because they will expand!

These buns are light, fluffy, and white! And the best part is you don't have to buy a mix and it takes no time at all by using a food processor to mix the dough. Recipe can be doubled or tripled by simply doubling or tripling the ingredients.

Good luck!