Chinese Steam buns aka Bao, pau

Ever thought chinese buns an impossble feat? Well, say no more ..

Bake them plain or filled. Either way, they are so easy, when you have a combisteamer ..

Ingredients – dough

4 cups plain flour (or better still, ‘super fine flour’ or specialty ‘pau’ flour from asian grocers – it’s all about the finer art..)

3/4 cup water (room temperature, or add a little hot water to room temp water, stick a finger in, if you don’t feel ‘anything’, it is the right temp for all breads, pau included)

1/2 cup sugar (ahh..yes, the secret of chinese cooking lol)

1/4 cup shortening (margarine is fine)

1 packet dry yeast (7g)

1 tsp salt

Ingredients – optional Filling

500g minced pork/chicken (regular, not lean)

Handful of finely chopped cabbage (use food processor if you have one)

salt, pepper, 1 tbsp chinese wine, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 2 tsps soy sauce, 1 tsp fish sauce, 2 tbsp sugar (yikes again!)

2 tsp corn flour

1 egg

(For Thai chicken bao, mix 500g minced chicken with green thai curry paste and chopped coriander)

Method

All ingredients go into the mixer with dough hook. Mix for 15 mins. Add a little flour if too sticky, or a little water if too dry . Dough a little sticky is ok.
Cut baking paper into small squares, 4×4 cm
Let dough sit for 10 mins (rise a little)
Flour surface and form dough into a sausage, portion into balls
Flatten dough balls and fill (pinch to close and turn upside down to make smooth buns or, to make pretty folds, watch YouTube videos)
Lay buns onto small baking papers
Proof in Professional Bake function, on ‘proofing’ (or steam), 40c for 15 mins until they double in size.
Steam buns on 100c steam for 15 mins

And, how would you know you did a good job? Well according to Confucius, pau with skin that peels, bring good fortune. Kidding. Seriously, a thin skin which peels mark good results, apparently.

Ta- da !