Basic Bao's Skin Recipe - Steamed Buns

Guess what I've been doing recently??? hahaha...it's this steamed buns and I really got addicted with it. Luckily, my kids still loved it even though they have this almost everyday. Must be yummy right??

Good "bao"(包) skin plays an important role in making a delicious "bao". Normally the delicious baos we can get at the coffeeshop out there are so soft, white and yummy. I got to know that, they'll add certain ingredients like ammonia, shortening, double action baking powder and vinegar to get that quality baos. It's added to make the bao's texture soft, fluffy and white. I don't know if the ingredients used will harm our body in long term, if we took too much of it. I was looking for a recipe that will produce the same quality baos but, use less of those ingredients. Simple and easy one, something that's more healthy for my family, my kids and I got this wonderful recipe from close friend of mine. They even teach me how to prove the dough correctly. Thank you, Hsien & Ai Lee!!

☻~ The picture above shows how soft and spongy texture the baos make from this recipe. I asked my son to press the bao with his finger and it's just back to it's shape as soon as he take off his finger. It's very soft and fluffy. TRUST ME!

Pic above: Char Siu filling bao on the left and kaya filling bao on the right.

Okay as I've promised, I speed up to post this recipe specially for my friends Wendy & Constance.

Ingredients:

(yield 19-20 buns)

130 g warm water
5 g instant yeast
300 g flour (I use Bluekey's "Bao" Flour)
80 g icing sugar
30 g oil

some 2"x2" paper for lining the baos

What to do!

In a big bowl (*allow some space for the mixture to expand), stir slowly to mix the yeast with warm water and a tablespoon of icing sugar (from the 80g icing sugar). Cover the cup with wet cloth. Set aside and let it prove for 45mins.

Meanwhile, sieve flour and icing sugar together into a big mixing bowl.

After 45 mins, stir the yeast mixture. Add in oil and yeast mixture into the sieve flour. Use a spoon to mix it to crumble and start kneading the dough with hand. The dough will be a bit sticky at first, knead until it's soft and smooth. It takes approximately 20-25mins depend on how you knead it. Cover the bowl with wet cloth or cling wrap and let the dough rest for 15mins.

After 15mins, the dough are ready to be wrapped with its fillings. Cut and weight the dough into 30g (you can always make bigger one like 40g) balls. Start to fill the dough with fillings of your choice (kaya/coconut jam, tausa/red bean paste, lian yong/lotus paste, corn paste or bbq pork etc..)

To assembles the "BAO"

Roll the 30g dough ball into 2" diameter, this time make sure the edges are thinner than the centre part. Spoon the fillings in the centre of the skin, fold and seal it.

Place the fold and seal top face the lined paper (it's totally opposite from BBQ baos where the sealing part are on the top)

Continue to finished up all the dough. Make sure you cover the finished bao's with a wet cloth to prevent it from dries up. Let the bao's rest at somewhere warm for about 30-45mins (this depend on how long you take to fold and seal all your baos) At this time you can starts to get your steamer ready. Water in the steamer must be boiling before you put the baos to steam.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE : If you are spending longer time to wrap the baos then maybe you have to cut short the time to *20mins-25mins, before you steamed it in high heat. (You should see the bao's grown bigger after 30mins proofing~☻)

Notes: Please take note, over proofing the bao dough will cause the "wrinkled" skin on the baos. You can always replace the oil with the "same amount" of shortening (just in case you still have it at home) but, I prefer just using corn oil. The texture of the skin are very much depend on how you knead the dough, make sure you knead it the right way by fold and push down the dough with your wrist, repeat this action till the dough are smooth. It's not press the dough with our palm actually !!!☻

Tips: For easier wrapping, folding and sealing. Always refrigerated the fillings we want to use for at least 1-2 hrs before we using them. This will makes the filling sticking together and turn hard and it won't mess the skin when we fold and seal the skin. You can always cook your own kaya or just get the ready made fillings from the supermarket.

P/S: Please do leave me a message if you are using this recipe and leave me your link as I would love to see on how your bao's skin turn out and if this recipe really works for you!!!

AMY