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These days, I am so busy that I don’t have much time to explore blogoshere, so I rely on websites like Tastespotting to discover really good food blogs, and that’s how I discovered My Kitchen. Lydia Teh is a fellow Malaysian and her blog My Kitchen is full of great recipes and very beautiful food photography. Lydia is also a great cook and makes some of the most authentic Chinese and Malaysian dishes around. Please welcome My Kitchen to Rasa Malaysia as she shares her Char Siew Bao/Char Siu Bao recipe (Chinese roast pork or barbequed pork buns) with us. What’s more, she made her Char Siew Bao/Char Siu Bao (叉烧包) from scratch. Now, that’s what I call a no-cheat great cook!
(Check out my char siew/char siew recipe. Highly recommended!)
A while ago, I received an email from Bee–Rasa Malaysia. I have been following her blog for quite some time but never expected to be invited as a guest writer on her blog. What a big surprise and honour to me!
What dish should I bring to Rasa Malaysia? Bee suggested char siew (Chinese barbecued pork) but since I made char siew before, we settled on char siew bao/char siu bao (steamed bun with char siew filling). Char Siew Bao/Char Siu Bao is one of the signature dishes in dim sum restaurants around the world. This irresistible little steamed bun is soft and fluffy, filled with slightly sweetened char siew.
It is a must order item whenever we visited a dim sum restaurant. My other half loves it too, but he usually eats only a quarter of bun. He is a small eater, would not be able to eat other dim sums if he had a char siew bao by himself. Now, I am glad that I can share this yummy bun with my 14 month-old boy. Yes, I have made him a char siew bao lover too!
In Malaysia, char siew bao/char siu bao is also available in Kopitiam (literally means coffee shop in Chinese dialect) together with other savoury and sweet steamed buns. Compared to char siew bao served in restaurants, Kopitiam version is bigger in size and has no opening on the top. Taste wise, they are similar.
Steamed buns made with the mixture low-protein flour and wheat starch are fluffier and softer than those using only low-protein or all purpose flour. For the filling, I used ready-cooked char siew since I am living in Malaysia now and it is readily available. If you are making your own char siew, the recipe is available on my blog.
(Click Page 2 for the Char Siew Bao/Char Siu Bao (Chinese BBQ Pork Bun) Recipe)
Pages: 1 2
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Hi,
I’m from Trinidad and Tobago (Caribbean), and here Char Sui Bao is called ‘Chinese Pow’ and is incredibly delicious!
I cannot wait to try your version of ‘Trini Pow’ :)
Only got my steamer yesterday and already have made Shu Mai dumplings :)
Instead of hong kong flour, can I use plain flour/all-purpose flour?
Yes.
this recipe looks wonderfully fluffy! i am now sure if low-protein/hong kon flour is available at my asian supermarket, but i see some recipes calling for glutinous flour. would that work?? if so, is there a difference between glutinous flour and glutinous rice flour?
Glutinous rice flour will not work for this recipe. Yes glutinous rice flour = glutinous flour.
I am really excited to try this recipe! I wasn’t able to find Hong Kong flour. I picked up the lowest protein flour that I could find that was Rice Flour. Will that work? or should I just use all purpose flour? I want to make them for the new year today since we are celebrating with our neighbors
The flour I got is Bob’s Red Mill Stone Ground White Rice Flour which says that it is gluten free
Brenda, I used cake flour and it worked PERFECTLY. You can do an easy substitute if you don’t have it using an all-purpose and cornstarch combo (just google “substitute for cake flour”).
This is the best bao dough recipe ever, and I kind of love you right now! They turned out perfectly! THANK YOU!
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Hi I tried the recipe and buns turn out quite well except the buns are polka dotty ;( caused by the undissolved baking powder. How do u sure they are completely dissolved? When I add in the baking powder in the cold water, it became foamy and then I knead into the risen dough. Please advise if I miss out any step or appreciate any tip. Thanks.
HI, I also faced with the same problem; polka dots.. How can we know the baking powder is properly dissolved???? Pls help… Otherwise the pau is superb!!!!!
Hello, may I use wheat flour instead of wheat starch?
I think it’s the same.
Hi… What is wheat starch called in chinese? Can I find in supermarkets?
Hi, what can I substitute for wheat starch? Thanks!
Sorry, you have to use it.
Hi guys, I replaced the low-protein flour and wheat starch with the same weight in all purpose white flour (because I didn’t have either of them). They turned out fantastic! Fluffy and yummy. :)
Hi! Is the baking powder, double action baking powder?
Hi Bee,
I did what the instruction said and my buns came out dense. What do you think I did wrong?? I will never quit, I will make it again until I succeed:)
It’s your flavor. Get a lower gluten flour.
Do you mean step (1-4) is done in the bread maker?
I just made these last night (after a few repeated failures from other recipes). It was perfect!!!!
Thank you for putting up this recipe!
iwas unsure but thanks for the post
Can I use white rice flour?
Thank you in advance..
is there anything cheaper than wheat starch that is almost the same because i have been to the shops and there are soo many which is best
This bao recipe is the BEST! I had wheat starch on hand because I make har gow frequently. The low protein flour I had to seek out, and my local asian grocery doesn’t have everything labeled concisely in English but I found one (it said “Special Bun Flour” but I had to make sure that it didn’t contain any leaveners already mixed in). I also found out that using cake flour (a comparable low protein flour) will work just as well. Anyway, I’m still working on my shaping-the-bao technique, but one trick I found pretty useful was using a small round mustard dish to drape the rolled-out dough on. This leaves a convenient little pocket for my filling and leaves me two hands to pleat and pinch the bao closed. I was able to put a lot more filling in each bao, and keep the pleats clean of filling residue so they would seal better. Maybe someday I’ll be as dexterous as all of the YouTube demos I’ve watched of ladies producing these flawless doughy gems, but until then my mustard dish method helps my baos from looking like misshapen lumps (and speeds up the whole process).
Hi, Miss Bee! I am Fililpino currently based here in saudi arabia, I tried your chicken noodles recipe last night and got great comments from my Saudi “eaters”. So now, I’m planning to try this. Thanks for these delicious recipes. God bless and more power.