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Char Siew Bao/Char Siu Bao (Chinese BBQ Pork Bun) Recipe
Makes 16 buns
Ingredients for dough:
Bun:
8g instant dry yeast
160ml lukewarm water
½ tsp white vinegar or lemon juice (optional)280g low-protein flour aka hong kong flour
100g wheat starch
90g icing sugar
30g shortening or vegetable oil10g baking powder
10ml cold water
Fillings:
A
250g char siew, diced
½ tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp sugar*
1 small onion, diced
1 tbsp oyster sauce*
1 tbsp soy sauce*
1 tsp. sesame oil
1-2 drops red food colouring (optional)
B
150 ml water
1½ tbsp corn flour
Salt to taste
*Some store-bought char siew comes with sauce, use it for preparing filling. Omit sugar, oyster sauce and soy sauce.
Method:
Fillings:
1. Heat oil in pan, sauté onion for 1 to 2 minutes. Add in all other ingredients A, stir fry for 1 minutes.
2. Mix together water with corn flour, add mixture into the pan and stir well. Simmer until gravy is thickened.
3. Transfer to plate and allow to cool.
4. Divide filling into 16 portions if desired, set aside for later use.
Buns:
1. Sift together flours and icing sugar. Place sifted flour mixture in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle.
2. Fill well with lukewarm water, vinegar and yeast. Use a spatula, gently stir the water to dissolve the yeast then slowly bring together flour mixture.
3. Add in shortening or oil and knead for 10-15 minutes until soft dough is formed. It should be smooth on the surface.
4. Cover dough with damp cloth and let it rise for 30 minutes or until it is doubled in size. I used bread maker’s dough mode to prepare my dough up to this step.
5. Dissolve baking powder in cold water, sprinkle over dough and knead until well combined. Divide dough into 16 equal portions and flatten with a rolling pin to make a 3” circle. Then place a heap teaspoon of filling in the middle, wrap and pleat the dough to seal. Place it on a 1.5” square parchment paper, seal side up.
6. Arrange buns into a steamer, leave about 1” gab in between buns. Spray water mist over buns, and steam in a preheated steamer on high heat for 12 minutes. Remove buns from steamer and cool on rack to prevent soggy bottom.
Notes:
1. If bigger bun is desired, divide dough into 12 equal portions in step 5.
2. There is no need to rest the dough after adding in baking powder, but if time allowed, rest it for 10 minutes or so to get fluffier buns.
3. Adding a few drops of vinegar into steaming water will produce whiter buns, but this is optional.
4. Steamer must be preheated otherwise bun would not rise to the volume as it should be.
5. Spray the surface of bun with water mist helps to produce buns with smooth surface after steamed.
6. DO NOT open the lid during the steaming process.
7. If there are yellowish spots on the steamed buns, it means the baking powder is not fully dissolved.
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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.