Lydia is 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.
Pairs well with:
Char Siew Bao/Char Siu Bao (Chinese BBQ Pork Bun) Recipe
Char Siew Bao (Chinese Roast Pork Bun/叉烧包) - you can make these from scratch!
Ingredients
Bun:
- 8 g instant dry yeast
- 160 ml lukewarm water
- ½ teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice (optional 280g low-protein flour aka hong kong flour)
- 100 g wheat starch
- 90 g icing sugar
- 30 g shortening or vegetable oil 10g baking powder
- 10 ml cold water
Fillings:
- A
- 250 g char siew (diced)
- ½ tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 teaspoon sugar*
- 1 small onion (diced)
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce*
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce*
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1-2 drops red food colouring (optional)
- B
- 150 ml water
- 1½ tablespoons corn flour
- Salt to taste
Directions
Fillings:
- 1Heat oil in pan, sauté onion for 1 to 2 minutes. Add in all other ingredients A, stir fry for 1 minutes.
- 2Mix together water with corn flour, add mixture into the pan and stir well. Simmer until gravy is thickened.
- 3Transfer to plate and allow to cool.
- 4Divide filling into 16 portions if desired, set aside for later use.
Buns:
- 1Sift together flours and icing sugar. Place sifted flour mixture in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle.
- 2Fill well with lukewarm water, vinegar and yeast. Use a spatula, gently stir the water to dissolve the yeast then slowly bring together flour mixture.
- 3Add in shortening or oil and knead for 10-15 minutes until soft dough is formed. It should be smooth on the surface.
- 4Cover 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.
- 5Dissolve 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.
- 6Arrange 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.
Recipe 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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lish
hi!! I follow your blog and always come back here to look for recipes ever since I moved out of Asia 4 years ago. I miss Asian food. I have not found one for the pork egg Pau online. Could you post one one day? Thanks so much.
Rasa Malaysia
What is pork egg pau?
Neli Howard | Delicious Meets Healthy
Thank you for sharing! This is exactly what I’ve been searching got. I made this over the weekend and it was a big hit with the family. Thank you! Thank you!
Sophia
OMG finally I achieved baozi success! Thanks so much
Anh VU
hi Rasa,
I have also yellow brown bao about 10 mn steaming, but have quite white bao for 5mn steaming,
My baking powder has been diluted in water and well disolved, and the dough has been worked in my breadmaker…It happened every time I over cooked them, (9-10 mn). all my bao are were well fluffy and tender (white or yellow brown)
and I used milk instead of water, low protein flour ( Hong Kong flour) .and fresh yeast diluted in warm milk and sugar.,( sometime vinegar or not the results re the same)
Fortunatly, I make char siew bao, but what about meat ball ? i have to steam them longer, …and I will have a yellow bao surely… help me please, thanks.
Where is the mistake ?
fatima chong
hello, here in my country Ecuador, dont sell wheat starch, what can i use instead?
Linda
Is the icing powder substitute for sugar . First time I encounter using icing powder for bao dough. Why icing powder instead of sugar?
Sonia
I love your blog, and have booked marked a lot of your recipes. I have been looking for the perfect bao recipe, and is still am. I tried this version of the bao, but mine turned a tad sweet. I tried this version a few times, and I noted the advice above to make sure that the baking powder is well mixed, and I did, but how come my bao still have some brown blotches? Also the dough is “heavy”, i.e. dense.
Rasa Malaysia
Did you use Hong Kong flour?
Sarah Yoong
Hi Bee
The amount of yeast 8gm for 280gm of Hongkong flour (and 100gm of wheat starch) in the recipe. Is that correct? I tried and the dough smell and taste of too much yeast! Please confirm the amount. Thank you. Kind regards.
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Sarah, I am sorry but I am not able to confirm because this recipe is done by a guest blogger. :(
Sarah Yoong
Ok thanks Bee. Tiffany, I saw your comments that your baos came up nice and fluffy. Mine came out with too much “yeast” taste.