KA Pork bun 肉包

Finally found the prefect recipe. And it was off the bao flour packet! Can't go wrong with this. Recipe was originally for 350g of flour but I wanted to use up all 500g of flour so have adapted accordingly.

Recipe (makes 20)

500g bao flour

¾ C warm water (approx 40 deg C)

5 tbsp milk

1 tbsp instant yeast

1¼ tbsp oil

3 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt

Meat filling

750g minced pork

½ tbsp sesame seed oil

1 tbsp corn starch

¼ tsp salt

1 tbsp light soya sauce

Dashes of pepper to taste

½ tbsp minced ginger

2 chopped scallions

Method

1. In the KA bowl, mix the flour, warm water, milk, yeast, oil, and sugar. Combined until no more dry spots. Add more water if necessary to combine.

2. Turn on the KA at Speed 2. Beat for a while until everything leaves the bowl then turn up to Speed 4. Beat for about 7 to 9 minutes until the bowl is clean. You should be able to stick your finger through the dough and leave a clean edge rather than a jagged one.

3. Remove the dough hook. Oil the bowl and put the ball of dough back. Cover and proof until the dough has doubled in size, approx 45 to 60 mins at 23 deg C.

4. While waiting for the dough to proof, prepare the filling. Add everything into a mixing bowl and mix well. Mix well with a wooden spoon or pair of chopsticks and stir in one direction only until the meat mixture is sticky. Cover and refrigerate.

5. Cut out parchment squares for the baos to sit on, or prepare the steaming basket.

6. Divide the dough and meat into 20 equal portions. I kept half of the dough in the fridge so it wouldn't proof so fast. Roll and wrap each of the buns. Seal tightly so that the meat is not exposed. This equates to approximately 1 chinese tbsp of filling per bao.

7. Place the wrapped baos on the parchment and into the steamer basket. I'm using bamboo, so around 5 bao per steamer. Cover and allow to proof for 40 minutes.

8. Towards the last 10 minutes of proofing the first batch, warm up the wok and bring to a rolling boil. steam for 10 minutes. Once you can see the steam escaping from the top lid, turn down the flame to medium. After the 10 minutes, switch off the flame and let the buns rest for 2 minutes.

9. Allow to cool fully on a cooling rack before storing in the fridge.

Recipe feedback

Everything about this recipe was spot on! It really helps to use the correct flour and also the recipe that comes recommended. The size of the buns was also correct. 

- The buns were easy to work with and came out very fluffy. However, the pleats would not stay, so it was easier to just make the buns as round as I could.

- It's important to shape the filling into a nice slightly peaked dome ball as this helped to hold up the bun's dome.

- My bun skin wasn't smooth but that's probably due to over-proofing during the first session and insufficient deflating, and maybe an overly high steaming temperature. But one battle at a time.