Black sesame bao with black sesame filling

I last tried a black sesame bao here with minimal kneading but both the dough and filling were too wet making it too hard to work with; and again here as a black sesame mantou that was also a very wet dough. This is a recipe with minimal kneading and proofing by LinXianShen.

Filling (makes 1 cereal bowl volume of filling)

100g roasted black sesame powder

15g glutinous rice flour

40g white sugar

20g lard

250g water

1. Put in a pot and on low fire, heat until it bubbles and turns into a sticky slurry (still quite liquidy). 

2. Put in the fridge to harden.

Bao dough (makes 10)

400g bao or regular flour

25g roasted black sesame powder

1 tbsp sugar

4g instant yeast

½ C of warm milk (use more or less as needed)

1. Combine with a chopstick until no more dry flour.

2. Roll into a dough. Knead for about 10 to 15 minutes until smooth.

3. Roll out into an oblong, about ½ inch thick. Use a 4 or 5" cutter to stamp out circles.

4. Using about 2 chinese tablespoons of cold filling, encase in the bao skin. Make into round buns and place in a steaming basket.

5. Cover and proof for 20 mins.

6. Turn on the flame to high (water from room temp) and steam for 13 mins. Turn off the fire and leave covered for 3 mins.

Recipe feedback

- Compared to the previous black sesame bao, this recipe is perfect! The filling amount is just enough and the dough is very workable. Shows that you don't need oil in the dough to make it pliable.

- Only issue is I forgot to roast and grind the sesame BEFORE making the filling (so I put it in the food processor after cooking), and also couldn't be bothered to grind the white sesame seeds (I ran out of black) for the dough. It turned out well because it gave the bao some crunch!

- I thought the lack of proofing time would make the bao hard but i was wrong! I really hand kneaded for 15 minutes with all my newfound arm power and then rested for maybe 10 mins while I prepared the steamer and washed up, before wrapping and forming the baos. Also, the bao only got 20 minutes at the end to proof, so I was worried cos they hardly seemed to have grown in size. Steaming at full heat really caused it to poof up so much that they all stuck together and to my steamer!

- Tip - really roll out the dough as large as possible (leaving the centre thicker) cos the filling is very liquid even after being in the fridge for 6 hours. The tip of cupping the palm to hold the dough and then 'applying' the filling onto the dough worked; then pleat, crimp and seal as per usual bao technique. Even though I then turned the seam over onto the parchment and the shape wasn't totally round, bao came out ok and didn't look too weird with the pleats underneath.