Capybara Yuzu Tea Steamed Buns

It's been a loooong while since I made cute steamed buns! I finally decided to play with dough again because I had some leftover yuzu tea from a kid's chiffon cake class.

Look at how fluffy it is!

The citrusy note was delightful too! These buns pair well with any sweet breakfast spread and they are nice as they are too. My kids love it!

I adapted the recipe from teacher Meiji's book and you can see the last time I tried character bun based on her book over here. Yes it's been a good 6+ years since then. That's why I am out of practice and struggled with working fast enough for smooth surface. I decided to knead the dough by hand as usual which wasn't such a good idea if I wanted the surface to be really smooth. That's despite using cold liquid. If you use a standmixer, please double the amount in the recipe as it is easier for the mixer to handle a larger volume of dough.

I shared the recipe in the caption of my reel but will copy and paste it in the blog for those of you who have difficulty reading captions on Instagram. Please watch the reel to have a view of the process.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8by-IkSt3r/?igsh=MXFuYjJrZTM0YmJyZA==

Capybara Yuzu Tea Steamed Buns

Ingredients:

(Makes about 7 mini buns)

85g cold yuzu tea*

15g caster sugar

A pinch of salt

1/3 tsp (1g) instant yeast 

6g neutral flavoured oil

150g plain flour

1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp cocoa powder

Extra water & flour as needed

* Blend 60g of yuzu jam with as much of the rind as you like with 60g hot water. Sieve through fine sieve. Reserve 85g & refrigerate for at least 2 hours before use.

Steps:

1. Whisk first 4 ingredients together. Add flour & 1/4 tsp cocoa powder

2. Knead until dough is smooth & elastic. I hand kneaded but it's better to use a standmixer to work faster for a smoother finishing. Double the recipe if using standmixer. Add water/flour if the dough is too dry/sticky

3. Divide the dough into six-seven portions 30-35g each. Add 1/8 tsp cocoa powder & a little water to the remaining dough to colour it darker brown. Keep any dough that is set aside loosely covered to prevent drying out 

4. Shape the head from the light coloured dough. Place on a piece of parchment. Add the snout & ears, sticking them on by brushing the surface of the dough with a little water

5. Set in a warm, moist enclosed place (35-40C) to proof the buns until they expand to 1.5x original size (about 40 min for me)

6. Steam for 15 min over medium heat. Turn off heat & rest for 5 min before opening the cover. I used wooden steaming baskets to prevent water from dripping onto the buns. You may wrap the lid with a towel if you don't have the baskets

Enjoy while hot! These citrusy buns can be paired with any sweet breakfast spread or eaten on their own. Keep leftovers in the freezer in airtight condition & steam from frozen until hot. They taste as good as fresh!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Dragonfruit Rose Mantou (Mother's Day Special)

It is my pleasure to share a full length video tutorial for a Culinary Arts Ministry Mother's Day special with my church Adam Road Presbyterian Church! 

Here is a screenshot of the simple ingredients you need for making the rose mantous.

Please click on this link to view it.

Have fun making these healthy edible roses for or with your mum!

Note that the colour of the roses may differ depending on steaming time and whether you choose to use a mix of milk/water and dragonfruit as well! 

with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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Smooth, Single-Proofing Cute Mantou (adapted from 美姬老师)

Those of you who followed my baking journey right from the beginning will know that my first love in the Creative Baking arena is not chiffon cakes nor macarons, but steamed buns. I used to make it for my kids who had fun eating them.

This is an impromptu late night "bake" that came about because my hands were itching to try out a recipe and technique :)

Cute bear and cat plain steamed milk buns!

My family decided to go to Kinokuniya recently as the store was having a 20% discount on the books. This book caught my eye so I bought it.

Those of you who love cute steamed buns and are able to read traditional Chinese (unfortunately many great Chinese recipe books are not written in simplified Chinese), go grab a copy now! Highly recommended! It covers the basic techniques, the use of natural ingredients such as food powders, fresh fruit and vegetable puree to colour and flavour the buns, and have lots of wonderful project ideas from simple to challenging.

I was really intrigued by the recipe and technique as it is so different from what I had been doing in the past. Most bao or steamed bun recipes I find from the internet use low protein flour, a combination of yeast and baking powder as raising agent and require two rounds of proofing. I always used vegetable shortening as the fat in steamed buns as I found that the texture is softer than if I used vegetable oil. But teacher Meiji uses olive oil as the base oil in her recipes.

Her ingredient list for basic milk steamed bun recipe which I adapted from is like this:

Teacher Meiji's steamed milk bun recipe
Ingredients (makes about 8-9 plain buns):
155ml milk
3g (about 1tsp) instant yeast
30g caster sugar
300g plain flour (medium protein flour)
8ml olive oil

I found that the liquid component in her recipe is not enough for the plain flour I am using and the resulting dough is rather stiff and dry. Do adjust the flour and liquid quantities to suit your flour. I also used slightly less yeast as Singapore is really warm and I am not so fast in shaping.

This is my adapted recipe which is half the original for my late night trial "bake".

Adapted steamed milk bun recipe
Ingredients (makes about 4-5 plain buns):
85g cold milk (cold because Singapore is very warm and you don't want the yeast activity to speed up too fast)
1g (1/3 tsp) instant yeast
15g caster sugar
A pinch of salt
150g plain flour
5g coconut oil (or any other vegetable oil)
A bit of water for sprinkling and dabbing

Steps:
1. Combine milk, sugar, salt and instant yeast in a mixing bowl. Add flour and oil.

2. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix together the ingredients until no more liquid is seen and the flour mixture has the appearance of snowflake pieces.

3. Transfer the dough to work surface and knead for about 10-15 minutes, until the dough is smooth. You may use a stand mixer to do this but I personally prefer kneading by hand. Do use your body weight to knead and try not to tear the dough while kneading it so that you do not tear the gluten strands that are being formed.

4. Divide the dough to balls of 45-50g (for the heads) and some dough left for the ears and snout. Do keep any unworked dough covered to prevent it from drying out. Teacher Meiji uses thick plastic sheets (not cling wrap) to loosely cover the resting dough. Plastic bags for food that are sold at supermarkets are what she recommends.

5. Shape the dough into round balls for the head. Teacher Meiji did a very detailed step by step pictorial guide on how to do this. I didn't take photos of myself doing this part and it's best explained using pictures instead of words so I have put up pictures from her book here below (please read the book if you can!):

I hope I translate it well enough for those of you who can't read Chinese 😅. First roll each ball of dough into a long rope. Fold into thirds and roll into long rope again. Repeat this until all the trapped air bubbles has been expelled out.

Roll the rope like a snail and then press it flat.

Gather the dough around the sides of the flattened dough and press it into the center. The surrounding and bottom surfaces of the dough should appear smooth.

Turn the ball over with seam side down. Roll the ball of dough in circular motion with your hand cupping around it on the work surface. Add a few drops of water on work surface and continue to roll the dough on the surface to seal the seam.

Finally, place your hands, one on each side of the ball of dough and press the dough while moving your hands in opposite directions. This is to make the dough taller. Rationale that teacher mentions is, the dough will flatten out during proofing.

6. For the bear and cat heads, I place the shaped round or roughly circular dough onto pieces of parchment paper. I shape small pieces of dough into shape of the ears and snout. The pieces were stuck on by first brushing a bit of water on the surface and sticking the pieces together. I used to pinch the parts together or use a toothpick to press the joining parts together in the past so this is something new to me.

7. Place the shaped buns in steaming basket and use 40℃ steam to proof the dough. I know this is kind of hard to estimate. Teacher recommends placing 2 rice cups of water into electric cooker and turn the switch on for a minute to create this effect. Many of us may not have this available at home. I proofed using two methods. One, I used my electric steamer switched on for a minute. I placed a towel over the lid to prevent any water from dripping onto the steaming plate. Two, and probably a more traditional one, is to fill the wok as I normally would for steaming dishes and turn the heat on for about a minute or two and place my hand over the surface. Once I can feel some warm steam rising up. I turn off the heat, place the steaming basket with the wooden cover on into the wok. Cover the wok with the lid.  Once the dough has increased by 1.5x, the buns are ready for steaming. Teacher mentioned a very useful tip of measuring the bun size with a ruler before proofing so that you have a better gauge of how much is 1.5x bigger. It took me about 40 minutes of proofing to get to that size.

8. Steam for about 18 minutes. Turn off the heat and wait for 5 minutes before opening the cover of the wok or electric steamer.

9. Immediately transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. To store, individually wrap the buns in plastic and store in fridge or freezer. Resteam when you want to eat.

Freshly steamed bun

Close up view of the insides

I could do with some improvement for the technique but so glad to have learnt much :). Hubby gave a thumbs up for the taste and texture and said it tastes better than my previous recipes which tends to have a little yeasty smell. The texture is firmer than my softer buns that use low protein flour but not in an unpleasant way.

Teacher Meiji uses dough (or painted on  powders mixed in water to the dough before steaming) to include all detailed features. Since this is my first trial using her recipe, I decided to keep things simple and added the details using edible marker after the buns have cooled completely. Please store these in airtight container without anything touching the ink surface. Or the ink may smudge.

Feel free to wrap any filling of your choice inside if you don't like plain buns. Use 35g of dough and 15g of filling as suggested by teacher Meiji.

I stored a couple of buns at room temperature in an airtight container for one and a half days (no filling inside so it's ok to store at room temperature) and resteamed the buns for 10 minutes. To my pleasant surprise, the ink didn't run at all!

Such a cheery greeting for breakfast in the morning!

The insides remain fluffy and soft but firmer than if low protein flour was used. But it's still almost the same as freshly steamed. Just perhaps a teeny bit firmer.

Fluffy steamed bun!

I got the kids to taste test this time and they gave a thumbs up too!

Do give this recipe a try if you would like homemade steamed buns! This single proofing method is also much faster than my previous ones that require two rounds of proofing.

Update: some ladies have been very kind to alert me to teacher Meiji's Youtube video. Please watch it if you are able to understand Mandarin.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Rainbow Piggy Mini Char Siew Bao (naturally coloured!)

Rainbow piggy mini char siew bao! Natural colouring used to create the rainbow hues!

These piggies are really curious to see what they look like on the insides :p

A close-up view of what they are looking at...

I made rainbow piggy mini char siew baos two years ago. Check out the post over here.

This is my very first cute bao for a party although it's not the first time I have gotten a request to make cute baos for parties. I have shied away from making baos other than for home consumption as unlike chiffon cakes, macarons or cookies, baos (steamed buns) have to be eaten piping hot from the steamer or you won't be able to appreciate the goodness of it. People have been requesting for it as not everyone likes sweet stuff all the time at parties and something savoury (but cute) would be a welcome addition.

So why did I agree to making a batch of 20 mini char siew baos for a party? Because a dear kind lady didn't mind resteaming the frozen baos at the party to serve it piping hot. She also didn't mind being my guinea pig even though I had several months of hiatus from bao making. Having said that, I am still excited about making cute baos as they were my first love in the creative "baking" arena.

I won't blame you if you don't want to make char siew bao from scratch as it is a lot of work. But I can assure you that the results will be amazing and as my elder kid puts it, "Mama, can we not have store-bought char siew bao anymore? These taste so much better!" You may use char siew from your favourite roasted meats stall to cut down the amount of work you need to do. Remember to steal get some char siew sauce from them too for making the bao filling.

Recipe for char siew (adapted from here)
Ingredients:
450g skinless pork belly, cut into 2 long strips (only small sections of pork belly was available when I was shopping so mine were in a few pieces. I used about 350g)
2 tbs finely chopped garlic (I used about 1.5 tbs)

Char Siew sauce
2 pieces of Chinese fermented red beancurd
1 tbs maltose/honey (I used maltose)
1 tbs Chinese Shaoxing wine (I used 2 tsp Shaoxing wine and 1 tsp Chinese rose wine)
1 tbs light soy sauce (I used 20ml or 1 tbs + 1 tsp)
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
1/4 tsp white pepper
100g sugar (I used 90g)

Steps:
1. Mix all char siew sauce ingredients, add garlic and pork belly and marinate overnight in fridge. I placed the ingredients inside a ziplock bag. I didn't use all the sauce to marinate but reserved about 1/4-1/3 cup (strain out the chopped garlic with a sieve) for making the char siew filling.

2. Preheat oven to 200°C, place pork belly on greased wire rack and bake for 15 minutes. My pieces were small so I baked for 10 minutes only.

3. Remove from oven and turn the pork belly over. Brush some char siew sauce over and place pork belly back in oven for another 15 minutes or until cooked. I baked mine for another 10 minutes, then upped the heat to maximum for a couple of minutes, turning the pork belly once to char the surface a little. There was a bit of smoke when I opened the oven but the aroma was amazing!

Recipe for char siew bao filling (adapted from here)
Ingredients (makes about 24 mini baos):
(A)
250g char siew, finely chopped
3-4 tbs char siew sauce*
1/3-1/2 tsp five spice powder
2 small onions, finely chopped (about 2-3 tbs)
1 tbs cooking oil
(B)
2tbs cornflour
200ml water

* you may replace with 1 tbs oyster sauce, 1 tbs light sauce and 2 tbs honey.

Steps:
1. Fry onion until softened in a saucepan.

2. Add all other ingredients in (A). Fry for 1-2 minutes.

3. Make cornflour slurry by mixing ingredients in (B), stir and pour into (A).

4. Simmer until thickened, stirring now and then. Do a taste test and see if you need to adjust the level of sweetness, saltiness and aromatic flavours to your liking.

My elder kid who is a meat lover gave this a thumbs up! It does taste pretty close to the kind of char siew you get in Malaysia as the recipe claimed :).

Portion into balls of 11g for mini baos. I usually portion 20g for my regular baos. Cling wrap each portion and freeze it until you are ready to assemble the baos.

If you are an expert at wrapping gooey filling with lots of small chopped up bits, you may simply spoon the filling onto the dough to wrap. I am hopeless at wrapping such fillings so I freeze the meat with some gravy in the shape of a ball and wrap the frozen ball with dough. This makes it much easier to wrap, plus you can pack more gravy in without much struggle :).

Before I share the recipe for making the bao skin, here are the natural sources of colouring I used.

I use a combination of powdered and liquid natural colouring to create a paste that is easier to incorporate into the bao dough than either of them alone. I used Queen's natural pink and yellow powder, carrot, broccoli and purple sweet potato powders (bought from Akari at Anchorpoint), and Queen's natural liquid food colouring. Here are the powders, 1tsp each...

...and the pastes after adding the respective liquid food colouring. A little water is added for the vegetable based powders as they are able to absorb more moisture.

I added a tiny drop of artificial green liquid food colouring and a tiny pinch of artificial pink powder colouring as these two colours were very dull.

Recipe for bao skin (tried and tested, soft and fluffy! Adapted from Kenneth Goh's recipe)
Ingredients:
280g Hong Kong bao flour + extra for dusting
35g cornflour
43g icing sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 and 3/4 tsp instant dry yeast
1/5 tsp baking powder/double acting baking powder
1/10 tsp ammonium bicarbonate (optional)
157g + 1 tsp water
21g vegetable shortening/ vegetable oil

Food colouring:
Queen's natural powder food colouring (pink and yellow)
Vegetable powders (broccoli, carrot and purple sweet potato)
Queen's natural liquid food colouring (pink, yellow, green and purple)
Charcoal powder

Steps:
1. Place the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Dissolve baking powder and ammonium bicarbonate in 1 tsp of water in a small bowl.

2. Pour the rest of the water into the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until a dry dough forms. Stir the baking powder solution and gradually add to the dough, kneading it with the wooden spoon with each addition. Cover the bowl loosely with cling wrap for 15minutes to let the flour absorb the water.

3. Pour the dough onto a non-stick mat and gradually knead in the shortening. Continue kneading for another 15-20 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic, dusting with more flour if necessary such that the dough is not sticky. You may use a stand mixer or bread maker to do the job but I prefer kneading by hand as I can feel the texture of the dough as I go along.

4. Portion out about 110g of dough to colour it. Keep the rest of the dough in the fridge covered with cling wrap to rise slowly. I let mine rest in the fridge for about 2 hours as I worked on the coloured dough and other stuff. If you are making plain baos, simply let the dough rise at room temperature (28°C) in Singapore for about half an hour or about double in size. As I have many cute baos to make, I keep any resting dough in the fridge to avoid overproofing. Overproofed dough tastes awful. Portion 15-20g for each colour except black, which is 10g. Gradually add in the coloured pastes until desired shade is obtained. Remember to keep any resting portions of coloured dough wrapped in the fridge unless you are able to work really fast.

Rainbow dough!

5. Punch down the plain dough and knead a few times to expel trapped gas. Divide the plain dough into 16-17g portions for mini baos or 30g portions for regular sized ones with 20g filling.

6. Lightly dust your work surface with some flour. Flatten a ball of dough and place a lump of frozen char siew filling in the middle. Pinch seal the bao after wrapping the filling. Place the wrapped bao with sealed side down on a small square of baking paper.

7. Add on piggy ears and snout with coloured dough. Use a toothpick to poke holes for nostrils after sticking the snout on. Pinch tiny black balls of dough and stick on for eyes. Now this last bit is very fiddly work and I had to use tweezers. You may choose to dissolve some charcoal powder in egg yolk and paint on the eyes instead just before steaming, or use black sesame seeds (which I didn't have at this point in time). But I didn't want to be flustered what with so many pigs to make so I chose to test my fine motor skills instead. Remember to refrigerate assembled pigs in fridge until you are ready to proof one batch to avoid overproofing the earlier wrapped baos.

Assembled piggies! The yellow one was extra mini, made with leftover dough and filling

6. Proof the assembled baos for 30-40 minutes at room temperature until about 1.5x in size, either loosely covered with cling wrap or covered with steaming basket cover.

Getting ready for proofing and steaming!

7. Steam at high heat for 8 minutes, turn off heat with wok cover closed for 3minutes before removing the baos from steamer/wok. For regular sized baos, steam for 10-12 minutes and let the baos rest in the steamer for 3 minutes before opening the cover.

Serve it piping hot! If you are storing the baos, wait for them to cool completely before keeping them in airtight container in the freezer. To re-steam, steam frozen baos for 10-15 minutes, depending on size of baos. There is no need to defrost the baos. They should taste as good as freshly steamed.

Hubby and kids gave a thumbs up for the piggies! I made some for them too. Thank God for helping me to make good baos after such a long hiatus! The baos were very well received at the party in terms of looks and taste! Even Ah-ma couldn't resist taking pictures of the piggies before eating and giving a thumbs up!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Mitchiri Neko, Molang & Snoopy Char Siew Bao (叉烧包 naturally coloured and made from scratch!)

I was planning to post some of my macaron bakes but these baos are just too cute to be held back from being posted! They brought smiles all around the family because they are unbearably cute and yummy :). My elder kid requested for char siew baos so I made these...

Michiri Neko, Molang and Snoopy! All naturally coloured!

A close up view of the soft fluffy bao skin and yummy char siew filling. All made from scratch!

I had loads of fun making these baos and burst out laughing looking at the whole collection of Nekos. Hubby walked into the kitchen, took one look and laughed too! The best part is, these are one of the easiest to create as only a single coloured dough (except for Snoopy) has to be prepared for each bao and the only feature that needed shaping are the ears. The rest of the features were drawn on using edible markers after steaming. So I wasn't harried at all when assembling the baos like I usually am as you have to work fast to prevent the baos from being over-proofed.

I made extra char siew last week so some of it could be reserved for making bao. Please refer to this recipe from Rasa Malaysia that is really awesome. I omitted the red food colouring.

Homemade char siew! Tender and full of flavour!

If you prefer to use store-bought char siew, that is fine too. I don't blame you. To make the bao from scratch requires a lot of steps.

Recipe for char siew filling
(Adapted from here. Makes about 8-9 baos)
Ingredients:
A)
160-180g char siew, chopped
1/2 tbs oyster sauce*
1/2 tbs soy sauce*
1 tbs honey*
1/4 tsp Chinese five spice powder*
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 tbs cooking oil

B)
120ml water
1 tbs corn flour

* if you have char siew sauce bought from a stall selling roasted meats or extra homemade char siew marinade, you could use those instead of the "*" listed items.

Steps:
1. Fry the onion in oil in a small saucepan until softened.

2. Add all other ingredients in A) and stir-fry for a minute or two.

3. Make the cornflour slurry in B) and stir well before gradually pouring into A), while stirring the contents in the saucepan.

4. Simmer until the sauce is thickened while stirring now and then. Let it cool. Do taste the filling before you turn off the heat to adjust the taste accordingly in order to have a balance of sweetness, saltiness and aromatic flavours that you like.

You may make the filling ahead of time and store in the fridge or if you are hopeless at pleating baos and working with wet filling like me, portion the filling into balls of 20g portions and freeze it as shown below with cling wrap.

The extra small ball of filling in the middle is for making Snoopy's snout.

The good thing about freezing the filling with gravy is, you are able to pack more gravy into the bao, making the bao filling more moist and juicy.

Recipe for bao skin
I modified the bao skin slightly yet again, paying attention to the process steps as well as ingredient proportion. It's really good!

Ingredients:
160g Hong Kong bao flour, plus extra for dusting
20g cornflour
25g icing sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp instant dry yeast
1/6 tsp baking powder dissolved in 1/2 tsp of water
1/16 tsp ammonia bicarbonate (optional)
90g water
12g vegetable shortening/oil

(Optional)
1/2 tsp each of natural sourced powder food colouring; pink, yellow and green
1/4 tsp charcoal powder
Some water
Edible food markers

Steps:
1. Mix the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl well with a wooden spoon. Dissolve baking powder and ammonia bicarbonate in 1/2 tsp of water.

2. Add water to the dry mixture and stir with wooden spoon until a dry dough forms. Gradually add in baking powder mixture to the dough and knead until well combined.

3. Pour the dough onto non-stick mat and gradually knead in shortening/oil until the dough is smooth and elastic and passes the windowpane test. About 20 minutes. I found it helpful to let the dough rest for 15 minutes covered with cling wrap before kneading in the shortening. This allows time for the flour to absorb the water. The dough feels more pliable in my hands after letting it rest. This step is not necessary as I have always omitted it but I read from a bread making by hand book that letting the dough rest this way allows more moisture to be retained by the dough. You may let the breadmaker/stand mixer do the kneading but I prefer to knead by hand.

4. Let the dough proof until almost doubled in size. I proofed in the fridge for about 3 hours as I was busy. If you are busy like me, simply let the dough rise in the fridge in a large measuring jug or container (covered of course) where you can monitor the rise. You can come back and work on the dough when you are free. Line the jug/container with cling wrap so you have an easier job of digging the proofed dough out. If you are letting it rise at room temperature, it takes about half an hour in hot Singapore. Knead the dough a few times to expel the trapped gas.

5. Portion the dough for colouring. I made 2 of each colour for Michiri Neko, one Molang and one Snoopy. Each round bao uses 30-31g of dough and the Snoopy one is about 50g. Dissolve the powder food colouring in a bit of water to make a paste. About 1/8 tsp for each colour. Gradually knead in the colouring.

Available at Cold Storage in Malaysia but sadly not seen in Singapore.

Food colouring! All natural!

Coloured dough! 

Keep any dough that you are not working with in the fridge wrapped to prevent over-proofing. Over-proofed dough does not taste good.

6. Lightly flour your work surface and fingers and flatten a ball of dough for the round baos. Place the frozen filling in middle and wrap it up, pinch sealing it. Place the bao pinched side down on a small piece of baking sheet. Add on the ears. For Snoopy, roll the dough to form an oblong shape that is wider at one end for the head. Place the larger ball of filling for the head and smaller ball of filling for the snout. Wrap the filling up and pinch seal it. Add on Snoopy ears, nose and eyes with black dough.

Wrapping up with filling!

All wrapped!

7. Proof for 40-45 minutes at room temperature (about 27-28°C) if you are using frozen filling like me, or 30minutes if you are not. I find it easier to wrap a frozen solid ball than to spoon loose and sticky filling onto the dough. Somehow the gravy finds its way out making the bao impossible to seal for me :p.

8. Steam on high heat for 8minutes. Turn off the heat and let the bao rest covered for 3minutes before opening the wok/steamer cover.

9. Draw the features with edible food marker after the baos have cooled a little. Molang's rosy cheeks were brushed on with peach coloured lustre dust.

Enjoy while it is hot! Freeze any leftovers after they have cooled in a ziplock bag. Resteam for 15minutes from frozen state when you want to consume.

Hope these put a smile on your faces!

Hubby and kids gave these a thumbs up! My elder kid says not to feed them commercial frozen char siew baos from the supermarket anymore because these taste much better! I can't guarantee that though because it is a lot of work :p but spread over a few sessions.

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Keroppi Pandan Salted Egg Custard Steamed Buns (very runny naturally coloured 流沙包!!)

My kids are requesting for baos again! After a hiatus of a few months, I finally have time to return to my first love in the "baking" arena. In my quest to find the right balance of soft fluffy bao skin and really runny salted egg custard filling, I have tweaked the recipe or preparation conditions quite a few times. I usually succeed in getting fluffy and soft baos but the filling is rather thick and not as runny as the ones you get at restaurants although the taste is pretty close. I am glad to say that I think I have found the right balance this time and the kids agree that this is the best batch of liu sha baos I have made so far!

Here's a closer look at the awesome runniness and fluffiness...

And it remains runny even after freezing and resteaming!

All the colouring you see are from natural ingredients. Since the filling contains coconut milk, pandan flavoured bao skin compliments it very well.

My kids helped with preparing the pandan juice :)

Prepare pandan juice by blending about 20-25 pandan leaves in 100ml of water and squeezing out the juice from the pulp wrapped in a cloth coffee filter. Cutting the leaves, blending and squeezing out the juice is so simple that kids can help. You may choose to let the juice settle overnight and use the dark green portion that settled at the bottom but it is not absolutely necessary.

Recipe for liu sha filling
I mentioned in my previous liu sha bao post that I will attempt liu sha baos again with an increase in liquid content and decrease in solidifying agent to make the filling more runny.

Ingredients (makes 9 baos):
2 (or 3) salted egg yolks, cooked and mashed with fork
40g unsalted butter, softened
32g icing sugar
10g custard powder
30g milk powder
32g coconut milk

Steps:
1. Mix butter and sugar together until well combined. Add all other ingredients and mix well. Sieve the mixture to break up the big lumps of salted egg yolk as well as removing any bits that can't be broken up.

3. Chill in the fridge until firm, about 1h or overnight. Portion into individually cling wrapped balls of 17g and freeze it. This can be prepared a day ahead of time.

My kids sampled the leftover filling in the bowl and gave it a thumbs up!

Recipe for bao skin and assembly
The recipe for bao skin is similar to the one I have always used with a slight difference in proportion of dry and wet ingredients.

Ingredients:
160g Hong Kong bao flour
20g cornflour
25g caster sugar
A pinch of salt
1 tsp instant dry yeast
1/6 tsp baking powder dissolved in 1/2 tsp of water/pandan juice
1/16 tsp ammonia bicarbonate (optional)
90g pandan juice/water
11g vegetable shortening (You may replace with vegetable oil or butter. But I find the skin drier with vegetable oil and butter lends a noticeable flavour to the bao skin. If you prefer buttery skin, do use butter :)).
Any other required food colouring

*Use one-fifth to one-quarter of the recipe to make the dough for Keroppi's features. Or if you are lazy, simply colour some green dough white/pink/black with gel food colouring for the features.

Steps:
1. Mix the first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Add pandan juice (or water if you are making plain dough for Keroppi features) and mix with a wooden spoon until a dry dough forms.

2. Dissolve baking powder and ammonium bicarbonate in 1/2 tsp of water/pandan juice.

See how it bubbles!

Gradually add the baking powder mixture into the dough by kneading it in.

3. Pour the dough onto a non-stick mat and gradually knead in the shortening. Continue kneading for 15-20minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic and passes the windowpane test. You may let a stand mixer or breadmaker help you with the kneading but I prefer doing it by hand as I can feel the dough taking shape.

4. Proof the dough in a large bowl/measuring jug covered with cling wrap until almost doubled in size. About 25-30 minutes in hot Singapore or about 3 hours in the fridge. Punch down the dough and knead a few times to expel the trapped air.

5. Portion out the dough and add any food colouring at this point. I prepared the pandan and plain dough separately. I found some powdered food colouring from plant sources. All natural!

Available at Cold Storage in Malaysia but sadly not seen in Singapore.

I used the pink powder to colour the dough for Keroppi's cheeks.
Portion out the dough in this manner:
Green dough: 30g each bao
White dough: 3g for each eye
Pink dough: 7g for all the cheeks
Black dough: 12-15g for all eyes and mouth

I actually didn't prepare the black dough but did the lazy way of painting on the black parts with charcoal powder dissolved in water after the baos were steamed. This is fine provided you don't accidentally smudge it. I have painted on black features in the middle of steaming the baos before using charcoal dissolved in egg yolk but this method may not be suitable for liu sha baos which are temperature and time sensitive during the steaming process.

Important note: keep any resting portions of dough wrapped in the fridge to avoid over-proofing as you are portioning, colouring and assembling.

I love the natural green hue!

6. Lightly flour your work surface with bao flour. Take a ball of green dough and flatten it. Place a frozen ball of filling in the middle and wrap it, pinch sealing the dough. Place the assembly seam side down on a piece of baking paper. Add on the features. In order to stick on the cheeks, pinch out a bit of pink dough and stick onto the bao. With a lightly floured finger, gently flatten the pink balls onto the bao surface as shown below.

7. Proof for about 35 minutes at room temperature (about 28°C in the kitchen in Singapore) before steaming at high heat for 6 minutes. Make sure that the water is at a roiling boil. Turn off the heat and let the baos rest in the covered wok/ steamer for 3 minutes before opening the cover. Do not over steam the baos as they may explode or the filling will not be as runny.

Baos are best eaten freshly steamed. If you are not consuming immediately, freeze the baos in ziplock bags after they have cooled completely. Resteam for 11-12 minutes without defrosting before consuming.

Not exactly the prettiest looking but we are yummy!

My kids had much fun eating these! Because the filling was so drippy, they pulled off the eyeballs and dipped in the filling to eat!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Koala, Panda & Bear Salted Egg Custard Steamed Buns (流沙包)

I almost decided to title this post "The three bears with Goldilocks inside". But then some would argue that koalas are marsupials, not bears. And there's no blonde girl inside the buns but golden custard :p. Here are my beary baos!

Check out the salted egg custard and fluffy bun!

I am still experimenting with the recipe and steaming times to get the right taste and consistency. This time round, the taste is close to what is commercially sold but can still do with more improvement in the "runnyness" department.

I omitted cornflour, reduced the amount of custard powder and increased the amount of coconut milk used in the hope that it will help to make the custard more runny. It seems like I still need to reduce the amount of custard powder used. I was right to omit the cornflour upon checking the ingredients list of commercially sold frozen liu sha baos.

The bao skin recipe is almost the same as the one I always use as it is simple, soft and fluffy. I added less water this time and used high heat to steam for a shorter time. From my previous bao experiment, I found that the dough can be stored in the fridge in between steps without affecting the taste of the bao if the first proofing is done with the dough in the fridge. A very necessary "step" for me especially when kids are home during the school hols and I still do activities with them, cook and do housework!

Recipe for the filling and bao skin is very similar to my guinea pig liu sha bao post.

Recipe for salted egg custard 
Ingredients (makes 9 baos):
2 salted egg yolks, cooked and mashed
40g unsalted butter, softened
32g icing sugar
15g custard powder (I will reduce to 10g in my next attempt)
30g milk powder
25g coconut milk (I will increase to 30g next time)

Steps:
1. Mix butter and sugar until well combined. Add all other ingredients and mix well. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve to make it smooth.

2. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes-1 hour until firm. Portion into balls of 16-17g each. I find it helpful to wrap them in cling wrap and freeze them until it is time to assemble.

Recipe for bao skin
Ingredients:
150g Hong Kong bao flour plus extra for dusting
28g cornflour
26g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp dry yeast
1/6 tsp baking powder dissolved in 1/2 tsp of water

92g water
11g vegetable shortening

7g Milo powder
1/4 tsp charcoal powder
Some hot water

Steps:
1. Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour water in. Use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture until a dry dough forms. Gradually add baking powder solution and continue kneading/ stirring the dough in the bowl.

2. Pour the dough onto a non stick mat and knead for about 5 minutes. Gradually knead in shortening and keep kneading until dough passes windowpane test. About 20 minutes. Alternatively, you may use a stand mixer or bread maker to knead.

3. Let the dough proof for 30 minutes or until double in size. I placed the dough in a measuring jug lined with cling wrap and refrigerated it. I monitored the rise of the dough now and then. Just nice, the dough rose to almost double in size when I was ready.

4. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes to expel trapped air.
Divide the dough accordingly:
15g-black
98g-grey
94g-brown
Remaining dough-white

Make a paste with Milo and charcoal by adding a bit of water. Colour the dough with the pastes. I was busy so I put the coloured dough back in the fridge to prevent it from over-proofing. Set aside 30g of dough for each bao, with extras for features.

5. Lightly dust your work surface and fingers with flour. Flatten a 30g ball of dough and place the frozen filling in the middle. Wrap it and pinch seal. Place the seal side down on a small piece of baking sheet. Add on the animal features. I just used my fingers, a bench scraper and toothpick as tools. I was trying out different ways of adding on the features to see which style is nicer.

Pandas!

Teddy bears!

Koalas! 

I was interrupted while working on the koalas so the bao surface is not as smooth as the other 2 batches.

6. Proof the assembled baos at room temperature for 45 minutes before steaming. There is no need to cover them while proofing. Towards the end of the second proofing, prepare the wok/ steamer for steaming. Steam on high heat for 6 minutes. Turn of the heat and leave the baos covered in the steamer/ wok for 3 minutes before removing them.

Enjoy them while they are hot! If you would like to store them, wait for the baos to cool down completely. Store in airtight container/zip lock bag and freeze it. Resteam for 12 minutes.

My little one with sweet tooth loves these beary much :).

Update: please refer to my next attempt. The filling is very runny and remains so even after freezing and resteaming! My kids think that this following batch of liu sha baos is the best I have made so far!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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