Do you Bao?

My dad spent 2 years in Taiwan prior to meeting my mom, and came back loving Chinese food. That being said, my siblings and I have been well trained in the art of eating delicious food. At home growing up we always had a lot of rice, and delicious stir fry's. And for special occasions, we would make pot stickers. Chinese food is like comfort food to me. This Saturday my sister and I ventured into the world of homemade hum bao and spring rolls. And what a delicious venture it was! 


Hum bao are delicious rolls, either steamed or baked that can be filled with all manner of delicious fillings. I generally love the bbq pork ones, but Saturday we made sausage and egg filled and boy was that delicious.


Here's the recipe for the basic dough:

Makes about 30 palm-sized buns

3C Hong Kong flour (we just used All Purpose flour)
1 Tbsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp Salt
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3 Tbsp vege Shortening or vege oil (more authentic - Lard)
1C more or less water

Procedure
1. Mix flour and dry ingredients well.
2. Add fats and water to make a soft & pliable dough, but not sticky.
3. Knead till smooth and supple. Don't worry too much about developing the gluten. :)

4. Proof till doubled. (about 60 - 90 minutes)
5. Punch dough, and roll into a long sausage, dividing it to 30 pieces.
6. Flatten each piece to a disk, place fillings (see below) and gather the sides and pinching it at the top to form a dome-like shape

7. Proof till about 1 1/2 times larger. (about 20-30 minutes)
8. Steam buns for 15 - 20 minutes under mid-high heat and they'll look like this:

Or brush with an egg wash and bake at 350* for 15-20 minutes for this look:

Note: we used the steamer tray in our rice cooker and it was PERFECT!

For the filling we kept it simple-- 

1 lb breakfast sausage- regular

6 eggs- beaten with a couple tsp of water

2 green onions, sliced

Brown the sausage. Drain. When cooked, add the eggs and onions, cook till done. Then stuff in your dough, bake/steam and  viola! You have now bao'd!