Cha siu bao (叉燒包) recipe

This is not a steam bun recipe but rather baked. Here is the steamed bun recipe or part of it, that we used when making the beef bao. Rather, this is a baked bao recipe. However, you can use the roast pork filling with the above steamed bun recipe as well.

This is Nancy's recipe bun recipe. Nancy is my sous chef, for those new to this blog. And the filling and roast pork recipes are Kim's recipes. There they are all together to make cha siu bao (叉燒包), a childhood treat. If you want them plain, then just don't fill them. I just had a nice egg sandwich using the plain bao.

1/4 cup warm water
1 T sugar
1 1/2 T dry active yeast (1 commercial packet)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups bread flour
1 cup and 2 T milk warm
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup 1 T sugar
3 T unsalted butter softened
1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 T water

2 eggs well beaten

Combine the water 1 T sugar and yeast and dissolve. Set aside some place warm to let bubble.

Stir the flours together. Combine the yeast mixture, warm milk the remainder of the sugar, butter and yolk mixture until well blended. Then stir the flour mixture into the result, one-half at a time and mix until you have a soft dough, about 3 mins. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm location. Let the dough rise for about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Turn the down out onto a floured cutting board and with a sharp knife divide the dough into 15 roughly equal pieces. Roll a piece of dough out onto piece of dough out a floured work surface to a 4-inch circle. Place 11/2 T of the pork filling in the center of the dough. Gather up the edges of the dough over the filling and twist them down to seal. Place the bun seam side down on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Repeat.

Brush tall exposed surfaces of the buns with the beaten eggs. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes. Serve warm if possible. They're also good cold or you can heat them up in the microwave in 20 seconds.