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Easy Chinese Bakery Bao Recipe

Although, it's relatively inexpensive to buy baked baos from a Chinese bakery, it's soooo much better to make it yourself.  Here are some reasons why:

1. You can eat pillowy soft bread fresh out of the oven.  In most bakery, the bread has been sitting around for awhile.

2. You control the ingredients that go into it.  Use all organic and pure butter.  Chinese bakeries use lard and other things you may not want.  85C makes really soft bread and I like them too.  But I can't help to think what they put in it to make it soft for so long.  You can add more gluten, but that would make it harder for the body to digest.  They must add some other chemicals.

3. It actually taste better.

4. The satisfaction that your effort created something so spectacular.

Since so many people want the recipe, I thought I would post it here instead of sending it to everyone.  This recipe is the base recipe for most Chinese baos.  You can use it to make BBQ pork bun (char sui bao), custard (nai wong bao), coconut bun (gai may bao), etc...  I just don't always have homemade char sui readily available, so it's always green onion and hotdog buns for me.  

Note that when making bread, you cannot follow the suggested time exactly because every home and every oven is different.  You want to go by how the dough looks and feels.  After trying a few times, you will know.

Tips:
1. Yeast should be active and alive.  If you have old yeast, it won't work.  The yeast mixture should look foamy like this.

2. After you mix all the ingredients (except the butter), the dough should look shaggy like this.  Then it needs to rest.

3. After you add the butter, keep kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Look at how pretty this dough is.  And it should not stick to the bowl.  This process will take awhile. You can do it by hand or with the KitchenAid mixer.

4. In step 9, it doesn't matter how you shape the dough for final proofing.  You can wrap the dough around a hotdog and it will be perfect.

5. You must bake it just right.  If the baos feel hard and hallow in the oven, then it should be done.  Over baking will dry out the dough and hardens it.

If you have any question when baking, you can comment below.  Others may have the same questions.  Happy baking!!!  May 2020 bring you success from the oven.

Baked Baos

1 lg                         egg room temp

1C                           milk slightly warm (or water)

1/4 C                       butter softened

1/3 C                       sugar

1 tsp                        salt

2 ¼ tsp                    Yeast (dry active) or one package

3 ½ C                       Flour (can use bread or AP)

Egg wash ( 1 egg with 1 TBS water)

1.          Put yeast in warm milk with a little sprinkle of sugar.  Let it proof for 10 mins.  Yeast should be bubbly to be active otherwise it’s dead and cannot be used.

2.          At beaten egg to in milk and yeast mixture.

3.          In a large container add in flour, sugar, and salt and the liquid ingredients and mix until it forms into a dough.  Or alternatively add ingredients into KitchenAid mixer.

4.          Let the dough rest for 10 mins.

5.          Then add in the softened butter and knead it until the dough is smooth and elastic.  This will take awhile.  Be sure the dough is elastic.  If you pull it and it breaks, then you have to continue to knead. 

6.          Let dough rest in a lightly greased large bowl.

7.          Dough should proof in a warm and draft free place until it doubles in size.  Depending on how warm your house is, this may take 45 mins to 1.5 hrs.

8.          Then punch down the dough and knead it some more to squeeze out the air bubbles. 

9.          Then divide the dough into 12 and shape the dough anyway you like to make the desired baos.  Just wrap it around a hotdog or make into a rope and wrap that around a hotdog.

10.    Put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Be sure to give them space to expand.

11.    Cover with saran wrap or kitchen lint free towel and put it in a warm place to proof again until double in size.  About 45 mins to 1 hr.

12.    Brush top with egg wash.

13.    Bake in preheated 350 degrees F oven for 16-20 mins or until lightly brown.  Don’t let it bake too long as it will dry out the baos. 

Claypot Chicken Rice

I can breath a sign of relieve today since it's partnership tax deadline and I made it through in one piece, but not without pimples. This tax deadline have been brutal with new tax laws and inexperience staff.  But, I am proud of myself that I handled work and still took care of the family.  Still driving kids to their activities, participated in their activities, and cooked dinner 4 out of 5 week nights.  But I did have to make myself pull back from over commitment and say no to certain activities so I can take care of myself.  I love cooking and feeding people, especially those who love to eat.  I sooo want to cook for Caleb's swim team.  They are growing, can eat a lot and I want to get to know them.  But no, I must not over extend myself.  I believe that growing kids need more nutritious food and not junk or fast food.  No matter how busy, I think it's important to still make homemade food.  Growing up, my parents cooked daily.  That's how I always thought should be.  It's not that hard with my handy dandy Instant Pot and some fore planning.


To make cooking easier, I tried to take the thinking of what to make out of my week.  Every week I have the same structure in my menu.  Whatever your family like to eat, revolve around that category and just switch up with different variety.

Monday - Pasta Day - Usually pasta, meat, salad, and/or roasted veggies.  Pasta possibilities are endless, it can be red sauce, white sauce, pesto, cheese, or oil, or lasagna.  etc...

Tuesday - Soup Day - Usually a hardy soup with salad and bread.  So many possibilities here like chili, chicken noodles, chicken taco, unstuffed cabbage, lentils, zuppa tuscana, etc...

Wednesday - Rice Day - Usually flavored rice with a meat and Chinese veggies.  I have made many variety of rice such as fried rice, claypot rice like this recipe, taro chicken rice, sticky rice, biryani, risotto, and Hainan chicken rice, etc...

Thursday - Misc Day - Usually I allow kids to tell me what they want to eat and I will squeeze it in the week.  For this day we had taco, baked potatoes with sides, hamburger, or quesadilla, musubi, etc...

To still cook when I work 10-12 hrs day, I had to prepare and plan in advance AND choose the kind of meals that are easy.  This recipe is super easy and tastes good.  If you cook this in a clay pot or dutch oven, it will have crunchy rice at the bottom, but the down side is that you have to watch it.  When I don't have time, I just use IP so I don't have to watch it, but of course, no crunchy rice.
If you don't have time to marinate the meat you can add the optional sauce at end prior to eating to make meat more flavor.  Veggies are cooked on the side.

Happy cooking and enjoy!  I hope you are feeding children nutritious food.

Clay Pot Chicken Rice

Ingredients:

Chicken marinade:

6-8 Drumsticks or thighs

1 TBS Soy sauce

1 tsp Dark soy sauce

½ tsp Sugar

½ tsp Corn starch

1 tsp Shaoxing wine

½ tsp salt

1 tsp Five spice powder

Rice:

1 ½ C Rice (more if desire)

1 ½ C Water/chicken broth

1 tsp Salt

Chinese sausages (couple of sticks)

Shiitake mushrooms (about 8-10)

Wood ears (some)

Ginger slices (alittle)

Green onions (a few stalks)

Sauce topping (optional):

1 TBS Oyster sauce

2 TBS Water- warm

1 tsp Sugar

Sesame oil

1. Cut chicken into smaller chunks. Or boneless is ok.
2. Marinate the chicken overnight or for at least 1 hr.  
3. Rinse rice and add in liquid and salt.  
4. Lay mushrooms and chicken on top.  Sprinkle with ginger.
5. Cover and cook on high for 5-7 minutes and then reduce heat to simmer and cook for 25-30 mins.  
6. In Instant Pot, cook on high pressure for 9 min, then natural release for 10 mins. (If more rice and chicken, then add a few more minutes.)
7. Can top with some sauce (oyster sauce, sugar, water, and sesame oil).

Butte County fire respond work with Samaritan's Purse

I had the privilege of volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse (SP) again, but this time with the Butte County Fire response effort.  Since it’s winter break, Hebron and Caleb were able to come too. Another friend and three other high schoolers accompanied us and made the trip more fun. 

As a mom, I am always thinking about what values and character traits I should help develop in my children.  On the top of the list is sacrificial love of others, just like the way Christ loved us when He was on earth.  I have prayed for more opportunities to serve people with my family.  When I found out that Samaritan’s Purse is coming to Butte County AND they will be here during Christmas break, I knew I had to bring my family regardless of how inconvenient it may be.  This Christmas break is super crazy with my sister’s wedding right after it and we have many out-of-town relatives coming.  To squeeze it in, I had to be creative and find a place to stay in Chico in order to go for two days. 

As a high school youth leader, I also wanted to teach the teens to love others as Christ loved us.  I also wanted to walk with them in their journey of faith and be a role model to them by being obedient to the teaching of Jesus.  I think of these teens as precious gifts that I have the privilege to care for, so I invited them along.  I am so glad that some of them joined us.  Their excitement to go and willingness to help showed that they take their faith seriously and that they desire to emulate Christ.

Last time at the Santa Rosa fire, God allowed me to find some really meaningful mementoes for the homeowners.  Our task is the same this time, which is to sift through all the ashes to hopefully find some meaningful treasures, so I expected to witness similar miracles.  Since we were only there for two days, we were only able to serve three homeowners.  We were able to find coins, even gold coins, figurines, and some jewelries.  But at every site, we were not able to find certain items that the owners really hoped to find, so this can be perceived as less fruitful and exciting.  However, God had another lesson in store for me.  I had high hopes since Caleb was coming.  I wanted God to set his heart on fire for people so that he would go out of his comfort zone for them.  But God reminded me that I do not possess the ability to change hearts; only He can do that.  All I can do is be the hands and feet of Jesus to pave the way so that He can perform His miracles in His time.  During the trip, God made me think over and over again about whether I would be obedient if He just asked me to go dig in the ashes and gave me no immediate results.  Then, I thought about how Jesus loved us even when we rejected Him and when He didn’t get our immediate appreciation.  I am so loved by Him and so grateful for His mercy in my life that I can only respond by saying, "Yes, Lord.  I will dig and sift with all my strength and will leave the results to you."

Just because my team didn’t see any immediate results doesn’t mean that God wasn’t performing miracles.  In our debriefing time with SP, we found out that other teams witnessed God at work.  One team shared of a homeowner who felt discouraged, alone, and abandoned regarding her experience with the fire and lost hope in humanity.  But when SP’s team showed up with 25 people to help her, she was so touched.  She felt loved and supported and her faith in humanity was restored, which lead her to put her trust in Jesus and became a Christian.  Another team also expressed that they were not able to find very many things for the homeowner, but he was able to find closure knowing that he and the team did all they could to try to recover his things.  He was able to move on and rebuild now.  Many homeowners were very appreciative that people from near and far came to help them for free.  They are also impressed that the teens would give up their break to volunteer.  Just being there and being available to help is a tangible way of showing the love of Jesus.  I am thankful that we had the strength, health, stamina, and opportunity to lend a hand.

In the town of Paradise, almost everything was destroyed with the exception of a few homes and a few churches, including the Paradise Evangelical-Free Church.  This church was the only building standing in our area and they opened their doors to everyone in the community, providing water, food, hazmat suits, gloves, masks, and their bathroom facility.  Since the town was all burnt, there were NO bathroom facilities for us.  We were so thankful that this church welcomed us with open arms.  They had warm chili ready and waiting for us to come in at lunch time.  A pastor of a neighboring church was there to greet us, telling us that the pastor of that church along with all but four people in their congregation had their homes burnt down.  This church is hurting, yet they are still opening their arms to help others.  If you are able to give, I would encourage you to give to this church.  They are collecting donation specifically for Camp Fire victims. 

https://www.paradiseefc.org/giving