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.
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.
