I spent a good part of my childhood growing up in Southeast Asia. One of my favorite memories is buying Bao Tzes (Chinese Steamed Buns) at the stalls at the Wednesday Night Market in Singapore. This recipe is the real thing and brought all those wonderful memories rushing back to mind. I tested it out on my family all of them Bao Tze connoisseurs and they raved over them! It is a little work to make but well worth it!
Absolutely wonderful recipe Carol. The kids flipped over these delicious and authentic tasting buns! Thanks so much!
These dumpling-like buns are absolutely delish. I made mine about the size of a fist though and there was no WAY I could have squeezed 24 out of the dough. It turned out to be more like 6. That's okay though; I liked that there was a higher meat to dough ratio. My boyfriend and I just polished off the first batch; I did the dishes and am starting a second! Also I didn't mix the shrimp in with the pork but I made seperate pork buns and shrimp buns.
I grew up in Hawaii and the buns were just like the ones I grew up with. We call it manapua and since I no longer live in Hawaii this was one of the foods I've craved. Now I can have it...when I'm ready to do some work! One thing that I encountered when making the dough was that it was quite sticky when kneading. I didn't want to add too much flour when kneading. Did anyone else have that same problem? Also when making it I put too much filling and I made the dough too thin so when I steamed it the meat was showing through. It suppose to be all bun til you bite inside to get a wonderful mouthful of filling with the yummy bun. Otherwise this was great and I'm excited I can make it now! follow up: I wanted to add they're great to make a bunch at a time freeze it in bags. When reheating wrap in a damp cloth or papertowel and microwave for about a minute (usually less).
The buns were decent but the filling was awful. If there is a next time I will try the BBQ pork filling instead. This is a time consuming but fun recipe. Rather than 24 buns I made 11 each the size of a small fist. This allows more meat filling which is usually my favorite part. On step 4 I squeezed the meat mixture into a small compact ball to make enclosing it with dough easier. Also I used a spoon sprayed with PAM to push out/extend the edges of my circle so the bottom was thicker. This also made the enclosure easier. I don't have a steam wok so I used a pressure cooker. I boiled an inch or two of water had to coffee mugs inside and had the holed plate on top. Then I put the buns on top for steaming- worked great! Changes of recipe: I substituted sherry for rice wine and didn't include the shrimp.
This filling was just ok. The dough recipe however I highly recommend. I omitted the shrimp due to personal taste and I substituted the rice wine for sherry. I grated my ginger root instead of mincing and doubled the amount called for but the ginger strength was still wimpy. I think these would be better wrapped in wonton wrappers and fried then dipped in hoisin or peanut sauce. The flavor in a steam bun just left too much to be desired.
It's just like the ones u have at the restaurant. Really yummy very easy to make. Thanks for the recipe!!!
These turned out great. We used different fillings such as chicken crag meat and even ground beef. These can be time consuming use the ing. that you like. After trial and error we loved them thanks for the post.
the filling is sooooo delicious!!! i'm going to use the filling to make egg rolls sometime.
