Char Siew Buns

I realised that I haven't been baking a lot lately. Many of my lesser-used ingredients are near to expiry and those commonly-used had ran out!

Last Friday, I went to the market near my office during lunchtime to buy some char siew pork. Initially, I thought of making paus with the char siew since  I saw Honey Bee Sweets' chicken pau and Gina's char siew paus. They were so yummy! Unfortunately, I don't keep stock of HK flour at home, therefore, I decided to bake char siew buns instead. As I don't have enough char siew fillings, I baked the rest of the dough with grated cheddar cheese and sugar. They're equally good too!

The bread recipe is extracted from Alex Goh's book while the char siew fillings recipe is modified from Gina's recipe.

Recipe for Char Siew Buns

Sponge & Dough Method

(A) Sponge Dough
1 ½ tsps Instant yeast
2 tbsps Water
420g Bread flour
½ tbsp Sugar
220g Cold Water

Method:
1.Mix instant yeast and water and set aside for 10mins.
2.Add the remaining ingredients and knead to form a dough.
3.Cover the dough with cling wrap and let it prove for 2 ½ hours. (I left mine in the fridge overnight).

(B) Main Dough
120g Plain flour
60g Bread flour
1 tsp Instant yeast
110g Sugar
10g Salt
30g Milk powder
40g Cold water
1 Egg
60g Butter

Method:
1.Add sugar, salt, egg to the sponge dough.
2.Mix till well blended.
3.Then add flour, instant yeast, milk powder and water.
4.Mix all ingredients till well blended. Knead to form a dough.
5.Add the butter and knead to form a smooth and elastic dough.
6.Mould into a round and cover it with cling wrap.
7.Let it prove for 15mins.
8.Divide equally into 12 portions. Shape it into balls and allow to rest for 10mins.
9.Roll out the rounded dough and wrap with char siew fillings.
10.Leave them on a tray and let it rest for another 45 mins.
11.Glaze the buns with some beaten egg and bake at 190C for about 12 mins.
12.Leave it to cool completely before consuming.


Char Siew Fillings (estimated)

350 g Char Siew pork, cube
3 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp cooking oil

Seasonings:
3/4 cup of char siew sauce (from seller)
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp plain flour

Method:
1. Mixed the seasonings together in a bowl
2.Heat the pan and add cooking oil.
3. Add seasoning into the wok to stir fry
4. Stir fry till its sticky and thick
5. Add char siew pork to stir fry
6. Add sesame seeds to stir fry
7.Turn off heat, remove to cool completely before using.

Breads...

I prepared the bread dough last evening and left it to proof over night. The result was...unexpectedly BAD! It was over-proofed. There was too much gas released by the yeast. And when the gas was let out, the bread will turn out to be hard. These were the results. Lessons learnt.

Over-proofed Cha Siew Breads.

Earthquake Cheese Loaf.

New invention - flatten Cha Siew breads. Or Cha Siew Foccacia...;)

Over-proofed, over-baked?