Pillow soft baked char siu buns with homemade char siu.
If you ever tasted Char Siu, you will love the well-balanced sweet and savory taste. Char Siu pork is important ingredient for many other recipes including Egg Foo Yong, steamed char siu bao and this is another popular baked version. I water roux method, which gives them a pillow soft texture even after reheating. But if you are in hurry and there is no water roux on hand, milk bread dough can also be used as a wrapper dough for this recipe.
Filling
- 2 cups leftover char siu dices
- 100ml water
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. hoisin sauce
- 1 tbsp. sugar
Mix cornstarch with water and set aside for couple of minutes until well combined. In a small sauce pot, add starch water, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and heat over slowest fire until there are big bubbles.This is our char siu starch which shoulder the responsibility of juicy filling.
Then mix the mixture with diced leftover char siu. That’s our filling. Cool down, covered and keep in fridge for 30 minutes
Water roux-Tangzhong starter
- 20g flour
- 100g water
In a small pan, mix flour with water and then keep stirring over slow fire until the mixture becomes thicker and thicker. And the lines of your spatula or egg whisk will not disappear directly. Remove from heat and cool down. Transfer the water roux (TangZhong Starter) mixture into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge at least overnight (I usually use around 1 day).
Main Dough
- 195g (1+1/2 cup) bread flour
- 90g (3/4 cup)cake flour
- 6g (2 tsp.)instant yeast
- 30g (2 tbsp. )sugar(or reduce to 10g for a salty bun)
- 3g (1/2 tsp.)salt (or extra 3g for a salty bun)
- 1 middle size egg
- 80g (scant 1/4 cup) milk
- 45g (3 and 1/2 tbsp.)unsalted butter, softened under room temperature
Before making the main dough, move the water roux to room temperature to set reset for around 30 minutes.Add all the ingredients including milk, egg and tangzhong into a breadmaker or a large mixing bowl. Then add the sugar, salt, flour and yeast. Knead the dough for around 10 minutes at slow speed. And add “butter “and continue kneading for another 10 minutes at medium speed. Then set aside and wait for the first proofing. In winter days, we might need hours until the dough is 2 to 2.5 times in size.
Divide the dough into 12 to 14 equal portions and round each one.Take one portion out, press down to a round wrapper. Scoop around 1 tablespoon Char Siu pork filling to the center. Seal the bun completely and then turn it over. Repeat the process to assemble all the other buns.
Place the well assembled buns on a lined baking tray and now we are ready to the second proofing. In hot summer days, you can cover a plastic wrapper and let the dough rest in room temperature for 40 minutes to 1 hour until almost doubled in size. In cold winter days, place the baking tray in your oven with a larger bowl of boiling hot water beneath. This method creates a warm and moist environment, which can speed up the second proofing.
Close the oven and let the buns rest for around 30 minutes until they are all doubled in size.
Take them out and brushing egg wash and top with roasted white sesame seeds. Preheat the oven to 180 degreeC and bake for 18 to 20 minutes on the middle rack. Then take out and brush a thin layer of butter on surface, which creates a shinning and hardened surface.
Char Siu Bao-Baked Buns Recipe
Ingredients
For the filling
- 2 cups leftover char siu dices
- 100 ml water
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. hoisin sauce
- 1 tbsp. sugar
Roux
- 20 g 2 tbsp. flour
- 100 g 100ml water
Main dough
- 195 g 1+1/2 cup bread flour
- 90 g 3/4 cupcake flour
- 6 g 2 tsp.instant yeast
- 30 g 2 tbsp. sugar(or reduce to 10g for a salty bun)
- 3 g 1/2 tsp.salt (or extra 3g for a salty bun)
- 1 middle size egg
- 80 g scant 1/4 cup milk
- 45 g 3 and 1/2 tbsp.unsalted butter, softened under room temperature
Egg wash and decorating
- 1 egg whisked + 1 tbsp. water
- 1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter
Instructions
Water roux
- In a small pan, mix flour with water and then keep stirring over slow fire until the mixture becomes thicker and thicker. And the lines of your spatula will not disappear directly. Remove from heat and cool down.
- Transfer the water roux (TangZhong Starter) mixture into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge at least overnight (I usually use around 2 days).
Filling
- Mix cornstarch with water and set aside for couple of minutes until well combined.
- In a small sauce pot, add starch water, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and heat over slowest fire until there are big bubbles. Then mix with the char siu dices.
- Cover the filling and place in fridge for 30 minutes.
Wrapper
- Before making the main dough, move the water roux to room temperature to set reset for around 30 minutes.Add all the ingredients including milk, egg and tangzhong into a breadmaker or a large mixing bowl. Then add the sugar, salt, flour and yeast. Knead the dough for around 10 minutes at slow speed. And add “butter “and continue kneading for another 10 minutes at medium speed. Then set aside and wait for the first proofing. In winter days, we might need hours until the dough is 2 to 2.5 times in size.
- Transfer the dough to a clean-floured operation board and then divide into 8 equal portions. If you plan to make smaller ones, you can choose 12 to 14 portions and round each one.
- Take one portion out, press down to a round wrapper. Scoop around 1 tablespoon Char Siu pork filling to the center. Seal the bun completely and then turn it over. Repeat the process to assemble all the other buns.
- Set aside for the second proofing until the buns are doubled in size again.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree C. Brush egg wash and top with white sesame seeds.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until well golden brown colored.
- (optional) brushing some melt butter and serve after cooling down for several minutes.
Nutrition
2 Luo! I have a questy…The last ingredient in the main dough which you wrote was unsalted milk ? Ur meaning is unsalted butter, right ? ^^
Yes Hoai,
That’s butter. Thanks for pointing that out.
Kids and I love Char Siu Bao!!! I need to make it at home one day. Must be so good when these are freshly made! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and commenting Nami. My little girl loved the freshly made ones too. She ate up two even after lunch.
Hi, the flour for roux is all purpose flour?
Thank you
Yes Leslie, plain flour or all purpose flour is perfectly fine with roux.
Hi Elaine,
Lovely recipe, it looks really delicious! Where I live they are not familiar with cake flour, we only have normal flour. What we call cake flour is flour with vanilla and lemon extract added. But I don’t think that’s what you mean. Can I use 低筋面粉／包粉 or can I substitute it with plain flour and add some corn starch.
Wish you and your family happy holidays!
XJ
Thanks for the sweet blessing.
Cake flour here actually refers to low gluten flour. And you can use 低筋面粉 along with 高筋面粉 to make the dough. I usually do not add corn starch in baked buns. Is there a special reason for that?
But you mean that i have to combine a high gluten flour with a low gluten flour right? Really like your recipes and also a fan of american blogs, but hard to get some of the ingredients.
Yes, we usually mix high gluten flour with low gluten flour for many of the Asian soft baked buns or bread. Chinese ingredients may really need time to search and I know that’s a tough task for lots of fans. You can try to find some Asian food store for unique ingredients. Still, I believe this situation will become better as we are just in the process of internationalization. I still buy some of the fresh food from Thai, US, Mexico, Korean,Japan and other countries from the import food market in China.
Thanks for your quick reply! For recipes that ask for cake flour; i heard from people: 1 cup flour, remove 2 tablespoons of flour and replace it with 2 spoons of cornstarch, to reduce the protien content.
Haha, that’s reasonable. I never thought about the protein problem. Next time, I will try out myself.
Hi,
What is instead yeast?
Sorry Jane,
It is a typo. I mean instant yeast.
Hi Elaine,
Thanks for your attractive recipes.
According to this charsiu bao baked buns, i can see salt in the ingredient but did not see you use it in the processing. Actually i respect the original recipe and added 6g salt, it becomes too salty. Please advise and correct me if i made it wrong. But the bun is really soft and taste so good with the “pillow texture”
Many thanks again for sharing!
Hi Christine
Salt should go in the dough. The reason why I give 6g salt is I want the bun to be slightly salty than normal buns because we have a savory char siu filling. If it is over salty for you, please slightly reduce to 2-3g next time, just like a moral sweet bun.
Elaine, thank you for this recipe. I look forward to trying it. Question (and I mean no disrespect whatsoever in asking): Have you been to Seattle’s Pike Place Market, specifically to Mee Sum Pastry? I lived there almost 30 years ago, and I fell absolutely in love with the BBQ Pork Hom Bows. Is your recipe similar in taste (by photo, they look similar). My health prevents me from traveling to Seattle, so I’m drooling in anticipation of trying yours!
Hi Michael,
I am sorry that I have never been to Seattle’s Pike Place Market but I hope that I can have the chance in the future. I hope this can help you to obtain that yummy taste.
Nice recipe my wife is from Shanghai and they don’t seem to like spicy food there, so many of your recipes are out for us, but this one – very nice.
I was surprised how soft they were and as I love char siu pork they didn’t last long 🙂
Thanks
Now i’m off to try out some more of your recipes
Hi Gerry,
I usually finish them within two days.
What is the point of putting the roux in the fridge for a day or two? Does the roux ferment during that time? Otherwise, I can’t understand the need to do that. Can you comment?
The roux ferments.