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Ingredients
- Dough
- 2 tablespoons 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) sugar*
- 2 1/2 teaspoons 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 1/4 teaspoons 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 3 cups 3 cups (13 3/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tablespoon 1 tablespoon corn or safflower oil
- 1 large 1 large egg
- 1 cup 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (9 ounces) warm water
- Filling
- 2/3 cup about 2/3 cup filling of your choice, chilled
Preparation
Step 1
Topping
1 egg, lightly beaten with 3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) water
*Mrs. Chiu notes that you can increase the sugar to 1/4 cup if you're using a sweet filling. "Also, you could sprinkle some sugar on top after you do the egg wash," she says.
Manual/Mixer Method:
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine all of the dough ingredients, and mix until the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased or floured surface, and knead it for 6 to 8 minutes, or until it's smooth and shiny. Or knead it in a mixer, using the dough hook.
Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or rising bucket, turn to coat, cover the container with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise till it's tripled in bulk; this took about 2 hours in our test kitchen, but may take longer in your home kitchen. The more bread you bake, the more wild yeast develops in your kitchen, the faster yeast doughs will rise; we bake a lot of yeast breads here in our test kitchen, so they tend to rise faster than they might in a regular kitchen.
Place all the dough ingredients into the pan of your bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer (usually, liquids first, yeast last). Program the machine for dough or manual, and press Start. Check the dough about 10 minutes before the end of the final kneading cycle and adjust its consistency as necessary by adding additional water or flour to form a soft, smooth ball. Allow the machine to complete its cycle, then allow the dough to remain in the machine till it's tripled in bulk, perhaps for another hour.
Cover the unused dough pieces with a damp cloth or plastic wrap as you work. Working with one piece at a time, use your fingers to flatten it into a 4-inch round whose edges are slightly thinner than the center. Place a heaping tablespoon of the filling in the center of the dough, pull the edges into the center to enclose the filling, pinch to seal, then give the pinched edges a twist, to seal even more securely. Place the buns sealed-side-down on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces and filling, placing buns about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Cover the buns with a proof cover or lightly greased plastic wrap. After 45 minutes, brush them with the topping, and re-cover. After 1 hour (15 minutes later), brush them again with the topping. Don't worry if they don't appear to have risen much; they'll rise as they bake.
Bake the buns in a preheated 350°F oven for 25 minutes, until they're golden brown. Serve them warm, or at room temperature.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I grew up in San Diego and whenever my mom and I visited the Asian Bakeries, I would get one of these bbq buns, it was a wonderful Treat! Over the years I've periodically looked for the recipe but never been able to find a good one. I made these exactly as written on the KAF site, using Mrs Chiu's bbq pork filling, and it was nearly identical to what I remembered. I tried the recipe again, omitting the salt as Mrs Chiu's version does, and increasing the sugar in the rolls by 1 T, and it Was Identical!! Although the omission of the salt may make the bread a tad bland for American pallets, this is Exactly the taste I remember. I usually make 10, instead of 8, (8 makes for some Very large rolls), and put them in tupperware in the fridge when they're still a little warm so they don't dry out as much when you microwave them to heat them back up. Again, thank you very much!