Steamed Pork Buns (Char Siu Bao-Momofuku) Recipe

Ingredients

Dough:
1 1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
3/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
Scant 3 cups (12 1/2 ounces) flour
Filling:
1 1/2 cups chopped char siu (char siu recipe below)
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sacue
1/2 tablespoon honey
Char siu:
2 pounds pork butt cut into 4 pieces
3 tablespoons maltose (you can find this at most Asian grocery stores)
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
1 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons sesame oil
half a head of garlic, peeled and sliced
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Preparation

Step 1

The trick is to pull up a lot of dough to the top of the bun when shaping.

1. Put the yeast in a small bowl, add the water and set aside for 1 minute. Whisk in the oil to blend and dissolve the yeast. Set aside.

2. Make the dough by hand: Combine the sugar, baking powder and flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture. Slowly stir with a wooden spoon, moving from the center toward the rim, to work in all the flour. (Add lukewarm water by the teaspoon if this doesn’t happen with relative ease.) Keep stirring as a ragged, soft mass forms. Then use your fingers to gather and pat the dough together into a ball. Transfer to a work surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until smooth, fingertip-soft and slightly elastic. (You shouldn’t need any additional flour on the work surface if the dough was properly made. Keep kneading, and after the first minute or two, the dough shouldn’t stick to your fingers. If it does, work in a sprinkling of flour.) Press your finger into the dough; the dough should spring back, with a faint indentation remaining.

4. Lightly oil a clean bowl and add the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm, draft-free place to rise until nearly doubled, 30 to 45 minutes. The dough is now ready to use.

Filling:
1. Mix together the sauce ingredients until well blended.
2. Drizzle sauce over char siu. You don’t want your meat drowning in sauce, just a light coating.

Char Siu:
1. Combine all the ingredients except the pork in a small sauce pan and simmer on medium heat until the maltose and honey are melted and the sauce is slightly thickened. Cool completely.
2. Marinate the pork in about 3/4 of the sauce overnight in the fridge. Give the pork a couple of turns in the sauce to make sure that all sides have marinade on them. Save the remaining sauce in a container in the fridge in a separate container.
3. The next day, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Shake the excess sauce off the pork and roast the pieces on a rack over a roasting dish that you’ve lined with tin foil.
4. The char siu should be cooked after about 45 minutes depending on the size of your meat. The internal temperature of the pork should be 160˚F.
5. To char your char siu, brush the pork with the remaining reserved marinade and turn the oven up to broil. Turn the pieces to char on all sides. Keep a close eye on your pork, this won’t take long.
6. Slice and enjoy. I love char siu with rice and a fried egg or with some ginger scallion noodles, but you can enjoy it any way you like!

Making the buns

1. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces.
2. Take a piece of dough and flatten it a bit with your hands, leaving the edges thicker than the middle. (This is contrary to how a lot of people form dumplings, or buns, but this is how you get your buns to burst open on top)
3. Spoon 2 tablespoons of char siu filling into the middle of the piece of dough being careful not to get sauce on the edges of the dough. If oil or sauce touches the edges, it decreases the chance that your dough will burst open.
4. Bring the edges of the dough up and pleat the dough to seal it. Place the bun on a small square of parchment paper.

5. Repeat until all buns are made. Cover buns and let rise for 30 minutes.
6. Preheat a steamer and arrange buns on steamer or plate, leaving an inch between each bun.
7. When the steamer is hot, steam the buns for 15 minutes. Do not open the lid to check.
8. When 15 minutes is up, remove and enjoy!