Vegetarian Flaky BBQ Pork Bun(Siew Bao)

My husband loves cantonese baked pork bun but in vegetarian style.It is as tasty as the real meat too but comes with bonus that is healthier. These little bad boys, also another dim sum that I make quite often  for him.

What is Baked BBQ pork bun?

It is a cantonese Barbeque-pork filled baked bun. The dough is kneading under 2 different dough (water dough and oil dough) and allow both dough merge together under rolling for numerous times to create the flaky texture. The fat from layers of oil dough tend to puff up when heat is applied, so created numerous of flaky skin and texture, nice to your appetite. These baked buns are normally filled with barbecue-flavored pork/ chicken. They are served as a type of dim sum during yum cha and are also sold in chinese bakeries.

Ingredients：

• 300g vegetarian pork (or you can used chicken meat or BBQ pork meat)
• 1 big red onion, chopped

Seasoning:

• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp sugar (or 3 tbsp maltose)
• 3 tbsp oyster sauce ( vegetarian oyster sauce)
• 3 tsp soy sauce
• 3 tsp dark caramel sauce
• 3 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp 5 spice powder

Starch solution: Mix 1 tbsp corn flour with 2 tbsp water. Set aside.

1) heat pan with some oil, add in onion and saute until fragrant.Add in vegetarian pork meat. Saute until fragrant.

2) Mix in all the seasoning. Mix well. Add in the starch solution and allow to thicken the sauce. Set to cool down. Store in freezer for an hour to harden.

Water dough:

• 300g plain flour
• 90g Lurpak butter( or any butter)
• 3 tbsp castor sugar
• 150ml water

Oil dough:

• 240g plain flour
• 150g shortening (or butter)

1) Mix all ingredients for water dough and oil dough separately into dough. Divide into 18 balls for each dough.

2)Wrap oil dough into water dough.( oil dough inside the water dough).So you will get 18 combined balls.

3)Roll every combined dough into a long oblong shape. Roll into a swiss roll-like. Rest for 10 minutes.

4)Roll again into a long oblong shape. Roll into swiss roll-like. Press down and roll into a round disc.

5)Wrap in filling, seal properly. Place onto a tray with baking paper underneath.

6)Egg wash(beat one egg in a bowl and brush onto each bun). Sprinkle with some sesame oil.

7)Bake in a preheated oven of 200C for 30 minutes until golden brown,depending on individual oven.

8)Serve.

Note:

1)If you allergic to maltose, you can just use white sugar for the vegetarian pork. Maltose tends to give a very nice barbecue flavour that is not too sweet to palate.

2)Shortening is believed to help in making the dough much flaky but I personally think butter also gives very nice flaky texture to the dough once you roll correctly.

3)Storing the cooked meat in the freezer helps in sealing the dough later so the sauce is not hard to manage while sealing where the sauce will ooze out later while baking it. (more gravy, I love it 😛 )

4)Since my husband does not eat pork or meat, I keep this recipe as vegetarian as it can be. His feedback is super positive, there is no difference in eating the “Seremban SIEW BAO”- the best BBQ bun must from Seremban.

This baked buns are so well accepted by my husband that he asked me to bake as often as he likes.

These buns are irresistible.yum yum~~

Hope you enjoy this simple sharing. Welcome to place your comment or feedback here ^_^

Love,

hellosweetdessert