Char siu bao is probably the most common dish in every dim sum meal. Often steamed or baked buns, filled with Cantonese barbecued pork.

In South China and Hong Kong you can buy these in almost every market. But if you are far away from China, you have to make these yourself. The sauce ingredients you will be able to find in every supermarket close to a Chinese community all over the world.

The art of making Char siu bao

Char siu bao are a kind of baozi, but the dough is usually a bit sweeter and some like it more crumbly. The filling is diced char siu pork, with a sweet and savory sauce. It is advised not to use the marinade of the char siu pork for this sauce as it will be too salty. For making the bun more crumbly, reduce the protein content of the flour by mixing in corn starch. Here we have not done this and we have steamed the buns for about 18 min.

Special equipment

steamer

small dough pin

 

Char siu bao @ Nel Brouwer-van den Bergh

Char siu bao

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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 18 minutes
1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 38 minutes
Servings: 8
Course: Breakfast, Lunch
Cuisine: Cantonese
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

starter dough
  • 3.8 oz (100 g) cake flour protein content 8-9%
  • 4.8 oz (145 g) luke warm water
  • 2.1 oz (60 g) sugar
  • 0.16 oz (5 g) dry yeast
dough
  • 7.6 oz (200 g) cake flour
  • 1 oz (28 g) vegetable oil
  • 0.16 oz (5 g) baking powder
  • 0.04 oz (1 g) salt
sauce and filling
  • 6 oz (180 g) char siu pork (diced)
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1/3 cup finely diced onion of shallots
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 tsp dark soy sauce
  • 4 oz (120 ml) chicken stock
  • 2 tbsp cake flour to thicken

Method
 

Making the dough
  1. Mix the sugar with the lukewarm water and stir to dissolve
  2. Then add the flour and the dry yeast.
  3. Mix and wait until small bubbles appear on the surface (perhaps 15 min in a warm kitchen and longer in a cooler kitchen)
  4. Then mix in the other dough ingredients; first the oil, then the solid ingredients
  5. Knead for a minute or so and then let it rise under cover
  6. After some 30 min, knead the dough manually on a floured surface. Knead for 6-8 minutes
  7. Thereafter, let rise to double before shaping the buns
Making the filling
  1. Glaze the diced onions with the oil in a pan. Be careful not to let them burn
  2. Add the sugar and all the liquid ingredients and mix.
  3. Add the diced char siu pork
  4. Mix the flour with the cold chicken stock and add to the pan and bring close to a boil, so the sauce thickens
  5. let the filling cool down
Shaping and making the buns
  1. Cut the dough in 8 equal parts
  2. Roll with a dough pin each part into a round circle, flatter at the sides and thicker in the middle
  3. Then take an eighth of the filling and wrap into the dough, pinching the dough with your fingers to close it
  4. Place the buns each on a oiled baking paper square on a flat sheet or already on the perforated part of the steamer
  5. Let the buns rise for about 20 minutes
Steaming and serving the buns
  1. Bring water to a vigorous boil first, then place the perforated part with the buns on the steamer and cover it with the lid
    char siu bao before steaming @ Nel Brouwer-van den Bergh
  2. Steam for at least 15 minutes
  3. Serve warm, but you can let them cool down a bit first

Notes

Method: pan frying, steaming or baking
Food allergy & intolerance information: soy, pork

Remarks

To make the dough more crumbly, substitute up to a third of the flour by corn starch

The buns can be frozen and re-heated at low energy in a microwave or better even by steaming them from frozen state

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