INTRODUCTION

This time, I have purposely prepared my minced meat steamed buns extra big. It is big and about 120 grams of dough and 100 grams of meat filling. So the buns weigh about 220 grams, about 2 times what is commercially sold in the store.

The minced meat steamed buns  was commonly sold in Singapore and Malaysia together with Chinese Barbecue Pork or Char Siu buns. It usually have some eggs in it and at times, certain stores may include some Chinese sausage or Lup Cheong.. It is always one of my favourite when I buy these Chinese steamed buns for breakfast or snack.

Before I proceed to the sharing of the recipe, there are a few points that I would like to highlight to readers .

• If you want to buns to have juicy minced meat, you may need to add a few tablespoons of water or meat stock to the minced meat.

• You can add some solid lard to the buns fillings and it will make your meat fillings more smooth.

• This recipe here yields only about 9-10 extra large steamed bun and I understand most readers may not want this size, therefore, feel free to reduce the size of dough and filling accordingly.  You can follow my ration of dough to fillings of 1.2 dough to 1 portion of fillings and calculate your number of buns.

• While this recipe usually pork, you can always substitute with chicken if you did not take pork.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Serving : About 10 steamed buns of sizes of 200 grams per bun

Dry Ingredients (A)

• 600 grams of bao flour or Hong Kong flour or low protein flour (水仙面粉）
• 50 grams of corn starch or potato starch （生粉或玉米粉）
• 100 grams of castor sugar （细砂糖）
• Pinches of salt （盐巴）
• 1/2 teaspoon of double acting baking powder/baking powder （双重发粉或发粉）
• 1 packet (10-11 grams) of instant dry yeast （即时酵母）
• 1/4 teaspoon of ammonia bicarbonate (optional) （臭粉 （可免））
• 30 grams of vegetable shortening or corn oil or cooking oil (白油）

Wet Ingredients (B)

• 320 grams of lukewarm water （温水）

Fillings

• 500 grams of minced pork belly (五花肉）
• 2-3 stalks of spring onion, chopped into small pieces (青葱）
• 2-3 stalks of coriander leaves, chopped into small pieces （芫茜）
• 3 cm of ginger, pound and extract juices （姜片）
• 2-3 winter mushrooms, soaked and diced into small stripes （冬菇）
• 2 tablespoons of corn flour （玉米粉）
• 1 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine （烹饪酒）
• 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce （耗油）
• 2 tablespoons of sesame oil （芝麻油）
• 2 tablespoons of castor sugar （白糖）
• 1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce (酱油）
• 5 eggs, hard boiled and cut into halves （鸡蛋）
• Salt to taste （盐巴）

Others

• Some cupcakes cups or square baking paper (water proof) for about 8 cm x 8 cm （纸杯或方形防水纸）

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Put all the ingredients for the fillings in a big bowl, use a pair of chopstick to stir it until well mixed. Let it seasoned for at least 1 hour.

• Weigh the filling and  divide into the number of buns you want to prepare. Take one portion , shape it into a ball, flatten in your palm and put a piece of egg on top of the minced meat. Wrap the egg using the minced meat and shape it into a ball．Once done, put the meat balls into the freezer section of the fridge and proceed to the next section. The main purpose of wrapping the eggs using the minced meat and the freezing of the minced meat balls is to  facilitate subsequent wrapping.

• Put all dry ingredients (A)  in a whisking bowl. Use a spoon to stir the dry ingredients and make a well in the centre. Add in the lukewarm water.  Use the same spoon to roughly stir it until it form a sticky dough. Use the machine dough hook to knead the dough for another 15-20 minutes or until the dough looks smooth and leaves the side of the whisking bowl. If the dough is too wet for the kneading, add 1-2 tablespoon of flour to continue. You can also do this manually if you don’t prefer to use the machine kneading.

• In a flat surface, dust with some flour, transfer the dough to the flat surface and knead for 3-5 minutes until the dough does not stick to your hand. Shape it into a ball, put it in a bowl. Cover with a wet towel or clingy wrap and let it prove for 30 minutes (or double in size) whenever is earlier. Note that this is a rather soft dough. As such, do add some plain flour or bao flour if it is too soft for you to handle.

• Once the first proofing has done, divide the dough into the number of buns you want to prepare. Take one dough, shape it round and use a rolling pin to flatten it.  Put a frozen minced meat ball on top of the dough. Seal the edges and place the bun in a piece of square paper or cup cake mould. You can directly put into the steamer tray if you preferred. Let the buns proof until double in size before sending for steaming.

• Meanwhile, heat up the water in the steamer to boil.  You should have adequate water to steam for about 30 minutes. Once the second proofing is done and the water is ready, steam the buns in the steamer for at least 20 – 25 minutes depending on the size of your buns. Use high heat throughout the steaming process.

CONCLUSION

I am trying to emulate the type of minced pork buns sold in Singapore and I hope that this recipe will suit your taste buds. You can start making small  batches and see if it suits your taste buds. Again, as this is a savoury recipe, therefore feel free to adjust the quantity of the stated seasonings and the types of side ingredients.

Hope you like the post. Cheers and have  a nice day.

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