Ah, childhood. When choices were easy (Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network?) and one’s biggest concerns were in the vein of running home fast enough from the elementary school to catch the ice cream truck and the 3:30 PM escapades of Arthur the aardvark on PBS. When your parents seemed to know everything there was to know about everything, and you saw the entire world from a foot or two lower to the ground.
My particular version of childhood involved a lot of sinking Titanic reenactments in my friend Reema’s above ground pool (we were very melodramatic children), reading at recess, strong lobbying for a family puppy acquisition, the collected cinematic works of John Hughes, my see-through purple Gameboy Color, and a gradual familiarization with anything having to do with horses. It also involved a lot of Saturday morning car rides into Queens and Chinatown, when we would visit my grandparents or cousins, grab dim sum, and inevitably stop by a Chinese bakery for some warm bread.
There were always the usual suspects…the pillowy soft butter buns, the sweet, crumbly pineapple buns, the vastly-appealing-to-Chinese-American-kids “hot dog” buns (my enchantment with this particular pastry has…ebbed over the years. [update] – THAT IS, UNTIL I MADE THEM MYSELF! Here’s the recipe.), and of course, the “cha siu bao,” or BBQ pork bun, which is filled with a savory, slightly sweet filling of Cantonese roast pork. This dim sum and Chinese bakery favorite is of course, the subject of today’s post.
(If you would rather have a steamed bun, then peruse our recipe for Steamed BBQ pork buns. It’s most definitely the real deal and you won’t be disappointed!)
Out of all the bakeries in and around Beijing–the Paris Baguette‘s, Bread Talk‘s, Holliland’s, and Wei Duo Mei‘s packing the city, no one seems to have this “quintessentially Chinatown” pastry. Until now!
You know, because we do.
These take some time, but are pretty easy to put together, especially if you can get the roast pork ready made from your local Chinese grocery store’s hot bar. If not, you can also easily make your own roast pork, with this fantasmagorical Chinese BBQ Pork (cha siu) recipe we posted a few days ago. In any case, the bread dough is fairly straightforward as well. It involves one crucial, dead simple step at the beginning, which involves making a quick five-minute roux/paste with flour, water, and milk. The paste, called a “tangzhong,” is then mixed with the rest of the dough ingredients, and you knead the heck out of it until it’s smooth. Easy.
Let’s get started.
For the buns:
CHINESE BBQ PORK BUNS (Cha Siu Bao)
Prep time : 2 hours 35 mins
Cook time : 25 mins
Serves: 16
Ingredients
FOR THE BUNS:
- 5 cups bread flour or all purpose flour, plus ⅓ cup
- ⅔ cup water
- 1⅓ cup milk, divided
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 eggs
- 4 tablespoons melted butter
- eggwash (1 egg, beaten with a tablespoon of milk)
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (optional)
- 2 tablespoons oil
- ½ cup finely chopped shallots or red onion
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- ¾ cup chicken stock
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups diced Chinese roast pork (cha siu)
Read More : Chinese BBQ Pork Buns (Cha Siu Bao)
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