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Friday, July 20, 2012

Wholemeal Char Siew Pau - Filled Baos #3



I am not the kind of person who likes dimsum shops type of buns. Those too soft, super fluffy, smiling buns. I prefer those with better structure, less baking powder and better mouthfeel that doesn't stick between the teeth type of steamed buns.

My husband loves charsiew pau (CSP), and it's one of his must orders for dimsum. Most commercial buns use inferior meat and taste so oily and fatty. It's hard to find a char siew pau that I find to be tasty.



The problem is, I always use Kampar's Kam Ling restaurant's CSP as the yardstick. Their CSP are fragrant and the balance of flavours are perfect for me. Thick, gooey, sweet, fragrant with rose wine .... oh my, just by typing this makes me miss home so much. Or shall I say, miss Kam Ling's CSP, LOL. But sadly, their CSP is the typical baking powder laden smiling dimsum type of bun. It's the filling that I miss, not the dough, not the dough. In Perak, I know there are 2 places where there still are CSP made with traditional yeasted doughs, one in Tanjung Tualang and another in Pokok Assam, Taiping. And their fillings taste similiar like the one I made, not with Hoisin sauce, not that. I somehow don't like the taste of Hoisin sauce.

Since my hubby don't like whole meal breads, I thought of making his favourite bun with his hated dough, so that I can make him eat it. Did he eat it? Yes, but not as much as when I made with white dough. Of which is good, I can ration him and make less. If not he can wallop 4 CSP in one go. With this dough, he only took 2 and said he has enough, LOL. Wicked wife I am, LOL!

I also made this for my uncle's memorial service's reception, but I made them in half the size. I got rave reviews from the guests.

You can have this dough plain, or filled with Char Siew.. either way, it's just as delicous, soft and bouncy.



Wholemeal Char Siew Pau
Recipe created by: WendyinKK

250gm pau flour
83gm whole meal flour
17gm wheat bran
1 tsp baking powder
50gm sugar
Small pinch of salt
5gm instant yeast
160gm warm water
Pinch of sugar
18gm shortening

360gm Char Siew filling

1. Proof yeast with water and pinch of sugar. Wait for it to bubble. As long as there are some bubbles, good enough.
2. Mix everything together and knead(5 min KA Speed 4) to form a non sticky dough. The surface should be smooth (with the whole meal flour it’s hard to see, but look at the white flour part.. it should be smooth.
3. Cover and let it proof for 1 hour or until doubled.
4. Divide dough into 12 pieces, about 48gm each
5. Wrap with cha siew fillings (refer pic)
6. Let it proof for another 45 minutes.
7. Steam on high heat for 12 minutes

*I used about 30gm of filling in each bun. Not too much as we like a nice balance of filling with dough.


Old Char Siew filling recipe here
New Easy Char Siew filling recipe here

Divided dough and frozen filling
  Rolling the dough


Filling and Wrapping



the bread monster stole my bun .... see the finger attempting to kidnap my buns

Soft, fluffy with better structure

I love goooey fillings... yummy!

41 comments:

  1. Oh Wendy!!! I love your CSP la!!! looks so juicy and fluffy!!! Must give it a try this weekend!!!

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  2. I m gg to try this!!! thanks for the recipe. Just to double confirm, if i dun want to use wholemeal flour, just simply use all 350g of Pau flour right? Thanks in advance. =) Btw, ur Pau are so big and yummy looking..=)

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  3. Cynthia,
    Hope u like this. U're taking orders for CSP, right?


    Jaques,
    320-330gm should be sufficient.


    Phong Hong,
    Haha....

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  4. When I see you post, seem very easy to make.But for me don't know why, even i follow exactly recipe/instruction sometime turn out good & sometime not sucessful (not soft & fluffy).

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  5. Yes, I still remember the Kam Ling's Restaurant! They have alot of food that I missed so much!! Saliva drooling looking at your pau! So soft! I have now like to make my own bread and pau at home. Thank you for this post Wendy!

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  6. Wendy, the pau looks so nice. I love gooey char siew filling, you are tempting me so much with CSP, going to buy later to fullfil my crave lol.

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  7. Wendy, I just prepared your Palm Sugar Char Siew as filling for baked buns or CSP. I fully agree with your views on bao texture and filling. The only option is make your own, hehe. BTW, there is one Dim Sum outlet in Taiping town centre selling the CSP that you prefer [traditional bao skin - non-smiling type].

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  8. wow your ones are really nice. Mine :( all not "fatt" enough and plaint not nice

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  9. Wheat bran.. is it the same as wheat germ?

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  10. This looks delicious. Thanks for the recipe.

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  11. Mary Chey,
    You have to watch how it proofs. If the bun grows to the right size before steaming, it's quite impossible that it's not fluffy. If the bun didn't grow, the yeast might have died.


    Mel,
    I rarely buy nowadays. Most of them taste funny to me.


    Jess,
    Hahaha, so bad hoh me.


    Kimmy,
    Thanks for the information.
    Unfortunately, I rarely visit Taiping even though it's just 45 mins away. The one in Pokok Assam is near the market, available in the early evenings.


    Small Kucing,
    go with frozen filling, it makes wrapping so so so so much easier


    Jes,
    Haha, tak makan pun tau, haha.


    iceamericanos,
    No, it's like a skin, almost like peanut skin, but finer.


    Boriville,
    Thanks

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  12. I love your char siew filling. Looks very delicious ! Sure goes well with any pau dough. Sure will try out. Thanks!

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  13. yum!!! I want one. It certainly looks so much better than those commercial one with artificial colouring and flavours! Steaming hot bun in our cold rainy weather here would be perfect for me right now.

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  14. Nice photo and food recipe! It looks healthy too, definitely will try to make one!
    Thanks for sharing :)

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  15. Wow what a revelation. I just didnt think wholemeal would be allowed. They look fantastic and ungluggy , Wish I could get some

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  16. is kam ling csp really that good? i think hard for me to try theirs unless i go there early. I like their ping pei mooncakes ,used to hv that every year but last year's ones dont know why the dough was quite stiff :(

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  17. lena,
    One man's poison is another man's meat.
    It's the fav for Kamparians, but I'm not sure of foreign tastebuds.
    You can buy CSP anytime there, just that it may not be hot, of which will be better for travelling. I always buy their cold CSP and bring back KK. Hot buns will go flat in the bag. They will reheat their pau for the evening sales.
    Usually their mooncakes are good, but sometimes, like how we bake, we can "jau sui jun" also.

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  18. I always wanted to freeze the filling but afraid the dough won't rise because of the cold filling...now i know:) Looks so yummy with the moist gooey filling, mine always turned out dry. I like the the Kampar pau too but like said the skin not so nice as it can stick to the teeth.

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  19. Hi Wendy,

    Your easy CSP with yummy deliciou filling makes me want to try it! I am the super fans of CSP and like you, none of the CSP i tried it's my favorite...That is why i need to try yours!Before that, would you mind to tell me what is the difference of baking powder and double action baking powder? Can I use double action baking powder is this recipe and if so, what would be its unit? By the way, I could not find any shortening over my place (Brooklyn, NYC), any substitude for it?
    Thanks!

    Branda PW

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  20. Branda,
    This recipe uses baking powder, no DABP is stated here.
    I used to make steamed buns with DABP (double acting BP), but nowadays, I can't be bothered with because the modern baking powder is delayed action baking powder, as in it activates upon contact with heat.

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  21. wow....amazing. The CSP looks so so delicious. My hubby likes to order CSP too during dim sum. I prefer those deep fried stuffs. haha

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  22. Ask u, can filling chocolate or filling Pandan kaya?

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  23. Hi Wendy, thank you for the recipe. If I wish to make the white version without wholemeal flour, should I:
    1) still follow this recipe (and substitute the wholemeal with bao flour) or
    2) follow your other recipe (the one using 600g bao flour)?

    Which produces better result in your opinion?

    SW

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  24. SW,
    You cannot directly substitute in this recipe because the moisture absorption rate is different for different 'flours'.
    Better result depends on preference, u like wholemeal or plain? If it's not because of the presence of wholemeal, they don't taste too much different except that this one is more fluffy due to the presence of baking powder, but then again baking powder is always optional when it comes to baking steamed buns

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  25. Dear Wendy, the pau is so fluffy :)
    as i do not have wheat bran, could i use quick oats instead? If it is ok, then should i break the oats to small pieces? TQVM

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  26. Kah Chin,
    frankly i am not sure. I have never made pau with oats before, but I think the liquid absorption rate could be different.
    You can experiment, I'd love to know the outcome ;)

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  27. I just made this today. It was quite a nice change and seems healthier because of the wholemeal flour and wheatbran. I usually add some wheatbran when having oat porridge.

    I did chicken out and only added about 10g of wheatbran though as i feared the mouth texture would be like eating sawdust if i added all 17g in. That is because there was a fair amount of wheatbran in my wholemeal flour already.

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  28. Kenny,
    Do adjustments if necessary due to the difference of flour in our countries :)

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  29. The Char Siew Filling turns out to be successful!

    I followed the recipe

    For those who wanted to buy Rose Wine, most Hai-O shop has it.. Hai-O is the main distributor..

    I bought it from Giant's liquor shop.. cost me around $35


    I have problem shaping the paus.. hahaha.. it is ugly..

    Hope it turns out good once it is cooked...

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  30. Hi Wendy, finally found the time to make this lovely wholemeal bao. Very nice bao skin but mine is so much yellowish. Is it because I used all purpose flour? Tq.

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  31. Kimmy,
    I'm not sure. all purpose shouldn't give it problem.
    May I ask if your wok is those "tong san wok", those black heavy iron woks?

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  32. @ Kimmy

    Pao flour is bleached so it will be extra white. Standard all purpose flour may not be bleached or at least not to the same degree. In my experience that is the reason for the yellowness.

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  33. Hi Wendy, I have one but not using it for quite awhile. Why?

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  34. Kenny,
    In Malaysia regular pau flour is unbleached and has the same gluten level as all purpose here. Just that it is finer.
    The bleached pau flour you mentioned is labeled as Hong Kong flour here that sells for double or triple the price as unbleached pau flour.

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  35. Kimmy,
    cos I heard steaming with tongsan wok makes things more 'yellow'.

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  36. Hi Kenny and Wendy, thanks for the info. When I used pau flour, it is not that yellowish compared to all purpose flour. Wendy, I used a 2 tier electric steamer to steam the baos [very convenient doe small quantity].

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  37. Dear Wendy, I really love your blog so much!! Great recipes and beautiful pictures also. I have tried many of your recipes and posted in my blog. I always wrote the source of recipes and gave link back to here. Thank you to share such wonderful and delicious recipes. I will try this wholemeal pau soon. Success for you and God always bless you and your family. ^_^ Endang from Indonesia

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  38. Endang,
    Thank you for the well wishes and I hope you will like this bun :)

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