As of the past weekend, my entire family have been scheming what to cook and eat for Lunar or Chinese New Year. Coincidentally, Chinese New Year falls on the same date as Valentine’s Day this year.
Proofed, filled buns; Brushing on egg
Anyway, as we’re planning out loud what we can do and must do for tradition and for the sake of ambition of tackling dishes we’ve never done. Going along with the latter, my dad and I collaborated the effort of baking cha siu bao-style buns (aka baked Chinese BBQ pork buns) except we’ve replaced the pork filling with house ground sirloin beef. We are planning to do the real cha siu bao around next week so we won’t ruin his delicious roast pork. (Trust me, you haven’t lived ’til you tried my dad’s pork. Unless you don’t like or can’t eat pork, that’s a different story.) The meat filling must be cooked prior to filling it in your bun. We flavored the ground beef with ginger, garlic, and scallions (all finely chopped) and flavored with oyster sauce and black pepper. Let it cool to room temp and proceed working with your large glob of fermented bread dough.
After kneading, cutting the dough, rolling them out like dumplings, filling, wrapping, and proofing (as in letting the buns rise and get puffy), I brush them on with a beaten whole egg. The reason behind the latter is to give the buns a nice glazed look and it helps the browning (caramelizing) process while it’s baking away in the oven.
Cooling
What pleasantly surprised me was the fact that these buns actually look…pretty and edible. For some strange reason, I tend to be afraid of baking buns more than a loaf of bread. At any rate, they look gloriously golden brown with a beautiful sheen.
Innards, done two ways
When the buns were chomped by the teeth or cut with a knife, a gentle steam exudes from them, releasing the incredible scent of meat, garlic and a gentle hint of scallion. These were tasty. The modifications I have to do next time is to increase the oven temperature I used and shorten the baking time.
If you’re inclined to bake cha siu bao-style buns (and I urge you to try it), here’s the recipe:
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