Siew Pau (Baked BBQ Pork Buns)

I came across this recipe for Siew Pau (to be precise Seremban Siew Pau) when Ellie of Almost Bourdain was doing a guest post at Bee's Rasa Malaysia . Like myself, both Ellie and Bee are fellow Malaysians, living abroad and away from home. Although both are so much further away from home than I am, Ellie and Bee have come out with the most amazing Malaysian dishes ever. If you haven't visited their blogs yet, what are you waiting for .... go do it right now!

This particular baked pastry originates from a state in Malaysia called Seremban - thus the name "Seremban" Siew Pau. I have been eating this pastry since I was young and although we didn't travel from Kuala Lumpur (my home town) to Seremban, they are readily sold in Kuala Lumpur as well. My mum would buy them from this particular coffee shop (really old Chinese style coffee shop) in Chinatown and we would enjoy these treats whenever she brings them home. So when I saw this recipe posted up, I knew I had to give it a try.

Many months ago, I had tried out a water dough and oil dough recipe for baked flaky mooncakes. The result was disasterous. The dough turned out hard like rock buns. So when I went about making the dough for the Siew Pau, I could only hope that it would be successful. You can already guess from the photos, that this venture turned out great. In fact it taste exactly like the ones sold back home! However if you are planning to make this, I do recommend that you eat it on the same day it is baked! If you do have left overs, pop them into the oven to warm them up .. otherwise the pastry tends to be soften up the next day.



Siew Bao (烧包) Recipe

Ingredients:

Water Dough (水皮)

200g all-purpose flour, sifted
100g water
50g vegetable shortening
50g icing sugar

Oil Dough (油皮)

200g all-purpose flour, sifted
100g vegetable shortening

For the Filling:

300 g BBQ pork (Char Siew), diced (you can replace this with BBQ chicken)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup of green peas
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp corn flour
1/2 tbsp sugar

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
sesame seeds

Method:

To Make Filling

1) Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, water, corn flour and sugar in a small bowl and stir to mix well.

2) Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Stir fry BBQ pork, onion and green peas until fragrant. Add the oyster sauce, soy sauce, water, corn flour and sugar mixture and stir well.



To Make Pastry

1) Put all the ingredients of water dough in a food processor and pulse until it forms a soft dough. Cover it in a bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes.

2) Repeat the same with oil dough.

3) Divide the water dough and oil dough into 18 equal portions.

4) Roll out a piece of the water dough into a flat circle.

5) Place a piece of the rounded oil dough in the centre of the flat circle.

6) Gather the outer edges of the water dough circle and wrap up the oil dough ball. Pinch and seal the edges.

7) With the heel of your palm, gently press the dough down to flatten it lightly.

8) Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into rectangle shape.

9) Roll up the dough Swiss-roll style. Turn the rolled dough 90 degrees.

10) Repeat steps 8 and 9. The pastry is now ready for filling and shaping.

To Assemble

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.

2) With the heel of your palm, gently press the pastry down to flatten it lightly.

3) Roll out the pastry into a flat circle. Place 1 tbsp of filling in the centre.

4) Gather the outer edges of the dough circle and pleat and pinch to seal.

5) Brush egg wash on the surface and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

6) Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.