First Try of Making Chinese Bun

Few months back I saw this video about making Char Siew Pau (Chinese Barbeque Pork Bun). They looked so nice. So today I managed to build my courage to make some. At first, I thought of putting some black pepper chicken inside to replace the barbeque pork. But then,  when I saw the black pepper chicken, I decided to put it aside and make an empty bun instead (also called mantou).

For the black pepper chicken I used this recipe. I made some slight modifications. Here is the recipe that I used:

Black Pepper Chicken

• 1 lb boneless chicken breast, diced (I actually used 1.3 lb of chicken)
• 6 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 white onion, diced
• 1 cup spring onions, thinly sliced
• oil (for frying)

Sauce

• 1/4 cup oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon mirin (this is the only one available in my kitchen, I don't have sake or wine)
• 2 teaspoon brown sugar (this make the dish sweet and salty, optional)

Directions:

1. Mix together all of the sauce ingredients and set aside.
2. Cut chicken into 1/2" cubes and dust pieces with cornstarch.
3. Dry fry chicken in batches until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
4. Heat 1 tbsp oil in pan and stir fry onion for a few minutes, then add the chicken
5. Add sauce mixture and fully coat the chicken.
6. Add the spring onion and stir it for one minute.
7. Remove the pan from the heat.

For the bun, I used the recipe from this website with some modifications. You can find below the recipe that I used:

Chinese Bun

8g instant dry yeast
160ml lukewarm water


380g all purpose wheat flour (you can use the bleached flour to get whiter bun)
90g icing sugar
30g shortening ( I used Spectrum shortening, which is not hydrogenated)

Directions:
1. Sift together flours and icing sugar. Place sifted flour mixture in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the shortening.
2. Mix the yeast with the lukewarm water. Put the mixture into the well. Bring together the flour mixture.
3. I use my KitchenAid to mix the dough. If you don't have a mixer, you can do this manually.
4. After the dough is formed, knead the dough manually for 10-15 minutes.
5. Cover dough with damp cloth and let it rise for 30 minutes or until it is doubled in size.
6. Divide the dough to small portions of 60 gr each.  Flatten each portion and fold the side to the center. Place it on a 1.5” square parchment paper, seal side down.
7. Arrange buns into a steamer, leave about 1” gab in between buns. Spray water mist over buns, and steam in a preheated steamer on high heat for 8 minutes. Remove buns from steamer and cool on rack to prevent soggy bottom.