April 26, 2020
In the upcoming two weeks, Kevin and I will be celebrating our birthdays. This birthday is an especially important birthday for me because it marks the end of one decade and a start of another. I will be celebrating with family and friends virtually instead of in person and have already been brainstorming dishes to make using mostly pantry ingredients I have at home. Last week, I made the most marvelous baked bread filled with raisins to serve for brunch. The bread turned out beyond beautiful, extremely fluffy, and perfectly golden. I thought why not use the dough as a base to make one of my all-time favorite snacks, baked pork buns. Yesterday, I made some light tweaks to the ratios in the dough and had the perfect base to work with for my pork buns. My baked pork buns are a loose adaptation of char siu baos, one of my favorite bakery breads. It is the one baked good I always order during dim sum no matter where I am. Earlier this year, Kevin and I traveled to Hong Kong to visit family. The very next day of our arrival in Hong Kong, we enjoyed dim sum at a restaurant in Pacific Place. The first dish off the menu I ordered was char siu baos. Kevin didn’t mind at all because he also loved char siu baos — especially the baked ones. I love both the baked and steamed char siu baos. I even tested out a steamed version using chicken a few months ago. With both of our birthdays coming up soon, I thought why not recreate one of our favorite baked goods at home. I prepared a dough similar to the dough I used for my raisin bread for the buns and pork chops I had on hand for the filling. After preparing the dough, I left it to rise undisturbed for an hour as I moved onto the filling. The filling featured some cooked pork chops, diced onion, garlic, and my mom’s ever so popular all-purpose sauce. Combine the cooked ingredients with a simple slurry and the filling came together rather quickly. I left the filling to cool as I waited for the dough to finish rising. Once the dough was ready, I got right to work to create the most magical homemade pork buns in the kitchen. The moment the baos came out of the oven, both Kevin and I had the widest grins on our face. One bite into the baos and we tasted success. My pork buns had a perfectly golden exterior, fluffy interior, and the most delicious filling. The meal, of course, was not complete unless we had some milk tea on the side. Instead of traditional milk tea, I prepared some milk tea floats. They’re actually just tea floats, but milk tea floats sounded better. My milk tea floats are a loose interpretation of the milk tea shakes Kevin and I both had at Shake Shack on our trip to Hong Kong earlier this year. The moment I saw this drink on the menu at Shake Shack in Hong Kong, I just knew I had to have one. It was such a simple, yet delicious drink, I can’t believe I haven’t thought of the idea before. My version features a concentrated hot tea poured over scoops of vanilla ice cream (kind of like affogato). Baked pork buns and milk tea floats were the perfect early birthday celebration meal for Kevin and I. The afternoon snack brought back memories of the baked goods we ate in our childhoods. For Kevin, it transported him back to his days growing up in Hong Kong. For me, I’m reminded of my childhood living in New York and sampling the variety of baked goods in the bakeries around the city. We both marveled in the joy of the hot baked buns and cold tea floats as we stayed in, reminisced about our childhood and travels, and watched the home edition of the 2020 NFL draft. It was the perfect way to close out the week.
For the homemade baked pork buns:
For the dough:
· 3½ cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling out dough
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¾ cup milk, lukewarm
· ¼ cup granulated sugar
· 1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
· ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
· 2 large eggs, room temperature
For the filling:
· 3 pork chops
· 1½ tablespoons sugar
· 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
· 1 tablespoon soy sauce
· ½ teaspoon sesame oil
· 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
· ½ large onion, diced
· 3 cloves garlic, minced
· ¼ teaspoon white pepper powder
· ½ tablespoon dark soy sauce
· 1 tablespoon cornstarch
· 2 tablespoons water
For the egg wash:
· 1 large egg
· 1 tablespoon water
· sesame seeds, for topping
Directions:
1) In a large bowl, combine the flour and kosher salt. Set aside.
2) In another bowl, combine the milk, sugar, and active dry yeast. Stir to combine. Let the mixture sit for five minutes to allow the yeast to activate.
3) Combine the milk, sugar, and yeast mixture into the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir to combine. Add the melted butter. Continue mixing the dough to combine all ingredients. Fold in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Knead the dough in the bowl for 5-10 minutes. Add additional flour (sparingly) as needed. Place a large plate (or sheet of plastic wrap) over the bowl. Let the dough rest in the bowl for at least an hour.
4) While the dough is resting, line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
5) Place the pork chops into a bowl. Add the sugar, oyster sauce, and soy sauce. Let the pork chops sit in the marinade for 15 minutes. While the pork chops are marinating, heat a skillet on medium heat. Add the sesame oil and vegetable oil. Cook the pork chops in the skillet for 1-2 minutes on each side. Remove the pork chops to a cutting board. Let the pork chops rest for 5 minutes. While the pork chops are resting, add the diced onion and minced garlic to the skillet. Cook the onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Chop up the cooked pork chops into small pieces. Return the chopped pork chop back into the skillet. Let all of the ingredients continue to cook for another minute. Add in the white pepper powder. Make a cornstarch slurry by mixing the dark soy sauce, cornstarch, and water in a small bowl. Pour the slurry into the skillet. Stir until the filling begins to thicken. Scoop the filling into a bowl. Set aside the bowl to let the filling cool.
6) After an hour has passed, the dough should have risen in size. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Form the pieces into balls.
Note: In the pictures, I divided the dough into 18 pieces and used 6 of the pieces to make smaller braided rolls.
7) To make the pork buns, roll one piece of dough into a flattened circle. Scoop about 1½ tablespoons of filling and add it to the flattened circle. Bring all of the edges together and pinch to seal the buns. Flip the buns over. Transfer the buns to the parchment lined baking sheet with the pinched side facing down. Continue this process with the remaining dough and filling.
8) Make the egg wash by whisking together the egg and tablespoon of water. Brush the egg wash all over the pork buns. Top each of the buns with a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Place the baking sheet with the pork buns into the oven. Bake the pork buns for 18-20 minutes until the buns are golden brown.
Takeaways: When rolling the dough into flattened circles, be careful not to roll the dough too flat. If the dough is rolled too flat, it can tear as you pinch the edges together resulting in the filling spilling out. The dough I used for my pork buns is a very versatile dough. It is a slight variation on the dough I’ve used it to make raisin bread, sweet and savory ladder and braided rolls, and cinnamon buns.