Siew Bao (Jan 2014) (Baked BBQ Chicken Buns 烧包)

In Doha there are lot of coffee morning meeting mainly for ladies, there is a special one called Asian Coffee Morning (ACM) mainly for Asian ladies. The founder of ACM told me that she started ACM 6 years ago with the hope of building a sense of community and connection for Asian ladies living in Doha. It is a potluck gathering, I think hard about what to bring as I don't have any baking stuff with me, finally went to buy a made in India rolling pin and baked this mini siew bao (Baked BBQ Chicken Buns) 

First time making siew bao in such a bulk, I made 90 pieces in two day. (old people can not stand too long. Lol!) Oh yes, I totally forgot about the sesame seeds.

No where I can find the solid vegetable oil shortening (not yet explore Carrefour) so I used butter. There is no Top flour as what we have in Singapore, so I tried on Marriage's brand finest plain flour for pastry (Bought from MegaMart). The end result is good, the dough is able to seal up and with lesser filling in the bun, gravy leakage case is lesser too. After so many times of baking these siew bao, there is yet thing for me to learn. I discovered that to make sure you get the flaky puff pastry, you just need to make sure the water dough is soft and wet enough, and the oil dough is able to roll up into a rough soft dough, this will make sure your siew bao 100% flaky because no torn dough during rolling and flattening! easy huh!

Note: 
1. Is important to rest the water dough so the dough got time to bind together. 
2. The size of mini siew bao is small, it is not so easy to wrap in the filling, due to that I wrapped in lesser filling. I prefer the normal size siew bao because when you bite on it, you can have more meaty and juicy gravy. 

Please click here, here, here, to see more on my Baked BBQ buns.

I changed my previous recipe a bit because I don't have char siu sauce and I go on to explore a new way of doing it. 

Ingredients for filling:

500g chicken, sliced into small cubes

150g mixed vegetables

1 tbsp of minced garlic

2 tbsps sesame oil

3 tbsps sugar (to taste)

2 tbsps cornstarch

4 tbsps of HP BBQ sauce

1 tbsp of dark soy sauce

1 tbsp of oyster sauce

3 tbsps cooking oil

150ml water

Method:

1. Marinade all the ingredients (except water and cooking oil) for an hour.

2. Heat wok, add cooking oil. Add the marinade chicken. Stir-fry the mixture for 2 mins, add water and let it simmer until cook and the sauce thickening, about 8 mins. Set aside to cool completely.

Ingredients for pastry (enough for 90 mini buns):

water dough:

400g plain flour

100g butter
2 tbsp sugar

180ml water

oil dough:

400g marriage's brand finest plain flour for pastry

160g butter (make sure the oil dough can come together to form rough dough ball, if not you need to add a bit more butter, and the dough should be easy to handle not sticky)

Glazing:

1 egg

1 tsp golden syrup

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix ingredients for water dough (except butter), slowly add in water. Knead into a rough dough, add butter and knead to a smooth dough. Cover and set aside in fridge for 30 mins. (When you take the water dough out from fridge, it should be soft and bouncy when you press on it)

2. Mix ingredients for oil dough. Use butter knife to cut the butter and use fingertips to lightly rub the butter with flour until mixture look like fine breadcrumbs. Lightly press together the oil dough. Cover and keep in fridge for 30 mins. 

3. Divide water and oil dough into the portions as you wish respectively in my case is 90 pieces.

4. Flatten the water dough, wrap the oil dough in it. Flatten the dough ball with rolling pin, roll up swiss roll style. Cover and let it rest for 15 mins. Flatten from the long side, roll up swiss roll style. Cover and let it rest for 10 mins.
5. Use finger to pull up two end of the dough and press into middle. Flatten the dough into circle and stuff filling, egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

6. Bake at 210 C for 30 mins.