Red Bean Bao

As you can see I placed the bao too close to each other, as a result after steaming they stuck to each other. Luckily they still looked like bao.


I bought the red bean paste from Phoon Huat. The red bean is fine, smooth and fragrant.




Two days ago , my niece came over from K.L. and visited me. She said she wanted to buy some baking stuffs. So after breakfast, I went with her to Phoon Huat, Simei.

The Autumn Festival is around the corner, there are many variety of moon cake fillings /paste are available. As I have planned to make red bean bao this weekend, I bought 500 g of red bean paste.

Recipe (makes 28 - 30 bao)

Ingredients A:

375 g Hong Kong flour
200 ml warm water
10 g instant yeast powder

Method:

1) stir in instant yeast powder into warm water and rest for 10 minutes.
2) Mix in flour and knead into smooth dough . Cover them with a wet towel and rest for 1 hour.

Ingredients B:

125 g Hong Kong Flour
150 g fine sugar
1 1/2 tbsp double acting baking powder
10 g shortening (crisco)

Ingredient C:

Red bean paste 500 g. Roll into a 30 g small ball. (about 28 balls)

Method:

1) Sieve flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add in sugar, and fermented Ingredients B, except shortening .Knead till mixtures are combined.

2) Add in shortening and knead till sugar is dissolved and it becomes soft and smooth.. And rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

3)Divide dough into smaller 30 g dough, round them into a ball shape. Use a rolling pin to flatten it. Put the red bean paste filling into the centre, wrap and seal it tight. Place it on top of a pre-cut parchment paper square 1.5" x 1.5". Repeat until you finish the dough and ingredients.

4) Lay the bao into steamer (make sure leave some space in between the bao as they expand after steaming).

5) Steam for 15 minutes over high heat.

ENJOY!