Baozi - Chinese Steamed Pork Buns

[zelix]

Made these last night.

Baozi - Chinese Steamed Pork Buns
Ingredients
Ingredients for the dough（enough to make 12 buns）

500 grams all-purpose flour
250 grams warm water
3 grams of yeast
1 tbsp sugar

Ingredients for the filling

350 grams ground pork（sorry for the audio mistake in the video it should be 350 grams not 300grams)
1 tsp grated garlic
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1/3 cup non-flavored chicken stock
1/2 cup spring onion

Instructions

Dissolve 1 tsp of yeast into 250 grams of warm water.
In a large bowl, add 500 grams of all-purpose flour, 1 tbsp of sugar. Give it a mix.
Pour the yeast water in batches. Use chopsticks to stir it to corporate it well. Then start gathering all the flour together. Make it into a dough.
Cover it and let it sit for 1 hour and 40 minutes. This is the first proof. My room temperature is 21 degrees Celsius. You will need to adjust the time depending on the temperature.
While the dough is sitting, let’s make the filling. 350 grams of ground pork, add 1 tsp of grated garlic, 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 2 tsp of oyster sauce, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of sugar, 1 tsp of dark soy sauce, a drizzle of sesame oil. Add 1/3 cup of non-flavored chicken stock. You just stir the meat for 2 or 3 minutes until the meat absorbs the liquid. By doing this, your filling will turn out incredibly juicy.
Add 1/2 cup of diced spring onion. Keep mixing it until it is well combined. Set this in the fridge, now let’s check the dough.

There are always some signs that will tell you your dough is ready:

1. The size should be about 1.8 - 2 times bigger.
2. Softly touch the surface; you can feel that there is a lot of air inside.
3. If you grab the dough and open it up. Inside should look honeycomb shape.
4. I know a lot of people will poke a hole in the middle of the dough, if the hole doesn’t bounce back immediately that means it is ready but I forgot to show you that.
Sprinkle some flour to prevent sticky. Put the dough on the working surface and we will start kneading the dough to get rid of all the air bubbles. Grab the dough fold it in half. Press it down against the working surface. You should be able to feel and hear that the air bubbles are breaking. I have seen a lot of people just roughly knead the dough for few minutes. The reason I am doing this is that the bubbles from the first proof are always irregular. Once you get rid of them and the second proof will provide you with smaller, fluffier and regular bubbles. You just keep doing this for about 8 minutes. This is how I check if all the air despairs – you just take a knife and cut the dough. If you see there are no big bubbles and the cut surface is pretty smooth. That means it is ready.
Shape the dough into a round shape. Poke a hole in the middle. Stretch it to make a big ring. divide it into 12 even pieces. Flatten it and start rolling it. Use the thumb to hold the middle. right-hand rolls it and left-hand holds and turns it. Repeat this again and again. What you are looking for is a wrapper with thick middle and thin edge.
Now let’s wrap the filling. I used about 2 tbsp. the thumb and middle finger go under the wrapper. The forefinger goes on the top. Lift the edge and pinch it to make a pleat. Then use the other hand to help to make pleats. Continue doing this all the way around. One important note is that your thumb never leaves the first pleat. In the end, you twist the pleat and pinch it together to close the bun.
Brush some oil on the steamer to prevent sticky. Put the pork bun in. Be sure to leave some space between each other. Cover it and let it sit for another 15 minutes. I put some warm water under the steamer. That helps the second proof.
15 minutes later, turn on the gas to the maximum. Once you bring the water to a boil, keep steaming the pork bun for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat. Do not open the lid for at least 3 minutes or else it will shrink when the cold air hits the pork bun.