Baked Char Siew Bun (BBQ Pork Bun)

Yup is always good to keep the recipe in a place that is easy for me to revisit and perhaps in future bake again

Happen to know that Aspiring Bakers #31 is calling for Chinese bun entry. Would like to take this opportunity to have this blog submit for Aspiring Bakers #31: Bao Ho-Chiak 包好吃 (May 2013) hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders.

I have the recipe from the cookbook title - DimSum Inspirations ( 一点心意）by Choong Su Yin
This cookbook was a gift from a friend in Singapore. Her thoughts is really precious, when she asked her sister to post it to me when the sister on tour in Australia Perth. How sweet to have friend who remember us even when we are far.

So here are the recipe :

Ingredients :

Char Siew Fillings

300g minced pork
300g chopped char siew (bbq pork)
3 cloves minced garlic
1 onion ( cut into small pieces)
100g green peas ( I omit this as I do not like green peas)
1 bunch of coriander finely chop ( I added this as I like the fragrance of this herbs)
1 tsp of corn flour
1 tsp of oil

Seasonings
1Tbsp of oyster sauce
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
Adequate sesame oil
Adequate pepper
Adequate chicken powder ( I replace the MSG in the original recipe , this is an option)

Starch solution

1Tbsp of corn flour
5Tbsp of water

Method :
1. Blend minced meat with corn flour and oil.
2. Heat up 4 Tbsp of oil, fry garlic and onion till fragrant . Add in minced meat ,char siew and seasonings. Stir fry evenly. Thicken the gravy with starch solution and sprinkle in coriander. Dish out and set aside to cool

Flarky Dough

Ingredients

600g Flour
75g sugar
190g Oil
1 Tbsp golden syrup
270g water

Method :

1. Dissolve sugar and golden syrup in water.
2. Mix flour and oil, pour in syrup mixture and knead to form a smooth dough.
3. Knead the dough to form a long strips and divide into 70g each


Shortening Dough

Ingredients

150g Shortening
300g Flour

Method :

1. Mix flour and shortening till even .Keep it into freezer and set for 20min . Remove and cut it into each 35g

To make the Char Siew Bun

1. Preheat oven to 170 C .
2. Wrap the shortening dough with flaky dough. Roll it out into long strip . Roll the dough up and once again roll it out into long strip.
3.Fold the dough into 3 layers. Roll  it flat and wrap the char siew fillings shape the dough into pau shape
4. Brush egg wash onto the bun and sprinkle some sesame seed
5. Bake in oven for 20 min or till golden brown.

I share this bun with few good friends. Forget to take the pic of the inside when we ate it. Argh always food over picture.

As my skill of wrapping up the fillings is not that good, the top part of the bun is thicker then those sold outside the Dim Sum cart.

Well for the 1st time making this bun , I would say is not too bad of the result.

Hope the step will not scare you off , is not as difficult as it sound.

Baked Avocado CreamCheese Cake

Is it avocado season again ? Not quite sure, as I seem to see avocado all year round in Aus now and the price is just so expensive that keep me away from getting them.

Avocado is a very rich fruit that provide healthy fat and anti oxidants which is good for health. However given the fat factor ,is best consume in the morning and have whole day to utilize it as energy.
It will be wonderful when a day come we can ate as much as we can and never never put on weight. Yup One day ...

Ok enough of melancholy for the day. One of my girlfriend , happen to grab a bag of avocado with only 0.09 per each !!! Can you imagine the excitement we all have. She bought more than what she can consume ( of course given the price ) . I am so blessed that she gave me $1 ( total 10 piece) of avocado to enjoy. It can be kept  and is too much to finish before it rot. Since I have done a few cake with avocado , I decided to try out by making a bake creamcheese cake .

I can not find any bake avocado creamcheese cake in the net. So using what I knew I have created my own recipe and here is it :

Ingredients

250g Cream Cheese
200g Avocado ( mash into fine and sieve + 1Tbsp of lemon juice)
100g Sour Cream
200g Pouring Cream ( Whipped)
20g cake flour
2 eggs
80g caster sugar
1/2 Tbsp lemon rind

125g Oreo biscuit with cream
30g melted butter


Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
2. Crushed Oreo biscuits till fine crumbs.
3.Combine the biscuits and the melted butter well and press evenly into a 8"inch square loose base baking tin.Put in the fridge let it chill and set for later baking
4. Cream creamcheese with sugar till creamy
5. Prepar a chilling metal bowl and whipped the pouring cream till firm soft peak .
6. Mixed the avocado mash with sour cream well then fold in the whipped cream
7. Mixed in the egg one at a time into the avocado mixture.
8. Mixed the cream cheese with lemon rind into the avocado mixture till well combine.
9. Pour the mixture into the oreo biscuit base tin.
10. Steambake the cake in oven for 60min or till is cooked.

The cake is creamy and as usual avocado is not a strong smell or taste of fruit. However it does have slight bitterness taste in the cake. Not sure is it cause by the lemon rind or I might have scrap the outer green part of the avocado when getting the flesh from the fruit.

I share this cake with the girlfriend who blessed me with the fruits. Of course we all love it and enjoy it much. How can one resist a creamy cake.

I do not have a chance to take the picture when the cake was slice to serve. Too tempting and we just engross in talking and forget about my blog updating  :). I should have bake this cake in a smaller tin perhaps 6" tin so the cake will be taller.

If you are avocado lover , give this a try . Is creamy and the texture is soft and light.

Japanese Cream Buns with Pork Floss

Another of my bun moment. I wanted to try out another bread baking experience. I did this back few months ago. Always bake when we will have visitor. Is good to share the baking and one can remind slim afterall sharing is caring. I would like to show my care and love in the food I am baking .

I plan to do a western roasting dinner for the night. Thought of baking some small bun and have it serve before the main. Yup , I still do not quite understand in the fine dinning restaurant , we always been serve some fresh bake bun before our main course come. Perhaps the portion of a fine dinning is always small, so is good to fill your tummy up with some carbo so the end of the meal you will feel full.

My friend recommend me this recipe and told me the result is fabulous and is easy to bake. So here are the recipe from one of my favourite blogger ->Japanes Cream Bun

Ingredients for cook coux ( Tang Zhong)
120gm bread flour
85gm boiling water

Ingredient for bread (A)
380gm bread flour
75gm sugar
6gm salt
8gm instant yeast

Ingredient for bread (B)
120gm cold milk
100gm whipping cream
1 cold egg
40gm butter

1 beaten egg for glazing

Method:
1. Preparing the tang zhong ( cook coux).,add the boiling water into flour, mix until well blended to form dough..Cover with cling wrap and set aside to cool.Keep it refrigerated for at least 12 hours
2.Mix the ingredient for Bread (A) until well blended. Add in all the wet ingredient for bread (B) except butter and knead to form rough dough. Add in the tang zhong and knead until well blended.
3.Add in butter and knead to form elastic dough.that passes the window pane test.
4.Let it proof for 40minutes. Divide dough into 50gm each , mould it round and let rest for 10minutes.
5. Place onto greased pan and let proof for another 50minutes.
6. Brush surface of bun with egg wash
7. Bake at preheated oven at 170(fan)/190C for 15minutes.


I also make some bun into oval shape and prepare to put some pork floss like the pork floss bun I always love for my breakfast next day.

I got the recipe to make the cream to go with the pork floss on this bun.

Ingredient for Cream :

2 Tbsp of Condense Milk
2.5 Tbsp of mayonnaise
200g Pork floss

Method :
1. Mixed the condense milk and mayonnaise together , slice half way down  the middle of the oval shape bun, spread the cream and sprinkle pork floss according to your liking.

The bun is really soft and creamy . It smell really good when baking . Of course my guest love it. I prepare one night before the dinner and have the plain bun heat up in the oven before I serve it. So is like fresh bake bun :)

I will definitely make it again .