Baked Siew Pao

I did it, my first attempt to making baked Siew Pao. The end result? It's to my satisfaction. ;)You know every time we drive to and fro Singapore on North South Highway, we'll pass by this Seremban Siew Bao Restaurant. We tried their Siew Bao and thought it's quite nice, especially when it's fresh out from the oven. But guess what, now that I know how to make these goodies, we don't have to stop on the busy highway anymore, heehee. :)

I got inspired by the Cook book that I recently bought, call Flour Magic, shown below. It shows all the ways and methods on making all kinds of breads and pastries, quite a keeper, but it's in Mandarin. :)The ingredients I show below is enough to make 25 of the medium size Siew Bao.

Ingredients for BBQ pork filling:
350g of BBQ pork, cut into small cubes
1 cup of green peas
1 small onion. diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 shallots, minced

Method:

• Heat a tablespoon of oil in the wok and add onion, garlic and shallots and stir fry until soft.
• Add the chopped BBQ pork and stir fry for 5 to 8 minutes.
• Cool the BBQ filling completely before use. So you can make ahead and store in the refrigerator.
  

Ingredients for Water Dough:
400g all purpose flour
130ml of water
5g of salt
45g of confectioner's sugar
110g of unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Method for Water Dough:

• In a large mixing bowl, add flour, confectioner's sugar, salt and melted butter, then add the water to form a soft dough.
• Knead dough until it's not sticky and smooth, about 8 to 10 minutes.
• Let dough rest for 20 minutes and cover with kitchen towel.
• Roll dough into a long log and divide into 25 pieces.
  

Ingredients for Oil Dough:
300g of cake flour
150g shortening

For Assembly:
1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tsp of water

Method for Oil Dough:

• Mix the shortening into the cake flour. It will feel crumbly at first, but continue to knead to form a dough that is pliable.
  
• Roll dough into a long log and divide into 25 pieces.

Assembly:

• Roll the water dough flat enough to encase the oil dough inside. Place oil dough inside water dough, cover and seal the edges.
  
• Then press and roll out the combined dough into long flat oval. Then start rolling in from one end to make the dough like a swiss roll.
• Using your rolling pin, roll out the dough into a roll disc at least 10cm diameter.
• Place 1 heaping tablespoon of the filling in middle of the dough. Gathering the edges of the dough into top middle, pinching the edges together to seal up the top.
• Preheat oven to 200°C.
  
• Brush the surface of each Siew Bao with egg wash and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.
• Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until the light golden brown.

If you want a "pictorial" description online, I suggest you go to this great blog, Cafe Coner to see the step by step instructions. I merely followed the book I bought, which is very similar the steps in Cafe Corner.

Check out the flaky crust. :) Best eaten when it's still warm. Otherwise, keep in the refrigerator up to a week and reheat in the oven for 10 minutes @ 140°C.

Do try out this recipe, it worth every effort you put it. ;)