Steamed Buns 3 INGREDIENT SIOPAO FILLING RECIPE (2024)

FAQs

What is siopao bun made of? ›

All-purpose flour is commonly used to make siopao. It contains about 11% protein and has a gluten index of at least 95%. A higher protein content could cause the dough to shrink, whereas flour with too little protein often results in sticky doughs with a tough bite.

I do find that steaming the buns on a simmer or from cold or warm water or the combination allows the steamed buns to puff up into a more tender bite. Preboiling the water can sometimes lead to a firmer texture if the bao has not fully leavened or proofed.

In the Philippines, siopao usually comes in two flavors—asado and bola-bola. Asado siopao is filled with diced meat—pork or beef—cooked in soy sauce and seasoned with salt and sugar. Bola-bola siopao, on the other hand, is filled with finely ground meat—again either pork or beef—mixed with egg and flour.

Bao Buns (pronounced “bow”), but also known as a 'steamed buns' or 'baozi' 包子, are a delicious, warm, fluffy treat of stuffing wrapped inside a sweet, white dough. Made with a mix of flour, yeast, sugar, baking powder, milk and oil, the bao is a tad sweeter than its closely related cousin, the dumpling.

Siopao is the Filipino version of the Chinese steamed buns bao.

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

Any brand of all-purpose flour, which has a moderate level of gluten, will do to make the bao, but you have options: For the brightest-looking buns, use bleached all-purpose flour. For deeper flavor and a tad more chew, choose unbleached flour. Either way, weigh the flour for the best results.

The magic of an egg

Adding egg white will make the dough more stable as it rises, less likely to collapse, giving you buns that feel more soft and bouncy. So add egg to your mix for a natural bun dough improver and emulsifier.

In order to get white bao, many Chinese American cooks use low-gluten (low-protein), bleached cake flour for their bao dough; cake flour is milled from soft wheat and has 8 to 10% gluten/protein. To make up for the flour's lack of gluten a touch of vinegar is added to result in more chewy dough.

What kind of flour is used for bao? ›

You can use bleached bao flour if you can find it in an Asian supermarket – this will give your bao that classic bright white look. Plain flour is much easier to find so it's what I use. Baking powder.

Any rush of cool air could potentially make the buns collapse. If you're making fluffy yeasted buns, let the buns sit covered in the steamer for an extra 5 minutes after the heat has been turned off. This resting time is crucial. If you open the lid too quickly, the cool air from outside might deflate the buns.

In the video, the appearance doesn't seem to change too much from the before and after, but customers have reported the steamed bun to be “massive” and taste like a “fluffy cloud.” "It's basically like the difference between a towel and a steamed towel - but for the tastebuds," one Reddit user poetically described.

But it's in the filling itself that the difference between these two steamed buns lies. Where cha siu bao is made with roasted pork, five spice, and various kinds of soy sauce and sesame oil, siopao asado is most commonly made with stewed and braised pork, as well as other sauces like soy sauce and hoisin.

The Filipino version of Chinese steamed buns, these are made with a homemade rice flour dough and stuffed with savory shredded chicken, then steamed until light and puffy.

Siopao looks very similar to Vietnamese bánh bao, and Chinese char siu bao, except it's much larger in size sometimes.