Sweet Potato Pau/Bun甜薯莲蓉包

Sweet Potato Pau 甜薯莲蓉包

Please refer to the pau making video below

Ingredients for sponge dough:
1 cup of plain flour
1/2 cup of water
1/2 tsp of instant yeast

sponge dough

Mix all the ingredients together cover and let it rest to ferment at room temperature for 2 hours. After 2 hours the sponge dough is ready to be used or you can also freeze it for future use.

sweet potato and sponge dough

Ingredients for sweet potato pau/bun

• 80g sweet potato (already steamed and mashed)
• 200g sponge dough ( already made earlier )
• 145g hong kong flour ( depend on the wetness of the sweet potato, you might need some adjustment)
• 50g milk
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp cooking oil
• 120g lotus paste or any type of filling you prefer.

Lotus paste

Knead dough till soft and smooth

Mix all the ingredients together and knead it until soft and smooth. Let it rest for 15 minutes.

Divide dough into 8 equal portions, shape and fill each portion with some filling, then steam for 15 minutes.

Red Bean Chinese Yam Tangzhong Bun （山药红豆汤种面包）

The chinese yam(RhizomaDioscoreae 山药) is sweet in flavour, neutral in nature, and acts on the lung, spleen and kidney channels. It can be used in compatibitity with other herbs to treat deficiency of the lung, lingering cough, asthma, deficiency of the spleen, anorexia, loose stool, deficiency of the kidney, spermatorrhea, frequent micturition and other syndromes.

Effects: Invigorating Qi, nourishing Yin controlling spermatorrhea and reducing urination.


Ingredients:
Tangzhong ingredient:
(A)
115g chinese yam(grated)(山药泥)
100g water
45g bread flour


Mix chinese yam(山药泥), flour and water till it is smooth in a small saucepan.
Cook over medium heat and stirring contantly with a hand whisk to prevent it from burning. You will see lots of small bubbles forming on top. Keep stirring and when the bubbles disappeared, you will see trace in the mixture for every stir you make with the hand whisk. Stop at this stage and you will have the 65C Tangzhong. Pour the hot Tangzhong into a bowl and cover it with a cling wrap toughing the surface of the mixture, to prevent a film forming on the Tangzhong. Leave to cool before using it.



(B)
150g wholemeal flour
100g water or milk

Mix wholemeal flour and water or milk together while waiting for the tangzhong to cool.

Main Dough ingredients:
(C)
380g bread flour
30g brown sugar
1 tsp salt
6g instant yeast
1 whole egg
75g butter


Filling ingredient
300g homemade red bean paste(I made 10 red bean buns and 6 plain buns)
Divide the red bean paste into 10 portions and roll to a small ball.

Topping decoration:
A little flax seed or black sesame seeds


Method:
1. Mix ingredients(A), (B)and (C) except butter, flaxseeds and filling to form a dough.
Add in butter and knead till dough is smooth and pliable.

2. First, prove dough for 45-60 minutes.

3. Punch down dough and divide into 16 pieces of about 60g each. Roll them into round balls .

4. Rest the dough for 10-15 minutes, flatten the dough and put in the filling and shaping each into a nice and smooth round ball. Using a rolling pin lightly roll the bun and flatten it a little like a pancake.

5. Prove the shaped bread for 45-60mins.

6. Apply egg wash to the shaped bread and top it with some flaxseeds or sesame seeds. Apply a little egg wash again.

7.Bake at 190c - 200c for 15-17 minutes or till golden brown.

Tua Sar Bing ( Tambun Biscuit)／豆沙饼

Ingredients

For the filling

•250g split green peas, soaked for several hours and drained
•160g castor sugar
•2–2½ tbsp fried shallot oil
•2 tbsp deep fried shallot crisps or more
•3/4 tsp salt
.1/2 tsp pepper



For the pastry

Water dough
•150g plain flour
•1 tbsp icing sugar
•1/2 tsp salt
•30g corn oil & 30g shortening
•80g water
•1 tbsp lemon juice

Oil dough
•100g plain flour
•60g shortening / margarine

Egg glaze
•1 egg yolk
•1 tbsp water
•A pinch of salt


Method

To prepare the filling: Steam the well-drained split green peas until soft and cooked through. Blend in a food processor until fine.

Remove blended green pea paste into a non-stick wok and add in sugar, salt, pepper, shallot oil and shallot crisps. Cook over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Keep stirring until the mixture is well combined. Remove and leave to cool completely.

Water dough: Put flour, salt, icing sugar, shortening and oil into a mixing bowl. Combine water and lemon juice in a cup and pour into the flour. Mix well to blend until dough is smooth. Leave aside to rest for 25–30 minutes.

Oil dough: Combine flour and shortening / margarine and mix into a smooth dough. Set aside to rest for 25–30 minutes.

Roll out both water dough and oil dough into long sausage shapes and cut each into 40–42 equal sized pieces. Roll out a piece of water dough and wrap in a piece of oil dough. Roll out flat and roll up into a Swiss roll.

Repeat the rolling and flattening of the piece of dough three times. Do this for the rest of the pieces of dough.

To each piece of prepared pastry skin, add a heaped teaspoonful of filling. Gather up the sides and roll into a ball. Place each ball on a lightly greased tray.

Brush the biscuits with egg glaze and bake in preheated oven at 160°C for 15–20 minutes or until biscuits turn golden brown.




For water dough, oil dough and how to assemble the chinese pastry, please refer to this chinese video.

Lao Por Bing ( Wife Cake)／老婆饼

Wife Cakes are actually made by men for their wives. It seems that long ago a wife sold herself as a servant to get money to pay for medical treatment for her father-in-law. The husband was so impressed by her dedication and wanting his wife back that he created the Wife Cake which he sold in the market. They became very popular so he was able to earn enough money to buy his wife back.

Lao Por Bing ( Wife Cake) has a long history and is popular in Hong Kong, and among Chinese. My Family loves this cake.

For the water dough, oil dough and how to assemble the pastry, please refer to this chinese video








This recipe is from Do What I Like
Water Dough:
100g top flour
25g icing sugar
20g margarine
20g sunflower oil
20g water



Oil Dough:
100g top flour
45g sunflower oil

Filling:
55g candied winter melon, chopped to bite size( I rinsed off some of the sugar)
55g castor sugar
70g cooked glutinous rice flour (Koh Fun)
18g margarine
15g roasted white sesame seeds
12g dessicated coconut
120g boiled drinking water (at room temp.)

Egg wash
1 yolk + 1 tsp. water + pinch of salt

Method:

1. Put all Filling ingredients into a big bowl, mix until combined. Divide into 14 equal portions.

2. Water Dough: Rub butter into sieved flour and icing sugar till bread crumb state. Add in the water till a pliable dough is formed. Cling wrap dough and rest for 30 minutes. Divide dough into 14 equal portions.

3. Oil Dough: Pour oil into flour and rub into an oily dough. Cling wrap and leave aside to rest for 30 minutes. Divide dough into 14 equal portions.

4. To Assemble: Flatten a piece of water dough and wrap in the oil dough. Press and roll out dough into a longish flar piece with a rolling pin. Roll it up Swiss roll-style. Turn the dough 90 degrees and then roll it into a longish flat piece. Roll it up Swiss roll-style again. Pinch the 2 side edges and shape it into a flat circular shape. Put a piece of filling in the center of the dough and wrapped it. Flatten it. Apply egg wash.


5. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake in preheated oven at 200C for 9 minutes. Apply egg wash again. Bake for another 5 minutes or until golden brown.