Bánh Bao Recipe - Vietnamese Steamed Pork Buns
This is a traditional recipe for a traditional Vietnamese dish called Banh Bao or Vietnamese Steamed Pork Buns. It is Bao buns filled by ground meat, wood ear mushrooms eggs, wood ear mushroom as well as Chinese sausage.
Equipment
- Bamboo Steamer
- Banh Bao Mix
- Wooden Rolling Pin
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 cups entire milk
- One packet instant yeast
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup Sugar granulated
Banh bao Filling
- 3/4 1 lb ground pork
- 3 Tbsp wood ears mushrooms crushed
- 1/4 Yellow Onions chopped
- 2 tsp oyster sauce1 teaspoon sugar granulated
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2. Chinese sausages carefully sliced
- 4 eggs cooked, cut into 4 pieces
To steam
- 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
Instructions
- Make your parchment pieces of paper. Divide parchment paper in 16 pieces of 5x5 inches. Set aside.
- Create the dough. Add baking powder and flour into a bowl, and mix. Set aside
- Warm the milk to (100-110 degree F). Then add the yeast. Mix. Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes or so until it begins to foam. Add sugar and vegetable oil and mix until well-combined.
- Put the wet ingredients in an enormous mixing bowl. Then add the dry items from Step 1. Mix with your hands. Once all the ingredients have come together, transfer it onto a lightly floured surface and then knead it until it is smooth for about 10 minutes. You can add more flour if the dough appears too moist. The dough is well-kneaded enough that you can poke it, and it then slowly bounces back. After that you can transfer it to an oil-coated bowl and put it over an absorbent towel. Allow it to rest in a warm location for at least an hour.
- As the dough starts in the process of rising you can prepare the rest of your ingredients. Boil the eggs and cut them into four pieces. Slice your Chinese sausages. Set aside.
- Create this pork filling. To make the pork filling, mix ground pork with wood ear mushrooms, chopped yellow onions, fish sauce oyster sauce, salt sugar, and pepper. Mix until well together. Divide the filling of pork into 16 equal round pieces and put them aside.
- After the dough has finished proofing, cut in 16 equally sized pieces. Then, roll each piece into a small circle which is 4-4.5 inches across. The edges on the outside should be less than the middle. Be sure that the center isn't too thin.
- Add 1 pork filling, one slice of Chinese sausage and 1 egg in the middle of filling. Wrap the filling around the edge of the dough. Crimp and fold the dough until it overflows with filling. Examples are shown in the images above. Put each bao onto a sheet parchment paper.
- Set up your steamer pan. Bring the water to a simmer and add a pinch in rice vinegar. Be sure to maintain an even temperature throughout this process.
- Banh bao are cooked for 15 to 17 minutes. You should ensure that there is at minimum 1 inch room between every bao because they expand.
Notes
- How do you ensure your Banh bao have been cooked In order to make sure your Banh Bao are cooked to perfection Take out one bao every 15 minutes to determine whether it's cooked. If it's undercooked, you can increase the cooking time until you're sure that they're cooked to perfection. The dimensions of your banh bao, as well as the temperatures of your steamer could alter the cooking timing of your banh bao.
- What happens if I don't have a warm area to prove my dough? - It's important to have a warm place for the dough rising. I didn't have a space to proof my dough, so I turned the oven at its lowest temperature for few minutes before turning off. I then placed my dough into the oven with the door shut. Be sure your oven isn't getting too hot when you do this.
- Add oil to the bowl you are using to test your dough The addition of oil to your bowl prior to proofing is essential since it keeps the dough from creating dry skin.
- Don't overfill the bao Do not overfill the bao. Overfilling it can make the dough stretch and may not seal correctly. If you must remove part of your pork-filled bao, you can do it. It's fine to keep some leftover filling after filling all the banh bao. I filled up a few of my banh bao when I was testing the recipe. The inside of the bao was thin enough that it split when I tried to take them from the steamer.
- Incorporate vinegar into your water prior to steaming The addition of vinegar to the water will help to give the bao its distinctive white hue.
- The storage of the banh bao You can freeze the banh bao to enjoy later. When you're ready to enjoy they, you can pull out the banh bao, defrost them and heat them up by heating them in the microwave. Banh can also be stored in boos for later use in your freezer and pre-steam them.
- The bao can be reheated The best method to heat up the banh bao is cover it with a damp paper towel, then heat to a boil in the microwave, for about 30 second. The addition of a damp towel can help in rehydrating the dough as it begins to dry out while you keep it in the refrigerator.