Little Char Siew Buns

I told you we both really love buns and breads. Aaron likes savoury stuffs. I made some Char Siew and Wanton Noodle sometime back. I hate it because I can never seem to have any leftover Char Siew because no matter how much I make, they just disappear. I really hate Aaron sometimes. I told him to leave some for me to experiment with baked buns and steamed baos. But his reasoning was my cooking, they are always too yummy and he couldn't stop himself from finishing it. I hate him because he is such a sweet talker and I cannot deny the fact that I was smiling away sheepishly every time he cleans up his plate. Anyhow, I manage to make this batch of baked buns with Char Siew that I've hide from Aaron in advance.

I love Agnes Chang. Aggie calls these 'Sweet Little Roasted Meat Buns'. They are small, the usual ones you get from Dim Sum Restaurant that comes with 3 little buns in a plate. I love how faux looking these buns are. They are glazed with egg wash, sent to the oven and brushed with melted salted butter again to give it the shine. When you eat them warm, you can taste through the salted butter followed by the warm soft bread before reaching the goodness yummy and moist filling. I love the saltiness the butter gave to the bun. I think the filling would be really good for steamed baos too though I've not tried making Steamed Char Siew Baos as of now.


Sweet Little Roasted Meat Buns
(makes 4 dozens of little buns, you probably can fit 3 in your palm at one go)

Prepare a batch of basic sweet bun dough. After the first proving, divide dough into 20gm portion each and shape them into ball. Rest them, covered with a damp tea towel for 15 minutes to relax the gluten. Wrap them up with 1 tsp heaped of the Char Siew filling (recipe below) and seal tightly. Arrange them onto greased baking tray, approximately 3cm apart. Spray with water and let them rise until double in bulk in a warm spot.

Glaze with egg wash (1 egg, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt) and bake in a preheated oven of 200°C for 8-10 minutes, until cooked or golden brown. Remove them from the oven and immediately brush them with melted butter to give them the shiny coating. Leave to cool or warm before serving.

Filling:

1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp choppeed shallots
300g Char Siew, diced into little cubes

Sauce: Combined in a bowl

1/2 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup of water
1/2 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tbsp cornflour

Heat up the oil and sautee chopped shallots until fragrant and golden brown. Pour in the sauce and stir and bring to boil until it thickens. Add in Char Siew and mix well to coat with sauce. Dish it up and cool it completely before using. I chilled mine in the fridge overnight for easy wrapping and to allow flavour to develop.

They are so good and disappear real quick when served as finger food for cocktail parties. You can also make bigger ones if you don't like making them small but I like anything in mini form, they are so cute though it did took me a while to wrap up 50 buns with a teaspoon of filling each. My fingers are aching...


And before I sign off, I'll be submitting this recipe to Yeastspotting and also, here are awards that have been given to me by Chantal of Flirting With Flour. Don't you just love blog names like that??? Thank you so much for thinking I am worth all these, I am so flattered and seriously touched. I hope you will try out the Steamed Banana Muffins asap and lemme know! And as always, I can be very disappointing sometimes, I do know if you read here, here or here.

Chantal, I think I'll make this a leaf node in the tags spanning across the blogosphere. In a quick 5 mins Google, it looks like most bloggers that I have known and those that I have not already known have already been tagged, and I'm not going to spread the contagion outside the organization further :)

Good day everyone!