Banh Bao

[Clodfobble]

Look what I made!!

These are filled with a mixture of ground pork, ginger, baby bok choy, scallions, soy sauce, and sesame oil. The outside is a traditional Vietnamese steamed bun style (banh bao), while the inside is more typical of a Chinese or Japanese dumpling (jiaozi or gyoza).

I am so proud of myself I might burst. I mean, I kneaded dough for the first time in my life today! And they tasted really, really good, just like the kind you get at a good dim sum restaurant. The dough took about 20 minutes to make, an hour to rise, and then maybe another 25 minutes to wrap the individual buns with the stuffing inside--but by the end I was going much faster, and next time it won't take as long. 15 minutes in a stacked bamboo steamer and they were ready!

We could only eat 4 apiece, so the rest went into the freezer. The recipe claims they reheat very well; I'll know for sure in a day or two when I decide to have some for lunch.

[Bullitt]

Wow those look awesome Clod.. very nice work for your first time!

[zippyt]

But , but , but , I didn't get MY taste of them !!!

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Yummy yummy yummy, congratulations.

[breakingnews]

clod, fantastic work. at first glance i thought those photos were from a restaurant.

they do reheat very well. if you go to a chinese grocery, you will find tons of these buns in the freezer section, already cooked, just need to be reheated and eaten.

[Wendalz]

Beautiful Clodfobble!! Where did you get the recipe?
These are so yummy to eat! What I like to do when folding the filling into the dough is to try and get the dough as thin as possible and get as much filling into it as possible. I once made one the size of a dinner plate! [Too lazy to make many small ones ] I cut it into fifths and fed the family for dinner. My mum taught me how to make these the traditional Chinese way. I can't really remember how anymore. Haven't made these way too long, but those mouth-drooling pictures have motivated me into making some!

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Wendalz

Where did you get the recipe?

It took a surprising amount of searching on the internet. The flat dumpling-style dough recipes were everywhere, but the puffy steamed version was really hard to find. I can't remember where I found it, but this is what I used:

4 cups self-rising flour (or add 2 tsp salt + 2 TBS baking powder to regular flour)
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar

In a large bowl dissolve the sugar in the milk (I warmed the milk a little to help with this), then slowly add the flour one cup at a time. Knead the mixture between each cup of flour. (My recipe said to take it out of the bowl for this, but that was just stupid--it was still a liquidy mess until the last cup of flour. I just sort of squished it around one-handed in the bowl while keeping the other hand clean to keep adding the flour.) After all the flour has been added, knead for about 4-5 minutes until the dough is smooth and pliable. Return to the bowl, cover with a towel and let sit in a warm place for about an hour. (I used the inside of the microwave. It didn't look to me like it got much bigger, but what do I know.)

[Wendalz]

Thanks But wow, that's a lot different than I thought it would be... The recipe we used had things like oil and salt, no milk but water instead and even a different flour! We used rice flour which I think gives it a different, smoother texture less bread-like doughy 'bite' to it... but that could just be me!:p But your pictures certainly got my mum drooling!

[footfootfoot]

Awesome those are my favorites. I haven't made them in years, I'm gonna put them in the menu rotation. Thanks for the reminder.

[Beestie]

I'm drooling. Damn now I gotta try it but first must overcome a massive case of suckitude in the kitchen arena.

[melidasaur]

Wow - those look excellent. My friends frequently host dumpling night at their house. The wrappers that they use are simply flour and water. As for filling, pork and beef mixed, with cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, lots o' ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce... the veggie ones are the same minus meat. I don't know if they freeze well because we usually eat them all.

Yours look so good- you'll have to let us know what they are like on the repeat .

[Urbane Guerrilla]

I don't know if they freeze well because we usually eat them all.

[Clodfobble]

Reheated some in the microwave this afternoon--they came out good enough, but it was hard to get the outsides and middles to be a consistent temperature. Probably the oven or re-steaming them would have been better, but I was in a hurry.

Thanks for the compliments, everyone. I really was beaming with excitement while we were eating them because I've had several inedible disasters in the kitchen recently and I was feeling low on confidence. My next experiment will be onigiri!

[Beestie]

Ouch. Don't microwave bread/dough - turns it into rubber.

Put 'em in the oven at 200 for a bit.

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

My next experiment will be onigiri!

Wow. I'm hungry...

Really gonna have to try making those dumplings.

My black beans and rice are almost done.

Yes, I'm an early-eater.