Our Bapao recipe

It's been so long since I posted a recipe, but this one I had to share. They are one of the husband's favorite foods and I don't want to forget the recipe (given to me by my mother in law).

Bapaos (Bakpau or Bah-Pau) are small, round steamed breads filled with meat or chicken. Their origin is Chinese, through Indonesian cuisine they became popular also in The Netherlands. They are often eaten with sweet chilli sauce or ketchup, though this is not common practice in China. The name probably comes from the Chinese pao (包) that means bread.

Ingredients

1 kg. flour
14 gr (2x 7gr. packages) dried yeast
lukewarm water
1 tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt

400 gr. minced meat
1 onion
spices (seasoned salt, pepper, herbs)
Oyster sauce

Wax paper

What to do
Mix the flour with the yeast and sugar. Add lukewarm water to form the dough (first about 500 ml) then keep adding until you reach the correct consistency: meaning it does not stick to your hands and you can form balls. 

 Let the dough rise, about 1 hour, depending on room temperature.

In the meantime, cook the filling. Here you can get creative as you can use pretty much any filling you want, from what I read some people even do sweet bapaos. We sautéed the onion until it became transparent, added the meat and seasoned it with salt, pepper, herbs and oyster sauce.

Once the dough has risen make little flat disks, fill them with a small amount of meat and close them to form balls. Then attach a small piece of wax paper to make sure they do not open while being steamed.

Arrange the bapaos in a steamer pan and let them cook. It took about 15 minutes for us.
And voilà you are ready to enjoy! These warm little buns are a success with old and young, if my 3 year old will eat them you can be sure they are delicious.