Sunday, April 12, 2009

Chinese Pau recipe

This attempt was much better than the last time I made pau - this time, the pau skin was softer and more supple - and the dough was easier to handle. Most of the pau skin recipes that I googled used vegetable shortening as one of the ingredients - the ingredient which I wanted to avoid due to its trans-fat content (hydrogenated vegetable oil) which have been linked to a number of adverse health effects (yes, I am turning into a health freak - although I still find it hard to avoid sweet stuff :)). So, this time I have substituted olive oil for the vegetable shortening which I used in my previous recipe for pau skin. And the result was great - a softer pau skin. The recipe for pau skin as follows:

Ingredients (makes about 15 medium-sized paus):
- 250 gm warm water
- 1 1/2 tsp yeast
- 500 gm superfine flour
- 2 tsp double action baking powder
- 100 gm sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp olive oil

Steps:
1. Mix warm water with yeast and let it rest for 5 minutes.
2. Sieve flour and baking powder together into a mixing bowl and stir in sugar till well mixed.
3. Stir in salt to the flour mixture.
4. Pour yeast solution into flour mixture and knead to form a smooth dough. Ensure that there are no holes in the dough.
5. Divide dough into 15 equal portions.
6. Shape into rounds and cover dough with damp cloth and allow it to proof (to increase in volume) for 15 minutes at room temperature.
7. After 15 minutes, use a rolling pin to roll out a portion of dough such that the edges are thinner than the center part.
8. Place some filling in the center and wrap and pleat to form a pau.
9. Place pau on a piece of greaseproof paper and let it proof for 20 minutes at room temperature.
10. Steam pau over rapidly boiling water for 10 minutes (I read from somewhere that if you add 2 tbsp of white vinegar to the boiling water before steaming the pau, the pau will be white in colour; I didn't try it out this time, though).

I made 2 types of fillings for the pau. For one of the fillings, I stir-fried some sardines with onions, garlic, chopped tomatoes, and some dry chillies. For the other filling, I stir-fried green peas with baby potatoes and dried garlic in oyster and dark and light soy sauce.

5 comments:

Pravina said...

Hi Geeta,

Interesting recipe...but was just wondering...when do u include the olive oil? Wld appreciate your reply. Thank you.

Prav :)

Anonymous said...

what a beautiful pau!!!!!!


cat.

AGAPE said...

Hi Prav, you can include the olive oil before adding the yeast mixture to the flour mixture. Good luck in your pau-making quest. It's exciting!

AGAPE said...

Thanks, Cat :)

Anonymous said...

Good Job! Really not easy to make pau and get the correct texture. I will try yours.

Shah, Canada