The Bakinglady 

When I go home to my parents in Surrey, no visit would be complete without an excursion to Wing Yips Chinese supermarket and the little instore bakery. They make THE BEST Cantonese pork buns with a sticky sugar glaze and filled with unctuous nuggets of BBQ pork and its been my mission for a long time to create these succulent morsels so I can enjoy them more than once or twice a year.   

Today I finally succumbed to my cravings and recreated the soft, sweet brioche inspired dough buns baked with succulent centres of Char sui BBQ pork. I hope you enjoy making and eating them every bit as much as I did....

(makes

What you need

For the dough

8g dried yeast

40g warm water- you need to weigh this on your digital scales

1 teaspoon sugar

450g strong bread flour

115g caster sugar

1 medium egg

80g butter

1 teaspoon salt

100g water- you need to weigh this as well

For the pork filling

850g pork fillet

4 tablespoons Chinese BBQ sticky sauce (I used Blue Dragon)

3 tablespoon Char Sui sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee)

3 tablespoons honey

To glaze

1 egg yolk

1 ½ tablespoons caster sugar

1 tablespoon water

What you do

Start by marinating the pork in the BBQ sauce for 2 hours in an oven proof dish then cover with tin foil and bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes or until the pork is tender and cooked all the way through, leave too cool then cut into small 1cm dice, mix with the Char sui sauce and the honey then cover with cling film or food wrap and keep in the fridge till required.

Make the dough

Place the 40g of warm water, the yeast and the teaspoon of sugar into the mixing bowl of a food mixer and leave for 10 minutes in a warm place until the yeast is frothy.

Add the egg, butter, 100g of water and then the flour, followed by the salt, using a dough hook blend all the ingredients together on a low speed for 2 minutes then increase the speed to medium for a further 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth, very stretchy and just slightly sticky at the end, if it feels a little dry add a touch of water and if it feels very sticky add a little flour.

Divide the dough into 8 equal sized balls and squash each out on a work surface ( you shouldn’t need to use any additional flour but if you do use as little as possible) the circles should be about 18cm across with slightly thinner edges (about 2cm in from the edge should be thinner)

 divide the pork filling amongst the flattened circles then pinch the edges into the middle to form little parcels, make sure you seal and pinch them well to ensure the filling doesn’t leak, roll the balls into a slight sausage shape then place each sausage onto a small square of baking parchment. Place the buns onto baking sheets leaving plenty of room for them to grow.

Preheat the oven to 80c or 60c for a fan oven and place a tray of boiling water in the bottom to create steam. Place the buns into the oven then turn the heat off, keeping the door closed for 50-60 minutes to allow the buns to proove to double their size.

Once they are doubled in size remove the water tray and the buns and heat the oven to 180c or 160c for a fan oven and bake the buns for 15 minutes. Make the glaze by beating the egg yolk, sugar and water together and as soon as they come out of the oven brush with the glaze to give a lovely shine.

Serve hot or cold