Bao

Ingredients

• Bread dough
• 2 packages yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup milk, heated to lukewarm
• 4.25 cups regular flour
  
• Filling
• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 green onions
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbsp cold water
• 2 tbsp liquid chicken stock (for the beef)
  
• 2 more tbsp dark soy sauce (for the beef)
  
• 1 tbsp dry sherry (for the beef)
  
• 1/5 tsp honey (for the beef)
  
• 3/4 tsp salt (for the beef)
  
• 1 large garlic clover, crushed or chopped (for the beef)

To make the dough:
Mix yeast into water and then add the sugar. Allow to stand for a while. Heat the milk up for about 30 seconds in the microwave, or until it feels warm. Add the milk to the water and yeast.
Make sure the milk is not too hot. This is very important.
Stir in the flour and knead until smooth. Place the dough on the counter and cover with a greased mixing bowl (make sure it's a pretty big one). Allow to rise until the dough has doubled in bulk, about thirty minutes. When done rising, punch the dough down and let rise for another 20 minutes until the bowl.
To make the filling:
While the dough is rising, prepare the filling. Put the beef (make sure it's either fresh or thawed) in a frying pan with all the ingredients labeled (for the beef). Cook until the beef is looking close to done. Add the other filling ingredients. Add more cornstarch as needed. Allow to cool.
To put them together:
Punch the dough down and knead for 1 minute. Pinch off a piece of dough about half the size of your fist. Press them into 4-5" rounds. Put an appropriate amount of filling in the center of the round of dough. With your fingers, gather the edges of the dough and pinch them together in the middle as best you can. Pinch the dough so it will hold. Place the filled bun pinched side down on a square piece of wax paper. Put in a bamboo steamer. Place buns a few inches apart, because they will expand during the steaming. If they stick together, it's no big deal. When steamer basket is full, cover the steamer with a lid and allow the buns to rise until not quite doubled in size (30 minutes). Steam the buns for 15 minutes.

Thoughts: This was hella complicated. The original recipe balls for barbecued pork, but we used ground beef instead. The original wants you to marinate the pork for several hours before cooking it up and putting it in the bao. That would have given them more flavor, which Dan says the bao definitely needed. The beef was still good, but not as good as BBQ pork would have been.
Next time we would let the dough rise for the full time. We cut the first rise short by half and hour. The dough was a little dense. We also overcooked the beef a little bit. Next time we should stop short of the full cook time because they cook a little extra in the steamer. Dan also thinks the dough could use a little more salt. Dan thinks that chicken would also be a good filler. You can always do this with vegetables too, if you WANT. Cabbage would be a good addition.

Disaster Index: 2/10