Porcupine Lotus Paste Steamed Buns

On my last trip home I bought a lot of cooking and baking books. One of them is Vegetarian Dim Sum by Chin Mun Chong. I am not a vegetarian but the pictures of the dim sum inside the book look so good that I just have to get it. I decided to make the Porcupine Pao from the book. I just love the look of these buns, aren’t they cute? Carlos helps me to cut some of the prickles of the porcupine. For a first timer I think he did a pretty good job. The skin of the buns texture is very much like the flower mantau. It is kind of chewy and not too fluffy. As for the filling I used lotus paste but you can replace it with kaya or even red bean paste.

Since this is the first time I am trying out the recipe from the book so I am not sure how good they are so I decided to half the original recipe.

Ingredients:

300 grm bao flour or Hong Kong flour
5 grm baking powder
6 grm yeast
55 grm sugar
1 tbsp of shortening
115 ml water (I need about 145 ml)

Fillings:

Lotus Paste or red bean paste

* Few drop of red food coloring

1. In a mixing bowl, mix all the dried ingredients until well combined. Slowly add in the water (you might need more or less and it all depend on the flour) until it form into a dough. Then add in the shortening. Mix until smooth.
2. In the meantime, take a tbsp of the lotus or bean paste and roll it into a ball. Make about 12-13 pieces.
3. Cover the dough and let it rest at a warm place for 2 hours. After 2 hours. Divide the dough into 12-13 pieces. Roll the dough into round balls and wrap in the fillings.


Carlos shaping the prickles
4. Shape the dough into oval shape. Using a sharp scissors snip the top part of the dough to form prickles to shape as a porcupine. Put two red dots at the head of the porcupine to form the eyes. Put the bun on top of the greaseproof paper and set aside to proof for 20 minutes.
5. Prepare a steamer with rapid boiling water, add a few drop of white vinegar to the water and steam the buns for 8 minutes. Serve warm.

Note: If you can't find bao flour or Hong Kong flour you can always replace it with regular all purpose flour.