
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.
48 comments:
I like these...they are cute.
aww they are sooooo cute!!! hehe
Whah....so pretty and cute!
So so cute! Too cute to eat it!
They are too cute to be true...
Hey! I saw this in the recipe book too! So cute and so adorable.... no heart to take a bite! haha....
Ha ha ha, so cute. You are very artistic!
They are absolutely adorable.So sayang to makan..lol!Carlos tolong you buat,he makan tak?
wow.. i was wondering how to do the porcupine shapes and then when i scrolled down, i saw what u did.. :) great!
lovely porcupines... Agree with Shereen ...so sayang to makan..
Ahhhh~~~~
They're soooo cute!
They look so good too...
What a great idea ^^ Lovely photos
So cute la Gert, how nice of Carlos to help you out and have fun with baking. Aaron, issh....tunngu makan je! But he's always willing to do the dishes for me so I have no complains!
so cute, how to eat them up??? :D
Too cute to be eaten, Gert!! And they look fluffy and soft too. :)
oh dear so cute!!
So cute :)
Carlos is so nice to help you in the kitchen.
I wish my Mike will help me one day :)
Oh my...those Porcupine Pao are just too cute to eat. You are good Gert!
Hi Mrs Carlos....
So comel (cute) porcupine tu...
sayang nak makan....
I always follow your blog but these beuties made me enter the comment page for the first time. looks lovely and very neat presentation.
I've tried making bread with porcupine shapes but I couldn't get nice long/sharp edges like you. After looking at your pics, I'm definitely going to try steaming some buns one day.
OMG, this is lovely! Too cute to be eaten...I'll rather keep in the showcase...hehe! Amazed with ur skills ya! ;)
SO CUTE!
Gert,they are so cute !!! And Carlos is a good helper :))
Gert, they are super cute!! and I like this series of photos, very nice!
Wow!! they look so cute!
http://padhuskitchen.blogspot.com
WOW!! They are really cute *.*
These are so cute! I love making foods into animal shapes. You mentioned using Hong Kong or bao flour...is it called something else? I have asian supermarkets near me but I don't know what kind of flour I'm looking for.
They are too cute to be eaten! Lovely!
So cute! I really love these little steamed buns... so pretty to serve too!
Those are too cute!
Gert
What a nice helper you have + nice porcupines too.
Melanie
Gert,I wanna some too!! wow!! Carlos is so hard working huh,somemore creative with his skill! must sayang him oooooo...
Too lovely to eat! My boy will like this:D
they are soooooo cute!! sayang nak makan...
Too cute, too cute!
Does porcupine-style means more flour(and bun "skin") than filling?
Thank you everyone for all your kind comments. By the way, Carlos only help me cut 3 of the buns and after that he told me too much work and ran away ha ha ha....I did the rest.
Blessed Homemarker, the first few that I cut it not nice either but the cuts look better as I go along. I guess practice makes perfect :)
Kirbie, I got the flour from Asian store. The brand is Kimbo and has a picture of bao on the packet. If you can find it you can just use regular flour.
They look great and I bet they taste even better! I wish I knew where to get bao flour from - your buns are so fluffy and white! Regular plain flour here in UK makes buns an unappetising yellow/grey colour.
Gert, these lotus paste-filled buns look so adorable! It'd be hard on me to eat them up! Hahaha! But hey, they look very well done! The shape just holds well even after steaming!
Three? Not bad, eh! I was wondering who was the photographer for the "snipping baos" process ... Now, I can guess better ... Hahaha! So, did Carlos eat these buns? He likes it? Lotus paste?
These are soooo cute. I wish I have the patient to wait for 2 hours. Cute things always take time. Nice job!
Oh they are so cute..must be so popular with kids!
These are so cute!
These look adorable!
the baos are so cute, dun ve heart to swallow them :P
Gertrude,
These are adorable buns. I can't find ready to use lotus paste here :(
These are great for kids school parties.
Plum Leaf, thank you. Maybe the next time you steam the buns you can add a few drops of vinegar to the water. Someone told me it will produce lighter color buns.
Pei-Lin, thank you. Carlos did the snipping and I took the pictures ha ha..
FC88, thank you.
3 hungry tummies, yea I am sure kids would love these.
Meeso, thank you.
Tasteofbeirut, thanks
Bakericious, thanks.
Tuty, thank you. You can always use red bean paste for this or even coconut fillings.
Thanks for sharing! These are super adorable!!
Cindy, you are welcome.
Hi there. I don't have bao flour or HK flour. In US, we have all-purpose flour, bread flour, cake flour and self-rising flour. Which flour would you recommend to use to make this Porcupine Lotus Paste Steamed Buns?
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