Breakfest Baozi (Bacon, Sausage and Eggs Filling)

Baozi or Chinese steamed buns consist of a small piece of dough wrapped around a filling and then steamed to cook the outside dough. this staple food of Chinese and many variations across the far east are still very novel and new in the western world yet to take on there popularity it has as a street food back home. i am fascinated by them and find them absolutely delicious would urge you to try to make them and if you have a China town in your Capital City look for them from street dealers there.

as i mentioned before there are also variations of almost the entirely the same bun but go by different names in different cultures for example ;
Nikuman, the Japanese variant
Bánh bao, the Vietnamese equivalent
and many more.

You should be aware that this is a quite time consuming process and be prepare to take all day with it.

Making the Dough

Ingredients:

300ml warm water
1 packet yeast
2 tbsp sugar
450g flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
sesame seed oil

Picture 1. All the ingredients laid out

Picture 2. Place the flour in a bowl

Picture 3. add the yeast

Picture 4. add the Sugar

Picture 5. add the salt

Picture 6. add the sesame seed oil

Picture 7. add the water

Picture 8 form a soft dough

Preparing the Filling

It is essential that bacon and the sausages are cooked at this stage (the steaming process might not properly cook them), so please cook them at Gas mark 4 (180C or 350F) for 30 minutes in the oven. Thank you to "HollandJim" and "dingonv" for pointing out my mistake.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Sesame seeds heaped
2 Tbsp Sesame oil
2 Spring onions finely chopped
2 Garlic finely chopped

6 Bacon rashers
6 Sausage

Ingredients:

Picture 1. ingredients laid out

Picture 2. get out a baking tray

Picture 3. add sesame seed oil

Picture 4 add soy sauce and honey

Picture 5 add chopped vegetables

Picture 6 slice the bacon in to small bite sized chunks

Picture 7. start to heat up the marinade

Picture 8. Add the bacon and sausages to the hot marinade and then place in the oven at gas mark 4 for 30 min until cooked

Boiling the Eggs

Ingredients:

6 Eggs

Picture 1. get a pan ready

Picture 2. boil water in the pan

Picture 3. add eggs to boiling water boil for 3 minutes

Picture 4 drain water

Picture 5. de-shell eggs under running cold water

Picture 6. Slice each egg in two

Working the Dough

Picture 1. after leaving the dough to rise for an hour an a half punch it down

Picture 2 -3. shape the dough on a floured surface

Picture 4. form it in to a sausage shape

Picture 5 -6. spilt it until you get 12 small balls of dough

Forming the Baozi

you need to also cut out 12 pieces of baking paper one for each dough ball and set then aside at this point

Picture 1. place each dough ball on each piece of paper

Picture 2. flatten the dough and place on egg half upon it

Picture 3. place half of a sausage and some bacon bits on top of and by the side of the egg

Picture 4. place a teaspoon for baked beans on top ( this optional )

Cooking the Baozi

Picture 1 - 2. fill a large saucepan with water and let boil

Picture 3. place either a Colander or a place sitting about the boiling water level in the sauce pan

Picture 4. -5. place 4 baozi on the plate and steam for 15 minutes with the top on

The Filling that i have Choice for this particular baozi is what i would consider a full English breakfast, however if you like some slightly more traditionally fillings

Beef and cabbage filling

Chicken and Chive filling

Plain technically this is just called Mantou as it contains no filling