i had wanted to share this step-by-step procedure from the beginning to end with a finished smiling pau/bao but blogger did not cooperate. I loaded all the pictures and was about to select them, boom, it took me somewhere and i lost all the pictures loaded. I am not going to load them again, cos blogger does not allow mutiple loading and i had to load, one at a time. I hope someone can help me load multiple like how it used to be. Anyway, so i decided to post this procedure by sections, starting from the starter. I started the starter on March 7th, 2012 when i made the first batch of smile pau/bao. I will keep a little or rather what was not needed and added 2 cups of pau flour and enough of water to make into a soft dough. I have found that i could make the pau/bao smile although the starter did not foam and smell sour.
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The starter dough started at the marked line. 250 gm pau flour with 125 ml to 200 ml water and 50 gm of leftover starter dough,, to make a soft dough. Knead dough until smooth and push it down flat onto a straight-sided container. Mark the height of the dough, cover the container and leave on the kitchen counter. |
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Starter dough has reached double after 2 days/48 hours and is ready. It took 2 days to reach this stage and it might reach this maturity if you are in the tropics. Monitor this progress and if it has reached this stage and you do not wish to make any paus/baos, leave this in the fridge. Bring this back to room temperature before proceeding to make pau/bao. |
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Bird's-eye view of surface of ready starter dough, Not much of happening but bubbles can be seen at the sides of container. This starter is not so acidic and sour, because it is a stiff starter, stiff starter will not be as sour as liquid starter. Although it does not smell sour, i do use a tiny drop of potassium carbonate & sodium bi-carbonate solution a.k.a.'kan sui' to contra the acidity. A word of caution though, a little too much, the finished pau/bao will turn brown. |
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This is how it looks like, spider web like, gluten strands developed. |
22 comments:
Lily, what is pau flour ? High gluten flour for bread or Hong Kong flour ? Can I use this recipe for big Pau ? As now the price of the big pau has gone up and they stuffed in less filling that make me feeling of making them myself!! I never use starter before until I saw your blog !! You mean keep a small piece of pau dough and freeze it until 2-3 days before I want to make pau, then do what you have done to let it mature. May be in Pg, 1 night will be ok ! I made the old fashion way taught by my mom by using high gluten flour. Thank you.
I always want to make smile pau. Can't wait for your upcoming post. Anyway you did mention 250g pau flour with 125 mol to 200g water and 50g leftover starter dough. What is '125 mol'? How to start for the '50g leftover stater dough'?
rebecca
pau flour is a type of flour which has a lower content of protein/gluten which is suitable to make soft paus. High gluten is good for making bread. if you want to make big pau, use the tien hsin pau recipe or any straight dough method as these pau dough is stronger and holds the filling better. Paus made with starter dough is softer.
vivian
as mentioned in my text, i am using leftover starter dough from my previous pau making. You will need to start a starter dough by mixing 300 gm pau flour, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp instant yeast and enough water to make a soft dough. Leave to ferment for 12 hrs until foamy and yeasty.
Lily, Please show us a picture of your label for the pau flour? Is it the same as bread flour? Why is yours come out so white? Thanks. Wendy
Hi
Can you explain what is 125mol please?
Pat
wendy
i have taken a pic of hong kong flour bag and will post asap
pat
my apologies, there is a typo, it should be ml. i have amended accordingly
wendy
i have posted a pic of the bag of which the hong kong flour came in.
Lily, my apologies, but evidently you really have a hard time.I was annoyed when I read "What is meant by 125mol"?
It evidently shows some people are just not here for cooking, or paying attention.
Please,everyone,before asking questions,do be sensible and at least offer like,"Is it 125ml?"
If you are here just to scrutinize recipes and ask questions,this is not the place.And for example if Lily decides to ignore you, this category of people will say she is proud. On the other hand, if she answers, it is just so ridiculous.
Perhaps food and diet has to do with such mentality?
Sorry I forgot to leave my contact behind in the post above where I mentioned some people should learn to use their heads before simply asking people questions here and there.
This is Paul here paulfoo@yahoo.com
paul
thanks, you are very thoughtful, if only everyone is like you. I have so very often answer these questions with a smile and give the benefit of the doubt that they really do not understand what they read and i appreciate that i have been informed of the typos.
how's cooking with you these days? have you tried this smile pau yet? give it a go.
Aunty Lily,
Hi there and how are you?Hope you are fine. I did not forget you wanted gaye choong's recipes and am still finding them (they belong to Mom and as usual she has tons and tons and stacks of recipes-God I dunno where or how she had that effort to paste and keep them) So far i only found a few cake recipes and nyonya kueh from gaye Choong. I think her kueh talam is good.
I think you are a genius, Aunty! Just looking at the photos-my! I will try(try only ,haha) this pau recipe this weekend. To tell the truth, I never make char siew pau because it will never turn out right.haha.
Grandma always made her pau using toddy and sunlight,but that is for birthdays and her paus are the traditional,sour type and not the HK types.
Aunty, thanks for the recipes!
paulfoo@yahoo.com
paul
you are very thoughtful and i will be happy if you could share some of your mother's collection of recipes. i have one of gaye's royal choc cake and it does not work for high altitude here, it worked so well in malaysia. I have to tweak to make it work.
those days of using toddy are a forgotten process, btw are toddy stalls still available?
Hi Lily, my name is Alexis. I'm, your new fans ^^ I have been reading all the post related to the char siew pau, im quite difficult to understand about the starter.
Your new starter was ferment for 2 days, and the previous post was only 4 hours. So is the starter same amount of ingredients or different ? Because the improve recipe was asked for 50g left over starter. I have not make any starter yet because i am confuse. Or I should make the first post about the starter, then get 50g of the starter and make a new stater to ferment 2 days? Please advise. :)
Regards,
Alexis (Alexis_0905@hotmail.com)
alexis
hi, for the first time, you would have to make the starter from the first post, then using 50 gm of this starter, you keep this starter alive by adding more flour and water, make paus with it, then keep 50 gm and continue to keep it alive and so on. If you do not make paus anymore like me, i will leave in the freezer and then when you want to make pau again, defrost, leave it at room temp, and follow this post.
Hi Lily,
Hope u r well and happy new year 2013! I am new here and I have some question about this recipe.
Can I have the first batch starter dough recipe? In your previous respond, you mentioned 300g flour with enough water may I know how much? Can I use milk instead of water?
Can I substitute pau flour with cake flour?
Thanks for your time and your wonderful post..
Regards,
Jesse
jesse
here is the recipe for the starter dough.
I am tweaking this recipe as the pau tends to stick to the teeth, so i will leave out the wheat starch and see how it goes.
yes, you can use cake flour instead of pau flour
flour tends to absorb liquid depending where and when it is used, so when i mention enough, you would have to add liquid in slowly and when it comes into a dough, you will be fine.
I have not used milk but i suppose it will be ok but the fermentation would have to be in the fridge and it take very much longer
Hi Lily,
Thanks for your prompt reply. I cant find any link for the starter dough do u mind to resend it to me? thanks~
Regards,
Jesse
jesse
my apologies, here is thye link http://lilysbest.blogspot.com/2012/03/smile-paubao.html
Hi Lily,Thanks you for your sharing, My name is Celine.
i am wondering how long can the leftover starter dough can keep for?
thank you very much.
celine
the starter can be kept in the fridge for 2 weeks in an airtight container and longer in the freezer. Bring them back to room temp before adding in more flour and water.
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