Buns - Char Siew and Luncheon meat (SPAM) with cheese

Buns (the food kind). They comes in many different kind of fillings - luncheon meat (SPAM), sausage, red bean, curry, otah, etc. I always liked the soft and fluffy texture of the bun paired with the fillings. It brought back memories every time I eat one. I had them when I had school outings, church outdoor events and as afternoon snacks. 

 

Today, I tried my hands on making them at home. I used the char siew bought from the market, a can of luncheon meat and some shredded mozzarella cheese. You can change the filling for the buns to anything you like, for example, curry chicken, tuna and onion or Nutella. :)

Char Siew Buns (makes 10)

Ingredients:

198g fresh milk

300g bread flour

24g sugar

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp yeast
15g butter, room temperature

Directions:

1. Measure all ingredients, leaving out butter, into the mixing bowl of the mixer. Using a dough hook, mix it for 15 min. On my Kenwood mixer - speed 3.
2. Then add butter into the dough and mix for another 15 min. When you just add the butter, the mixture looked soupy but not to worry, just let the machine run and the dough will come together.
3. Place the dough into lightly oiled bowl, covered and let rise for 1 1/2 hours or until dough double in size.
4. Gently remove the dough from the bowl and place on lightly floured surface and divide dough into 50g portions. Let dough rest for 10 min.
5. Take a dough and using a rolling pin or your palm to flatten into a round disk. Take a tablespoon of char siew filling, place at in the center of the disk. Wrap the dough around filling and pinch the dough to seal it.
6. After making all the buns, place them 5 cm apart, as they will expand as they proof.
7. Apply the egg wash on the surface of buns. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the top of buns.
8. Place the buns in a moist, warm place or cover with a damp cloth for 50 min.
9. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
10. Place the buns into the oven and reduce the temperature of oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Baked for 15 - 20 min or until surface of buns are golden brown.
11. Once out of oven, brush the surface of the buns with melted butter.
12. Let cool and keep buns in air tight container. Keep the buns not longer than 2 days.
 

Char Siew Mixture

I bought the char siew from the market and it usually comes with a pack of sauce. I usually discard it as it contains lots of red food coloring and not very tasty too. I made the following sauce to mix into the store bought char siew.

Ingredients:

(B) 3 Tbsp honey

(B) 3 Tbsp Hoisin sauce

(B) 3 Tbsp light soy sauce

(B) 1/2 tsp five spice powder

(B) 1/2 tsp sesame oil

(B) 1 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

1 Tbsp Corn starch + 1 Tbsp water

Directions:

1. Place all the (B) ingredients into a small pot and bring to a light simmer.
2. Add in corn starch mixture into the sauce and stir constantly until sauce thickened. 
3. Stir the sauce into the cubed char siew until they are all coated. Set aside to be used.

Heart Shaped Buns

Using the same dough, I also made some heart shaped luncheon meat and cheese buns. After coating the dough with the egg wash, place some cubed luncheon meat and cheese on the curved portion of the dough. Pictures below showed how I formed the heart shape buns.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4 - cut a slit in the dough

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

After brushing with egg wash, top it with the ingredients. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let it rise for 50 mins and it will look like what I had in the picture.

 

Happy baking!!

To be in the loop, click 'like' on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/incookiehaven?fref=nf