Siopao - Steamed Buns

I burnt my fingers with these buns. Steamed buns or Siopao in the Philippines is usually filled with either Chicken/Pork Asado or Bola-Bola (Meatballs) but since I'm not really good at cooking and this is my first time making Siopao, I filled mine with Bukayo - strips of candied young coconut. The result was a very light, soft buns that was worth the painful sting on my fingers.


Ingredients
1 c. warm water
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. yeast
3 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 t. salt
2 tbsp. oil

Procedure
Dissolve yeast in water, add sugar, salt, oil and 1/4 c. flour. Let stand until bubbly. Add remaining flour and mix until dough holds together. Place dough on a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in size.

Punch down and turn dough onto a lightly floured board and knead for a minute. Divide the dough into two and form each into a log. Cut each log into 6-7 pieces and roll into a ball. Take one ball, flatten it with your hands, pulling the sides to form a circle. Place filling in the center and pull up the sides and twist at the top to seal.

Place each bun, sealed side down on a wax paper. Let buns rise for another 30 minutes then cook them in a steamer for about 12 to 15 minutes.

Siopao can also be made with baking powder as the leavening agent or both yeast and baking powder. The result is a little on the cakey side, springy and tend to dries up quickly. Its the kind of siopao sold almost everywhere. I like that texture in puto-pao or mantao (they have no filling) but for siopao I prefer them leavened only with yeast like the one found mostly in chinese dimsum shop.