EDIT: Important note that the meat filling quantities in the video are enough for TWO batches, or ~12 Baozi (because we were making two batches in the video). Should have halved eveything in the VO but forgot to :( It's been scaled down in the accompanying written recipe, apologies for any confusion! Hey guys, a few notes: 1. After scratching our head for a while trying to tackle the minced pork’s mealy texture problem, we found that some “tough” cuts like shoulder would have a much better texture when ground or minced, thanks to that one commenter from Europe for pointing out the direction. 2. Portion size in the recipe. The 140g pork makes a filling for about 10-12 baozi, (depending on how heavy handed you’re when scooping the filling), and that is the two batches showed in the video. Each 100g flour makes 5 baozi, meaning each baozi uses 20g flour. This way, you can calculate how much flour you need depends on how many baozi you want. Let’s say if you want 15 baozi, which would be 15 X 20 = 300g flour. Then follow the baker’s percentage of 50-55% water, 1% yeast, 1% salt, and 8% sugar for the rest of the measurement. Although for the laomian sourdough batch, it was 6 baozi in the video because there’s that 20g extra laomian we put in at the beginning. So the final dough yields 6 wrappers that’s 30g each. 3. After we mix everything in the filling, we add in an extra 2 tsp of water. Generally speaking, you want to add water at an earlier stage during mixing so that the meat can absorb that liquid. But in this case, we need to make sure the filling isn’t too loose with all that oil adding in. So in our case, after the oil’s in and the filling still looked a bit dry, that’s when I decided to give it a bit more moisture. If your filling already looks loose after the oil - especially if you’re using vegetable oil then you probably don’t need that extra water. 4. If you can find pure pork fat instead of lard. Just chop them into 1cm-ish cubes, fry them together with the sliced ginger and scallion to render out the oil. Take the aromatics out when they’re golden brown and follow the same steps in the video. Mince the rendered pork fat cubes together when mincing the pork. 5. During testing, I minced up the Doubanjiang Sichuan chili bean paste, but it turns brown too easily and muffed up the final color. So I opted for mincing it later with the filling for a better color. That's all for now! Might edit some more notes in in a bit :)
@@philthompson5267 Just regular temperature for a sub-tropical place such as Thailand. Also you don't have to keep it near a heat source to proof the dough.
@@johnnychang4233 Yeah so long as you use shoulder is seems to work fine! For a meatball or something a little more demanding we still think the hand-mince from scratch is the way to go, but using these sorts of tougher, higher myosin cuts starting from ground seems to work alright :)
Really appreciating the alternative options like yeast rather than laomian or peanut oil instead of lard. Helps to make the recipes much more accessible! Thank you so much for your hard work.
I made this yesterday! It turned out really well! I've never made baozi before so the wrapping was a big learning curve. They weren't perfect but they were still tasty. Also, I attempted to make the laomian starter using leftover makgeolli (Korean rice wine) lees. It worked perfectly! I tried a few different ratios with flour and water and all of them produced an active sourdough culture within a week. And the texture of the dough was very similar to what I have had when eating baozi at restaurants so I think I was on the right track.
suggestion: could you guys maybe make a playlist of the recipes that use the laomian starter? if there are people (e.g. me) who are considering whether to jump into that project, it might be nice to have together in one place all of the ideas and suggestions of the various things you can do with it.
We definitely *will* one day, but I like to hit five videos before making a playlist :) Right now we’re at four: this, flaky Anshun baozi, the mantou from the sourdough video itself, and the *old* Char Siu bao video (which needs to be updated)
As a fan of bao [my cat's name is 包猫 Bao Mao 🥟🐱] **and** Sichuan spices, this recipe looks amazing!! I can't wait to make it for my next dim sum dinner party ❤
Ohh man I haven’t thought about these in decades and now I’m craving them something fierce. And 肉卷 too, the ones from my area had that same red oil stain. Pair that with a tea boiled egg, and it’s my favorite guilty pleasure breakfast. Thank you for the memories!
This may be totally off base, but if the issue with using a yeast dough of AP flour is too much gluten, what would happen if you mixed in some rice flour or the like (tapioca flour maybe?) with the AP flour? Not sure what proportion because I've never tried to make laomian starter so I don't know what the texture is supposed to be like....
I feel like the end result would be different, as rice flour "only" cuts the gluten but laomian does something more in terms of texture, it's so hard to elaborate, something like softer but chewier at the same time (apologies). Because if we only want a lower gluten then we could've just use cake flour (eg. char siu bao).
Ohhhh, Master's Dish is a new channel I haven't found yet. I definitely don't speak the language, but I'm looking forward to watching a bunch of these videos anyway.
In one of your earlier videos, you replied to a comment saying that you want to remake the hongyou recipe. Are you still planning on making this video? I'm searching for a good hongyou recipe and all the ones available either use some generic chili flakes or varieties that I simply cannot get outside of China. I have access to chaotianjiao, xiaomila, erjingtiao (not the best quality) and denglongjiao. Could you maybe suggest a good ratio for these chili types?
Yep we're still planning on this video. It's going to be an intense one though because we'll be going over many different varieties of Sichuan chili oil. In the meantime, Wang Gang's recipe is a good starting point. If I was in your exact position, I would use 75% denglongjiao and 25% xiaomila as a base, and then add some Korean or Kashmiri chili powder in the mix to amp up the color (which you'd be missing with erjingtiao). A few folks on our Patreon Discord swear by Guajillo as an Erjingtiao substitute - hits similar notes, so you could potentially do something like 40% denglong 35% guajillo 25% xiaomila
Hey there🤗long time watcher, first time commenter❤ Love all the videos and help...could you please do a video on Xiao Long Bao (I hope I spelled that right) I want to surprise my friend for his birthday🥳 I know got the dough right but the meat to gelatin mixture I cant figure out (I've been at it for 4 days 🥺 please help😅)
Hey there🤗long time watcher, first time commenter❤ Love all the videos and help...could you please do a video on Xiao Long Bao (I hope I spelled that right) I want to surprise my friend for his birthday🥳 I know got the I dough right but the meat to gelatin mixture I cant figure out (I've been at it for 4 days 🥺 please help😅) P.S I'm from a middle of nowhere town in South Africa so I don't have anyone close by to actually help someone that knows nothing
Probably dough's too soft, maybe try to cut down on water, or swap to a different flour (King Arthur is good if you're in the US). Overproofing may also be the issue, when the dough is over proofed, they tend to be too soft thus flat.
I tend to add a fair amount more water in the flour I use than specified here because the dough otherwise tears quite easily while kneading... not sure what the right balance is, so it does come out a little more flat than in this video... will try to avoid overproofing next time though
Personally I think you should change the recipe, and swap out the 5 spice for 13 spice instead, reason being is that the 5 spice isn't balanced enough for this recipe as the cinnamon content is too high in 5 spice, and when you are using pixian douban paste which is super salty, the high cinnamon content is overpowering and starts to ruin the flavour making it difficult to eat the buns after the first bun or 2. In a ideal world it's best to search out Sichuan peel, cassia bark, star anise, fennel, and cardamom and stir fry those but to cut out the hard work 13 spice works just as good. My view may be subjective, but as someone who is a massive lover of Sichuan cuisine and 1000s of hours using SIchuan flavours, I truly believe cinnamon belongs nowhere near most Sichuan dishes. If we are talking dried sausages then cinnamon is a god send lol
>cassia bark I'm a little confused? The 'cinnamon' that's used in Chinese cooking - and five spice powder - *is* cassia bark :) If the five spice you can buy is in super heavy on the cinnamon... absolutely feel free to swap it out for 13 spice or whatever five spice blend you enjoy (like, the five spice blend we get in China actually has eight spices haha)!
EDIT: Important note that the meat filling quantities in the video are enough for TWO batches, or ~12 Baozi (because we were making two batches in the video). Should have halved eveything in the VO but forgot to :( It's been scaled down in the accompanying written recipe, apologies for any confusion!
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. After scratching our head for a while trying to tackle the minced pork’s mealy texture problem, we found that some “tough” cuts like shoulder would have a much better texture when ground or minced, thanks to that one commenter from Europe for pointing out the direction.
2. Portion size in the recipe. The 140g pork makes a filling for about 10-12 baozi, (depending on how heavy handed you’re when scooping the filling), and that is the two batches showed in the video.
Each 100g flour makes 5 baozi, meaning each baozi uses 20g flour. This way, you can calculate how much flour you need depends on how many baozi you want. Let’s say if you want 15 baozi, which would be 15 X 20 = 300g flour. Then follow the baker’s percentage of 50-55% water, 1% yeast, 1% salt, and 8% sugar for the rest of the measurement.
Although for the laomian sourdough batch, it was 6 baozi in the video because there’s that 20g extra laomian we put in at the beginning. So the final dough yields 6 wrappers that’s 30g each.
3. After we mix everything in the filling, we add in an extra 2 tsp of water. Generally speaking, you want to add water at an earlier stage during mixing so that the meat can absorb that liquid. But in this case, we need to make sure the filling isn’t too loose with all that oil adding in. So in our case, after the oil’s in and the filling still looked a bit dry, that’s when I decided to give it a bit more moisture. If your filling already looks loose after the oil - especially if you’re using vegetable oil then you probably don’t need that extra water.
4. If you can find pure pork fat instead of lard. Just chop them into 1cm-ish cubes, fry them together with the sliced ginger and scallion to render out the oil. Take the aromatics out when they’re golden brown and follow the same steps in the video. Mince the rendered pork fat cubes together when mincing the pork.
5. During testing, I minced up the Doubanjiang Sichuan chili bean paste, but it turns brown too easily and muffed up the final color. So I opted for mincing it later with the filling for a better color.
That's all for now! Might edit some more notes in in a bit :)
Is the minced pork technique not requiring corn starch for velveting or the spatting massage to make it more bouncy texture?
"room temperature of 28c" yikes! thats a warm room!
@@philthompson5267 Just regular temperature for a sub-tropical place such as Thailand. Also you don't have to keep it near a heat source to proof the dough.
@@johnnychang4233 Yeah so long as you use shoulder is seems to work fine! For a meatball or something a little more demanding we still think the hand-mince from scratch is the way to go, but using these sorts of tougher, higher myosin cuts starting from ground seems to work alright :)
yeah... bangkok's not cold lol.
you get used to it though. room temps of 20C feel downright frigid to me these days haha@@philthompson5267
Really appreciating the alternative options like yeast rather than laomian or peanut oil instead of lard. Helps to make the recipes much more accessible! Thank you so much for your hard work.
Seconded!
I made this yesterday! It turned out really well! I've never made baozi before so the wrapping was a big learning curve. They weren't perfect but they were still tasty.
Also, I attempted to make the laomian starter using leftover makgeolli (Korean rice wine) lees. It worked perfectly! I tried a few different ratios with flour and water and all of them produced an active sourdough culture within a week. And the texture of the dough was very similar to what I have had when eating baozi at restaurants so I think I was on the right track.
suggestion: could you guys maybe make a playlist of the recipes that use the laomian starter? if there are people (e.g. me) who are considering whether to jump into that project, it might be nice to have together in one place all of the ideas and suggestions of the various things you can do with it.
We definitely *will* one day, but I like to hit five videos before making a playlist :) Right now we’re at four: this, flaky Anshun baozi, the mantou from the sourdough video itself, and the *old* Char Siu bao video (which needs to be updated)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Sounds like you need another recipe soon!
As a fan of bao [my cat's name is 包猫 Bao Mao 🥟🐱] **and** Sichuan spices, this recipe looks amazing!! I can't wait to make it for my next dim sum dinner party ❤
Haha *excellent* cat name. Is the family name "Bao" or "Mao"?
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I assume Mao is the family name, since they would all be Maos ;-)
@@TomWDW1 aha, they went with western naming conventions I see. makes sense :)
Ohh man I haven’t thought about these in decades and now I’m craving them something fierce. And 肉卷 too, the ones from my area had that same red oil stain. Pair that with a tea boiled egg, and it’s my favorite guilty pleasure breakfast. Thank you for the memories!
啊啊啊，隔着屏幕就能闻到香了~ 还有一种素的，是红油豆腐馅儿的，也别有一番风味~
呀呀呀，你来啦。广西也有这种包子吗？
有一种豆腐包，馅儿像麻婆豆腐一样，从外面看也像这样有红油浸透出来，好香~ @@ChineseCookingDemystified
I bet you'd enjoy the Taiwanese style rice balls as well, especially the ones with Bao fillings & with Sichuan chili oil
Fantuan are great! You can find them all across the mainland as well. What fillings are most common in Taiwan?
That's a good question, but I know that Taiwan also has onigiri (the Japanese kind) style ones & have seen a short somewhere about it
Because of this channel I just bought a granite pestle and mortar and a small bag of sichuan peppercorns. No regrets.
What a work of art
Made this yesterday and it was delicious! It was the first time I successfully made steamed buns. The only issue was that I only made 5 :(
The suggestion to microwave a tiny sample of the pork ror tasting is game-changing. I can't believe I never thought to do that!
Thank you so much for new content! Loving it.
The spots of chili oil on the bun reminds me of koi fish
That looked SO GOOD
Thank you for the differences in yeast note later on in the vid
Ugh, this looks so tasty! I'll admit that I actually do like chewier baozi, so I might try the yeast version.
cant wait to make this, thanks for the video.
This may be totally off base, but if the issue with using a yeast dough of AP flour is too much gluten, what would happen if you mixed in some rice flour or the like (tapioca flour maybe?) with the AP flour? Not sure what proportion because I've never tried to make laomian starter so I don't know what the texture is supposed to be like....
It’s possible and I’ve eaten bao made with a bit of rice flour. But I don’t know the proportions. Might have to research it.
I feel like the end result would be different, as rice flour "only" cuts the gluten but laomian does something more in terms of texture, it's so hard to elaborate, something like softer but chewier at the same time (apologies). Because if we only want a lower gluten then we could've just use cake flour (eg. char siu bao).
Ohhhh, Master's Dish is a new channel I haven't found yet. I definitely don't speak the language, but I'm looking forward to watching a bunch of these videos anyway.
love these vids, thanks for what you do
Is it possible to use lye water instead of the baking soda for these laomian recipes?
As always thank you for the video
You're welcome!
@@Savko_TTV you're welcome
Ohhh I can’t wait to make this 😋
hm, I wonder if I might could try bacon grease for the chili oil. Lol, worth a shot
Looks awesome, I'm going to make them. If I want to save some, is it better to freeze before or after steaming?
Before and steam from frozen to cook
In one of your earlier videos, you replied to a comment saying that you want to remake the hongyou recipe. Are you still planning on making this video? I'm searching for a good hongyou recipe and all the ones available either use some generic chili flakes or varieties that I simply cannot get outside of China. I have access to chaotianjiao, xiaomila, erjingtiao (not the best quality) and denglongjiao. Could you maybe suggest a good ratio for these chili types?
Yep we're still planning on this video. It's going to be an intense one though because we'll be going over many different varieties of Sichuan chili oil. In the meantime, Wang Gang's recipe is a good starting point.
If I was in your exact position, I would use 75% denglongjiao and 25% xiaomila as a base, and then add some Korean or Kashmiri chili powder in the mix to amp up the color (which you'd be missing with erjingtiao). A few folks on our Patreon Discord swear by Guajillo as an Erjingtiao substitute - hits similar notes, so you could potentially do something like 40% denglong 35% guajillo 25% xiaomila
Are these suitable for freezing before cooking?
This is good and all, but when are you planning to give us that duck tongue “bar food” style recipe?
Delicious.
As a born and raised sichuanese, never heard of chilli oil baozi.
Hey there🤗long time watcher, first time commenter❤ Love all the videos and help...could you please do a video on Xiao Long Bao (I hope I spelled that right) I want to surprise my friend for his birthday🥳 I know got the dough right but the meat to gelatin mixture I cant figure out (I've been at it for 4 days 🥺 please help😅)
Hey there🤗long time watcher, first time commenter❤ Love all the videos and help...could you please do a video on Xiao Long Bao (I hope I spelled that right) I want to surprise my friend for his birthday🥳 I know got the I dough right but the meat to gelatin mixture I cant figure out (I've been at it for 4 days 🥺 please help😅) P.S I'm from a middle of nowhere town in South Africa so I don't have anyone close by to actually help someone that knows nothing
mmmmgggg they look like chili cows 😋
My chinese girlfriend hates spicy food, so I'm making these just for me lmao
Yum❤
Why do my baozi always come out flat like 馅儿饼?
Dough too soft?
Probably dough's too soft, maybe try to cut down on water, or swap to a different flour (King Arthur is good if you're in the US). Overproofing may also be the issue, when the dough is over proofed, they tend to be too soft thus flat.
I tend to add a fair amount more water in the flour I use than specified here because the dough otherwise tears quite easily while kneading... not sure what the right balance is, so it does come out a little more flat than in this video... will try to avoid overproofing next time though
Chili Oil Bao - also called "Herpes Bun" for it's iconic spotty looks.
What a treat!
❤
🙏🙏🙏
Personally I think you should change the recipe, and swap out the 5 spice for 13 spice instead, reason being is that the 5 spice isn't balanced enough for this recipe as the cinnamon content is too high in 5 spice, and when you are using pixian douban paste which is super salty, the high cinnamon content is overpowering and starts to ruin the flavour making it difficult to eat the buns after the first bun or 2. In a ideal world it's best to search out Sichuan peel, cassia bark, star anise, fennel, and cardamom and stir fry those but to cut out the hard work 13 spice works just as good.
My view may be subjective, but as someone who is a massive lover of Sichuan cuisine and 1000s of hours using SIchuan flavours, I truly believe cinnamon belongs nowhere near most Sichuan dishes. If we are talking dried sausages then cinnamon is a god send lol
It's possible they used 5 spice because it's more accessible. I agree the cinnamon overpowers.
>cassia bark
I'm a little confused? The 'cinnamon' that's used in Chinese cooking - and five spice powder - *is* cassia bark :)
If the five spice you can buy is in super heavy on the cinnamon... absolutely feel free to swap it out for 13 spice or whatever five spice blend you enjoy (like, the five spice blend we get in China actually has eight spices haha)!