Baked Manapua (Baked Char siu bao)

My good friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl a couple of days ago. Congrats, Mr & Mrs. O!!! Instead of bringing her flowers and balloons, I decided to make her some baked manapuas (it's her favorite dim sum treat). I remember after my sister gave birth, all she wanted was food, and she wanted it all the time. So I thought this was fitting.

This recipe came from a dim sum class that I took a couple of years ago from the Adult Education class at Kaimuki High School. Sad to say though, that the manapua recipe was the only thing I liked from the class.

This is a really good recipe for the dough and also for the char siu (roast pork) filling. The bread is nice and soft and the filling is very flavorful. I made this a few times already and everyone seems to like it a lot.

Baked Manapua
from Dim Sum class at Kaimuki High School

1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup warm water

1. Mix 2 cups of flour, salt and sugar into a large bowl. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the shortening until the flour resembles coarse meal.

2. In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup warm water with the yeast and let it soften for 5 minutes.

3. Put the milk and the 1/3 cup of warm water together, then stir in the yeast mixture. Then add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and mix well.

4. Add the remaining 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cup of flour until dough forms into a sticky mass. Turn the dough out onto a well floured board. Knead 5 to 8 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Adding flour as needed to prevent sticking.

5. Grease a large bowl. Place the dough in the bowl and turn it to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise in a warm draft free place for about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

6. Divide the dough into 16 portions. Flatten dough into a circle with fingers. Place a heaping spoon of filling onto the center. Gather the edges of the dough together and pinch firmly to seal in the filling. Put the bun, pinched side down on a piece of parchment paper and onto a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and filing. Let the buns rise for 30 minutes. Brush buns with egg wash and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Char Siu Filling for manapua

1 cup water
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp garlic salt
1 lb char siu, chopped into small pieces
1/4 of a large onion, diced
2 stalks of green onion, chopped
pepper to taste

1. Mix water, sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornstarch, and garlic salt together in a bowl, set aside. In a pan, saute char siu and onion together for about 5 minutes. Re-stir the sauce mixture and add it to the char siu and onion. Continue stirring and cooking until sauce thickens. Turn off heat and add the green onion and pepper to taste.