HOMEMADE Siopao

Siopao is a Filipino favorite comfort food and snack. It  is a steam white bun or dough with meat and boiled egg as its filling. Filipinos learned to make this food from the Chinese many many years ago before the Spaniards. When you will buy Siopao in the bakery back in Philippines, you can see that the texture of it is so fine and it has a super white color, just like a cotton. Bakeries in Philippines are using super fine and super white flours and they have a modern dough machine that makes the dough so fine. My homemade siopao is for sure not as fluffy and white as the siopao from the bakery back home but it taste exactly the same. Everyone has it's own way of making it and this is my own way.

 I learned to make siopao back in Philippines because my Aunties used to sell siopao for snacks.  I have been making siopao since I moved to Norway for 7 yrs ago . And  I got an electric steamer as a gift from my husband's parents and it made all the work easier for me. This is truly a favorite of my family.

Ingredients:

This will make 12 siopaos


For the dough:

4 cups of flour
1 1/4 cup of warm water (40*C)

1 1/2 tbsp yeast  (some yeast has a very intense/stronger effect, so pls. read the package of ur yeast and follow the  exact amount that you are going to use for 4 cups of flour)

2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp oil

For the filling:

1 kilo pork meat marinated in 1 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp oyster sauce (sliced thinly or in cubes)
2tbsp oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 part of big onion, diced
scallion, sliced
1 tbsp soy sace
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp cornstarch diluted in 1/4 cup water
4 hard boiled eggs ( 1 egg is divided into 3)

salt, pepper, garlic powder and sugar (optional, to adjust the taste)
Filipino siopao taste a little bit sweet.

Procedure:

For the dough:


Mix flour,salt and sugar in a bowl  using your hands or a kitchen machine.
Melt the dry yeast with a little bit of warm water.

Add the melted yeast, remaining warm water and oil in to the flour mixture.

Mix all the ingredients for 5-10 minutes or until the dough looks very fine.

Let it rise for 30 minutes ( or until it doubles it's size)  in a  room temperature.

After 30 minutes, take out the dough from the bowl and use some extra flour if the dough will stick into your hands.

Divide the dough into 2. Make a long sausage like shape for each dough.

Divide each sausage-like dough into 6 pieces, in that way  we can make 12 pieces of siopao dough. Form  12 doughs into a ball.

These are ready for filling.



Making the Filling:


Procedure:

 Heat the oil in a pan and saute  garlic and onion. Add marinated meat and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Add soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir.

Add the cornstarch diluted in water, this will thicken the sauce. Simmer for 2 minutes and add the scallion. Set aside to cool.

Filling the dough:


Flaten the dough using a rolling pin but make sure that it will not be so thin because our filling is so juicy and there is a tendency that the dough will open up.

Lay the flaten dough in to your hand, put a slice of egg in the center and put 2 tbsp of meat filling. Close the dough by gathering together all the sides around it to pack the filling.

Here is another way of packing the filling.

Just gather all the 4 sides of the dough in the center and close...turn the dough upside down.

Make a perfect ball by massaging around the dough using your palms.

Put the siopao in a square parchment paper with the closed part under. Let it rise for 15 minutes and steam for 20 minutes.

Here are my siopao after 20 minutes of steaming:)

Look at that juicy filling..yummyy!