Hua Juan/Scallion Buns

I love dim sum. Growing up I would treasure holidays because that meant I could go with my aunt to have dim sum during a weekday at Lung Fung Restaurant. My favorite thing to eat is pork buns: fluffy dough encasing soft pork in a sweet sauce. Back home they are called ham pao. I have tried many recipes for the bun dough, never finding a recipe that produced buns with the right texture or flavor. Finally I came across this one. The dough in this recipe is exactly like my memory of those ethereally fluffy pork buns.

Now that I have found the perfect recipe for the buns I will have to start working on a recipe for the soft roasted pork. But I am in no rush, my freezer is stocked with these delicious scallion buns.

Do you have a favorite dim sum dish? I’d love to hear your favorites.

Hua Juan/Scallion Buns

The recipe is from The Cooking of Joy: thank you Joy for sharing this recipe that totally brought back childhood memories! I doubled the amount of the glaze. I wanted to make sure I had enough to fill every little crevice.

Buns:
1 full teaspoon of active dry yeast (3.5 grams)
3 cups flour
1 cup whole milk
6 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup canola oil

Glaze:
6 tablespoons sliced scallions
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons sesame oil

1. Heat your oven to lowest setting. Mine has a “warm” setting.
2. Heat the milk to 100°F-110°F. Stir in 1 tablespoon sugar and the yeast. Let stand 10 minutes, the mixture should be foamy.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the flour and sugar. Make a well in the center of the flour and add in the milk/yeast mixture and the oil. Stir until dough comes together. Turn out on counter and knead until consistency is uniform and silky.
4. Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with cloth. Turn oven off. Put bowl in the oven for 1 hour, or until dough doubles in volume.
5. Remove dough from oven and knead again for about 5 minutes. Divide dough into 12 pieces (about 60g or 2 ounces each).
6. Heat oven again to lowest setting. Roll each piece out into a 6 inch long oval form. With a knife, leaving about ½ inch at the top without cutting so that you can shape the buns more easily, cut about 5 long strips lenghtwise. Place about a teaspoon of glaze on top. Roll the dough strips into a rope and then twist it into a folded ribbon shape and tuck the edges under. Place each bun on a parchment paper square on a cookie sheet. Cover the cookie sheet with a moist kitchen towel. Turn the oven off. Put the buns into the oven to proof for 40 minutes to 60 minutes or until doubled in volume.
7. Steam for 13 minutes.
8. After steaming you can let them cool and freeze them. To re-heat place in steamer for 3-5 minutes, or cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 45 seconds.