Baked Pork Buns, My BUNdle of Joy

I have a confession to make. My favorite meat to cook with is pork. As boring as it sounds, I make pork stewed in soy sauce at least once every 2 weeks. For variation, sometimes pork belly is used or pork feet for that gelatinous texture. I don't know why, the first day of pork stew, it's still good just eaten with steamed rice. The second day, I started to get the itching to make something else out of it. And most of the time, I relented and make pork buns using the leftovers.

Instead of steaming them as usual, I baked them.

Pork stewed soy sauce, it sounds simple and yes, it is. Normally, I just put pork (usually 50% pork belly and 50% pork shoulder) in the pot, covered with sweet soy sauce, salt and pepper and cook it on low heat until tender (could take 6 hours, depends on the cut, or you can use slow cooker too). When I'm feeling fancy, I add mashed garlic and five spice powder. Then you can use the leftovers, chop them up, stir fry with minced garlic, for the filling.

 

For the dough:

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp softened butter
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1/2 tsp white vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sift flour & baking powder into a bowl, stir in sugar and rub in the butter with fingertips until evenly distributed. Add water & vinegar, knead until the dough is soft and supple. Shape into a smooth ball, cover and rest the dough for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 to 10 even portions. Roll out on a floured board to a circle approximately 4 inches in diameter. Put the filling in the middle, gather edges together, fold and pleat to make a neat joint. Twist dough to seal. Put each bun, pleat downwards on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown (mine is not so golden brown, because I forget the wash..)

True meaning of bundle of joy..