PAO HEDGEHOG

Assalamualaikum, hi, today i will share a delicious recipe, people said this is Chinese food, but now a days we saw this in every country corner over the world, yup PAO, based on the filling some people called siopaou, bakpaou, chicken pau, in Indonesia we called this bakpao, actually "bak" has a meaning : its pork , but in Indonesia bakpau its not only pork, there is chicken, beef, or mung beans paste, red beans paste, black beans paste, but sometime also they will make it without any filling, plain, and they will eat with sauce or they will substitute the rice with pao.

Today i will make pao with mung beans paste filling with a little touch of art, hehehehe, "hedgehog pao", first time i made this shape of pao, my husband was laughed at me, seeing happy, and he will asked me to serve it any time, okay lets share this recipe and how.

 INGREDIENT:

 Dough : 

1 package (11 gr) active / instant dry yeast 

1 cup ( 250 ml ) Luke warm water

2 tbs oil ( vegetable oil, olive oil, or coconut oil ), prepare more for greasing a large bowl

3 cups all purpose flour ( i used 2 cups low protein flour its cake flour and 1 cup all purpose flour )

2 tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

Filling :

250 gr peeled mung beans or regular mung beans

200 gr granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla powder or pandan leave or pandan essence

DIRECTION :

1. first prepare the filling, soak mung beans over night or approximately 8 hours, so that it will become soft, washed it and prepare the saucepan and put the beans with 500 ml water bring to a boil and the water is reduced by half  or more, add sugar and continue stirring until its became very soft, stirring and press the beans until its became paste, set aside.

2. prepare the dough, in a large bowl dissolve the warm water, sugar and yeast, let stand for 10mnt, until its foaming.

3. in another bowl mix the flour and baking powder.

4. when the yeast mixture is ready, add the flour mixture into it, and start kneading, when the flour is start crumbling add the salt, continue kneading about 5 mnt and add the oil, continue kneading until its become elastic ( you can test the elasticity by giving a pressing on the dough, the dough will be back and no trace, make a ball shape and put it in another bowl that has been greased with oil, cover it with plastics wrap or damp clean cloth, and put in the warm place, wait until 1 or 2 hours, or until it became double size.

4. preheat the boiler, cover the lid with cloth to prevent from the water dripping on dough while steaming.

5. after its coming double size, remove the air by fist and put on the kneading table dusting with flour, rolling it, cut it, and be pondered about 50 gr each, rolling it but do not rolled to thin, put the filling and make a slightly oval shape and cut upper surface using scissor, with pinch technique from the front edge to the back, put mung beans i front side to make it eyes, and put wax paper or banana leave on the bottom side to avoid sticky, steam it for about 15 mnt.

NOTES :

- i made the dough based from two type of flour, because i want to make it softer, actually low protein flour its enough, but sometime it will to soft, so i have no patience to knead it, and i want softer but a bit solid not bready, there is another type of flour " tang mien flour", this flour is low ash content and gluten free, so your pao will become white and soft.

- watch your water, do not use hot water, its only Luke warm water ( when you put your index finger to the water its warm and no painfull felling, because if your water is too hot, it will killed the yeast.

- you can use shortening also instead of oil, it will make your pao even softer, but i like to use olive oil or vegetable oil, its easy to get and cheaper.

have a try, enjoy your hedgehog pao and share it with your lovely family, see you ^.^, happy cooking