Lotus Paste Pao

This is my first attempt on making steamed pao. Although the texture of the pao is not as fluffy as those we bought from the stall but I'm happy with my first attempt. The pao smell nice and it is soft while its hot. Hehehe...once it was out from the steamer, I quickly grabbed one and shared it with my hubby. I'm so happy to have his good compliment. :D

Recipe

Ingredients (yield 18buns)
125ml lukewarm water
5g instant yeast
300g pao flour/Hong Kong flour
55g castor sugar
5g baking powder
10g shortening

Filling
360g lotus paste (divide into 18 portions of 20g each)

Steps:
1. Mix yeast and lukewarm water together.
2. Add in 2tbsp of pao flour and 1tsp of sugar from the above main ingredients.
3. Stir until well combined, cover and set aside to rest for 2 hours (Yeast dough).
4. Sift flour and baking powder onto a clean surface and make a well in the centre.
5. Pour the yeast dough from step no.3 into the centre of the well.
6. Mix all the ingredients with yeast dough until sugar dissolved.
7. Stir in the flour and knead to form a smooth and elastic dough. (You may need to add some water if the dough is dry or add some flour if the dough is wet.)
8. Cover and set aside to rest for 20mins.
9. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for a while.
10.Roll dough into a long circular shape and divide it into 30g each.
11.Flatten the dough and wrap in the filling.
12.Mould the bun into round shape and place it on a square(6x6cm) grease proof paper.
13.Cover and let it prove for 45mins.
14.Arrange buns on a steaming rack with some gap in between buns for expansion.
15.Steam buns in a preheated steamer for 10mins.

Note: Instead of hand knead I used my cake mixer to do the job. I pour everything into the mixer (using dough hook) and knead the dough until its surface is smooth and elastic. Then cover it and rest for 20mins.