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Express Pau Dough What do you do when you're itching to make paus but don't have the time to go after "traditional recipes" which call for long hours of proving? Use a mix? NO! Why use a mix when you can make you own paus from scratch... in roughly 20mins? Here it is, my express pau dough recipe. Enjoy!

-400g all purpose flour
-4 1/2 tsp double acting baking powder
-130g fresh milk or water

Mix together flour and baking powder, sift twice. Stir together milk, sugar and oil. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and mix well, knead for about 5 mins. Rest dough for 10 mins, wrap filling and steam. Done!

Flour and baking powder must be mixed well and sifted twice to ensure the paus will be white and fluffy. Recipe makes enough dough for about 12 large "dai paus" or 24 small sweet/dimsum/char siu paus. The paus will puff up and double in size when steamed so space them accordingly in the steamer.

1:31 PM | Category: | 20 comments


On 2:33 AM , WokandSpoon said...

Just stumbled across your blog! I've always wanted to make paus but always been too lazy to do it from scratch! I'll have to try out your express recipe!

On 4:52 PM , Little Corner of Mine said...

Wow, this looks easy for me to try! Thanks tt, will try this when I decided to make pau. :)

On 7:36 PM , Baking Fiend said...

Looks good! Will give this recipe a try as soon as I get some char-siew done. :)

On 2:07 PM , Anonymous said...

tried your recipe. was it only 130 g/ml of milk? cause i found it too little and i added more water. but the pao turn out yellow! so wasnt too sure what was the cause. =S

On 6:13 PM , hoangtam/tt said...

i use 130g of milk, but I live in seattle (sea level) maybe you live at a higher elevation which means you'll need to use more liquid. If the dough is too dry... why not add more milk? Why water? The paus are yellow because the baking powder and flour wasn't mixed well enough.

On 1:47 AM , delia said...

do we need to proof it first b4 steaming? Or just wrap with filling and steam straight away? btw, steam for how long? sorry so many questions. thanks!

On 12:58 PM , hoangtam/tt said...

follow the recipe, if it doesn't say to proof then don't. How long you steam it depends on how big you make the paus. Play with your food!

On 9:50 PM , Anonymous said...

1.make sure it is "gold medal" self rising bleached enriched flour.

2.i add one tablespoon of white distilled vinegar to my steamed water.

with this recipe from the author, the steam bun will be more cakey.

too much baking powder will make the steam bun taste bitter with after taste.

On 11:20 PM , hoangtam/tt said...

store bought self-rising flour has salt mixed into it which will give the buns a salty taste.

If anyone wants to try using self-rising flour, please remember to omit the baking powder called for in the recipe as self-rising flour already contains baking powder.

Play with your food!

On 5:23 PM , Anonymous said...

I just tried this recipe today and the skin turned out white and perfect. I sifted the all purpose flour 6 times and I think that really helped. This recipe for baozi skin is definitely better than the store bought flour which I find to be very chewy and dry. I like my baozi cakey , moist, and light. This recipe meet all of those criterion.

On 7:11 PM , Anonymous said...

hi, hoang tam

tried your recipe yesterday after found out how to mix my own double acting baking powder.
However, my Pau is very yellow. I sifted the flour and baking powder 4 times. Even tried the trick of vinagar in my steamed water...still yellow..hic..hic

What have i done wrong ?

PS: except for the colour, your recipe is working very well. the Pau is very light

why would you add vinegar to make the paus white?

think about it... What's baking powder, how does it work? what's vinegar? what happens when you heat it?

>>Baking powder is a mixture of an acid and a base (a balanced formula). Vinegar is an acid, when you heat it, it evaporates into steam. The steam comes in contact with the paus through the cooking process. Thus the balanced formula becomes unbalanced because of the excess vinegar.

On 11:01 PM , Anonymous said...

thanks for the quick answer. i forgot to say that i did try steam the bun fisrt time without adding vinagar in the steam water. but the result was still yellow.
the second time, i thought i tried by adding some vinagar, still yellow.
i dont know if the ratio of 2 cream of tartar + 1 baking soda = doulbe acting baking powder is right or wrong , pls advise

i really want to make the pau as white as your picture...look very yummy.

On 11:07 PM , hoangtam/tt said...

2 cream of tartar + 1 baking soda DOES NOT equal double acting powder. That's single acting baking powder.

you don't just by baking powder instead of making it?

On 3:40 AM , Anonymous said...

hi tt

Remember me, from Australia. I cannt buy doulbe acting baking powder here. that why i try to make my own....

pls tell me how to get this right

On 12:30 PM , hoangtam/tt said...

you should google double acting baking powder to learn more about it. It requires 2 types of acid....unless you're a chemist or somehow have access to chemicals...it would be hard to make your own.

On 1:34 PM , Anonymous said...

Thanks tt, I tried this recipe and it works very well, my pao is not as white as yours but a lot better than other recipes!
I am happy! Thanks a lot!

On 11:03 AM , Love to cook said...

I made the pau dough according to your recipe, but it turned out to have yellow spots on it. I steamed the buns for 20 minutes, what could have caused the yellow spots? It looks like oil spots, like the oil wasn't mixed in well enough with the eggs, sugar and milk.

On 3:53 PM , hoangtam/tt said...

this recipe doesn't call for eggs. The dough is yellow because the baking powder wasn't mixed well enough with the flour.

On 8:44 AM , Anonymous said...

what kind of flour is best for this? does it have to be low protein or some kind of special flour? Can i use 'Green Dragon' brand flour?





