Homemade Kong Bak Pau Wrapper Recipe

Last weekend's lunch was the second dish for my 115 Dishes Heritage Food's personal cooking challenge. Although it has 115 dishes to choose from, my family decided on the Kong Bak Pau because I have never cook it before. Being a proud home cook, I always believe that I have been able to make pau that are at least good as the ones I bought from the kopi taims in Singapore and I have been able to duplicate most dishes I have had in food courts to the many great restaurants during my balek kampung, but making pau is a conundrum I found last weekend. The photo shows my poor attempt to make the wrapper for my kong bak pau recipe. I may be disappointed with the final result but it only heightens my respect for the traditional artisan pau makers who entail many years of practice to achieve perfection and usually far more superior to supermarket paus.

Kong Bak Pau Wrapper Recipe:
6 cups of flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp yeast (15 g)
2 Tbsp cooking oil
2 cups tepid water

Dissolve sugar in warm water, add yeast and let the liquid to proof for ten minutes. Sift flour and add cooking oil and pour the liquid and mix together. Bring the mixture together to form sticky soft dough. Knead dough into a ball. Turn the dough out onto a board or table with extra flour and knead. At this point the dough will be sticky, adding more flour if necessary. Knead dough until smooth and elastic but strong and it should resist your fingers when you press them into it and bounce back. Place dough in a large bowl and cover tightly with a plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a warm place for about 3 hours or until it has doubled or tripled in bulk. When the dough has doubled in volume, bring the sides of the dough to the centre and knead gently into a ball. Roll to a long roll and cut into 24 pieces. Flatten each piece of dough to a 2 inches circle on your palm of your hand and brush the surface lightly with cooking oil. Fold into half and lightly press the half circle with finger so that it tapers toward the edge so the edges are thinner than the middle. Place them on damp cloth in a bamboo steamer at least 1/2 inch apart. Steam for 5 minutes over high heat. Remove and set aside to cool.