Polly's BAO Making Flour Testing

I was troubleshooting the cause of yellowing of my BAO or the steam bun. 

Using Unbleached flour is one of the cause.

My mother also pointed out that maybe I put too much yeast.

To find out, I went to the Asian market and bought 4 different flours and tested them.

The results are quite interesting.

The ingredients I have been trying has been:

250 g flour

60 g sugar

7 g Baking Powder

7 g Yeast

7 g Lard

125 ml Water

The steamed bun turn out yellowish.

After reviewing some YouTube posting, I changed the formula into followings:

250 g flour

20 g sugar

2 g Baking Powder

2 g Yeast

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tbsp avocado oil

125 ml Water

Knead by hand for 10 min, cover and let rise for 20 min.

Roll out the dough, enclose with TSA XIAO meat. Rise over steamer with water at 30'F. For 1 hour.

Steam for 10 min.

Turn off the stove.  Wait 5 minutes before opening.

Viet-Namese BOT BANH flour  - I followed the package's instruction - just add the water, fill with meat and steam.  It opened up at the top just like what we see at Chinese Dim Sum restaurants.  But soon after, the Bun turned yellow as they cooled.

Flour #2 Taiwan Pastry Flour:  I added 20 g sugar, 2 g of yeast, 2 g of baking powder, etc. to the Taiwan manufactured Pastry Flour

Follow the instruction and steam.

The Bun is white and fluffy.

The Taiwan pastry flour is likely a bleached flour.

The original recipe calls for 7 g of yeast and 7 g of Baking Powder.

The top of the bun did not split open, however, even after following the chef's instruction on how to fold the top.

Flour #3 - MIKKO Cake flour - premixed for cake baking.  Added 2 g of yeast, 2 g of baking powder.

The bun is wonderfully aromatic but with great spots all over.  (Discard. Did not attempt to eat.)

Flour #4 - Korean Unbleached flour - the bun turned out nicely.  White and fluffy.

Repeat Korean Unbleached flour retest:

The bun turned out great, but the top did not split open.

Nice and soft with great bounciness.  The bun turned out white.

Out of the four flours I tried, the Korean unbleached flour turned out the best white bun.... that is if it is truly an unbleached flour.  At the store, the same brand had bleached pink bag and unbleached turquoise bag that I got.  The next test will be to see if using other unbleached flour with only 2 g of yeast and 2 g of baking powder will give the same result.

Polly's Gnocchi Cream Soup

One of my favorite menu at  Olive's Garden - just recently is Soup and Salad.  Gnocchi Cream Soup with Chicken is very tasty, but it gives me a slight issue from being lactose intolerant.  Taking a chance with 4 large potatoes pressure cooked a night before, I decided to make the soup myself with lactose free milk.

It turned out quite well.

Mix with flour and egg.

Knead gently to form into ropes.

Set the gnocchi aside to dry.

Pack the rest in a plastic bag with extra 1/4 to 1/2 C flour with the Gnocchi to keep from sticking to each other.  Freeze for next use.

Cook diced celery, onion, carrot, chicken pieces.  Add 1 C of milk.

Before adding the other half cup of milk, mix 1/4 C of flour with some milk form the 1 cup left to make into slur.  Add to the soup. 

Stir to mix well.  Cook about 5 minute stirring constantly over medium low heat.  This will assure the soup will not taste with raw flour.   Slowly add the rest of the milk.

Add gnocchi.  Stir the bottom gently.

After the gnocchi surface, cook 2 to 3 minutes longer.  Stirring.  Careful not to burn the bottom.

Serve warm. Serve only 'warm' gnocchi soup to young children.  Remind them to be very careful of hot gnocchi that might cause a burn.

Polly's Family Favorite Meatloaf

The McCormick Meat Loaf seasoning mix has been my secret ingredients to make my family's favorite meatloaf.

Ingredients:

1 pkg McCormick Seasoning Mix

2 lb organic ground beef

2 eggs, lightly beaten.

1/2 C Milk

1/2 chopped onions

2 slices soft bread crumbs or 1 C crackers, broken into pieces

Add last: 1/2 C Ketchup, organic, with no heavy corn syrup

Mix all ingredients.

Transfer to loaf pan and shape the meat loaf.

Bake in 375'F oven for 1 hour or until cooked through.

Use turkey baste to remove as much fat in the loaf pan close to 1 hour so the sides of the meatloaf can be browned more.  Dispose of fats in empty milk carton, etc.

Prepare Topping Sauce:

1/2 C Ketchup or Del Monte Chili Sauce

1/4 C Brown Sugar

A couple of dash of Tabasco Sauce

Mix and top the cooked meatloaf and bake 10-15 min longer till it bubbles.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - Cakey

I found this "Lunch Box Special" recipe card.  It is titled Secret Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Ingredients:

1/2 C quick oats - processed in NutriBullet

2-1/4 C Flour unbleached

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 Sticks Butter, soft

3/4 C brown sugar

3/4 C granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon juice

2 eggs

1 Cup Semi-Sweet chocolate chip pistoles - chopped

1-1/2 C chopped Walnuts, but I added Pecans instead.

Bake in 350'F.

Result - Cakey cookies.  Not what I like.