Ingredients
100g leftover meat
Pinch five spice
Pinch white pepper
1 tsp tomato Purée
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp honey
½ tsp dark soy sauce
½ tbsp light soy sauce
½ tbsp shaoxing rice wine
½ tsp sesame oil

Ingredients for the bao dough
530g of plain flour, plus extra for dusting
½ tsp salt
7g of fast-action dried yeast
40g of caster sugar
15g of baking powder
50ml of milk 
200-250ml warm water
25ml of vegetable oil

Equipment needed
A stand mixer with dough hook (not essential as you can do by hand)
A steamer silpat liner or parchment paper
A steamer (ideally 2 x bamboo)

Method
Put the flour, baking powder, salt, yeast and sugar into a free-standing mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Turn on the mixer and very slowly add the milk, 25ml oil and 200ml of water and mix on low for 2 minutes. If the dough feels dry or isn’t mixing properly then add more water, a tbsp at a time.  Turn the mixer up to high and mix again for another 2 minutes until the dough is smooth and soft.

Remove the dough from the bowl, rub the inside of the bowl with oil.  Dust the dough with flour and shape into a ball.  Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm room for 1½- 2 hours until doubled in size.  I know when the dough is done when I push my finger in and it leaves a dent.

Meanwhile make your filling.  Chop your meat into small pieces or shred it with 2 forks.  Put all the ingredients in the bowl and mix.

Once the dough has doubled in size, cut the dough into 10 equal sized pieces, roll into a ball and press down firmly so you have a flattened circle. Holding the piece of dough in your hand, run your thumbs and index fingers around the outside of the circle of dough, while pressing down relatively firmly.  The dough needs to be large enough to place a tbsp of filling inside.

Take a tbsp of the filling and put into the centre of the dough.  Now, you need to fold the dough over itself all around so that you can pinch the dough together, twist it and seal it.  Immediately put on to a steaming liner or a small piece of parchment.  Cover with a damp tea towel and leave for another 15-20 minutes to rise.

To steam, half fill your wok with boiling water - you need enough water to last the cooking time but you don’t want the buns to touch the water.  Put the buns on a piece of parchment paper and put into your steamer, try to spread them out because if they touch as they do puff up they will stick together.  You ideally need 2 baskets but if you don't have, just do them in batches.  These will take 12-15 minutes. 

A word of note, you can’t lift the lid once you start to steam so do not lift the lid until at least 12 minutes.  I err on the side of caution and leave it closer to 15 minutes.

- Bao recipe taken from Hong Kong Diner by Jeremy Pang