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Pau Dough

Dough for making pau, fluffy and milky white Malaysian steamed buns. Shape them plain to make mantou, or fill them with sweet or savory fillings to make pau.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Resting time 15 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Cooking Ingredients
Cuisine Chinese
Servings 16 buns

Equipment

  • 1 Stand mixer optional
  • 1 bread maker optional

Ingredients
  

  • 320 grams water OR full cream milk
  • 20 grams oil OR fat 1 tablespoon, see Note 1
  • 50 grams caster sugar ¼ cup
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla essence optional, see Note 2
  • 1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
  • 500 grams pau flour see Note 3 for subtitutes
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions
 

  • In your breadmaker pan or stand mixer bowl, add the water or milk, cooking oil, sugar, vanilla essence if using, and yeast.
  • Add the flours, making sure to cover the surface of the liquid completely.
  • Add the salt and baking powder.
  • Start the machine, using the Dough program.
  • Once the knead cycle ends, let rest for about 15 minutes.
  • If not using a breadmaker, using your stand mixer mix and knead at the lowest speed on your mixer until a shaggy dough forms, then increase the speed one step and continue kneading, about 14 to 15 minutes. Shape into a round ball and let rest in your mixing bowl, placed in a warm place and covered with a damp cloth, 15 minutes.
  • Transfer the dough to a floured surface.
  • Divide the dough to your desired size. I usually divide my dough into 16 pieces for filled buns. Each piece should weigh around 55 to 57 grams.
  • Use as required.

Notes

  1. You can use any cooking oil of your choosing.  Depending on your recipe, you can substitute this with more fragrant oils or fats.  For example, for my pandan kaya pau I used unrefined coconut oil for a touch of coconutty fragrance, and for my chicken char siu bao I used rendered chicken fat.
  2. Optional.  You can omit this or, depending on your fillings, you can substitute with other flavored essences like rose, pandan, etc. 
  3. If pau flour is unavailable, use any of the following options:
    1. 250 grams plain flour plus 250 grams cake flour
    2. 415 grams plain flour plus 85 grams wheat starch OR potato starch OR cornstarch