Chicken Siopao (Steamed or Baked)

My husband will rave about his mom's siopao every time he craves for them. Siopao is popularly known as steamed buns. It has a sweet dough with a delicious chicken filling. Anyway, my mother-in-law's final project for her Masters in Diet and Nutrition (University of the Philippines) was this recipe of siopao. They have a family friend who used this recipe and had thriving Siopao business in the Philippines. So, I wanted to make sure that I have permission to share this before I posted anything.

I used the exact ingredients but modified the procedure. Mom didn't have a stand mixer with a dough hook back in the late 80's. And I also tried a baked version because I don't have a big steamer.

Mom also advised me to make the filling ahead of time and freeze it. That way, it is easier to assemble and seal the siopao without the hassle of a seaping sauce. But of course, I have to learn it the hard way myself. I made the filling AFTER I made the dough. I wanted something to do while I waited for the dough to rise. LISTEN TO MOM! So, I'm writing down this recipe according to the better way it should be done.

Steamed Buns

Baked Buns

Here's the recipe and the pictures I took when I made them. I've done this three times already. I halved the recipe the time I took this photos so don't be confused.

Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake - March '11 DB

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

This challenge had perfect timing. We had just come back from our vacation and I was itching to bake something. I saw the recipe and got excited since I had all the ingredients I needed.

This coffee cake is actually a sweet yeast dough that I filled with meringue, cinnamon sugar and chocolate chips (I omitted the nuts). You can make different variations for the filling. You can flavor the meringue and add fruits as a filling instead. You can also dust it with cocoa powder instead of powdered sugar, or leave it plain - whatever you like!

Coffee Buns (aka Roti Buns)

Coffee Bun from Roti Mum

SM Mall of Asia in the Philippines is the biggest mall I've ever been to. It's crazy. Walking around the mall will make you tired and hungry. And then I smelled something really good. I followed it and found this store which had a sign: "Singapore's Best Coffee Buns". Roti Mum coffee buns. It is a butter bun with a filling that reminds me of Spanish Bread coated with a crisp, coffee-flavored sugar topping.

I was hooked. The combination of sweet (sugar), salty (butter) and bitter (coffee) struck a balance in my tongue. I knew I just had to learn how to make it on my own once we get back to the states.

Let's Go Nuts for Doughnuts! - October '10 Daring Bakers

Talk about photo-finish. I've been busy trying to get ready for a vacation and then going on vacation that it took me til deadline to actually make the challenge this month.

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

We were also given a choice to make cake doughnuts or yeast doughnuts. I decided to go with Alton Brown's yeast doughnut - one which my son is more familiar with. He would be the one consuming the sinful goodies.

White Bread

We always have bread and usually buy the double loaf sold at Costco. But we ran out and we didn't want to buy another pair of loaves because we are going on vacation real soon. Anyway, I decided it's time I try to bake a loaf of bread.

I found a great recipe from Allrecipes.com with almost 2,000 5-star reviews - can't go wrong with that, right? I started at around 8:30pm, it was ready by 11pm. And yes, my son smelled the freshly baked bread and wanted to eat that late. I, of course, restrained myself.