Finally found a recipe which produce very fluffy steamed buns. Thank you @chompmom for sharing this dough recipe from https://tasteasianfood.com/char-siu-bao-recipe/

The only downside is there’s 50g of shortening for 20 buns. So each buns contain 2.5g of shortening 🤪 I will try again using canola oil or mixture of canola oil with lesser shortening to see how is the resulting texture.

But so far after more than 500 steamed buns we made since last year… this is the fluffiest batch!

Char siew fillings (you can also follow this recipe)
– 250g Char siew meat (Store bought, finely diced)
– 50g Shallots (finely minced)
– A bunch of coriander (finely chopped)
– Seasoning : oyster sauce, sugar, dark soy sauce, cornstarch water, sesame oil, white pepper

[total fillings after sautéing is 320g so we could only filled up 12 buns, the rest we made it as plain steamed buns/mantou]

Dough starter
– 200g pao flour
– 8g instant yeast
– 120g icing sugar
– 285g lukewarm water

[mixed all starter ingredients together , cover and let stand for an hour]

Other ingredients for dough
– 10g baking powder
– 400g pao flour
– 50g shortening
– 2g salt

Method:
1. Mixed baking powder and pao flour into the starter mixture which should be bubbly and watery now. Knead till getting a dough ball.
2. Add in shortening and salt and continue kneading till getting a smooth dough ball (8-10minutes)
3. Let it proof for 30minutes/ till doubled in size
4. Divide dough to 50g portions (total dough weigh about 1054g so you will get around 20 buns). Shape into round balls and let rest for 10 minutes.
5. Flatten with rolling pin and place 30g fillings for each bun. Wrap and let rest for 15 mins before steaming
6. Place in steamer with 2-3cm gap and steam on high heat for 8 minutes.