Favorite Food...Passing Time

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 2 by Scrapping with Liz
Chinese Takeout by mle Card Designs
Cooking Time by Kristin Aagard Designs

One of my most favorite foods while we were in China were these custard filled steamed buns. They were so delicious. In fact, the last day we were in Shanghai I ate three for breakfast because I thought that I might never have anything so wonderful again in my life.

I've since tried to recreate them at home. I'm no bread baker, and so I've resorted to buying refrigerated dough...you know the kind that comes in the cans? I think they work great, and they don't really taste all that different then bao (steamed bun). You can fill bao with anything...meat, bean paste, etc...but I especially like the sweet, custardy filled bao. I've tried a few different filling recipes, and this one has been my favorite. I tweeked it just a little bit from the original recipes that I found here from Viet World Kitchen. I used less corn starch because I wanted it to be a little gooeyer in the middle.

After making the filling, flatten each dough piece, and wrap a tablespoon of filling into each piece of dough. Wrap it up, place in a bamboo steamer (I put them on top of a damp paper towel to keep them from sticking), place lid on top along with a kitchen towel (to keep the steam in), and place over a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. Once they are done just take them off and eat...maybe letting them cool for a minute or two, if you can wait. They are the best when they are warm and the filling is a little gooey.

I scrapped the page above as part of my SwL Group Challenge for February: scrap a food you love. I think it's apparent that I'm dreaming of China. Maybe it's because there is a certain little boy over there who is waiting for us to come and bring him home. Scrapping pages like this helps me pass the time.

-Liz