Hi! I love eating paus so it was about time I made a healthy recipe for one. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed gobbling these up! I used a mixture of organic wholemeal and Hong Kong flour for this. I know the latter is not exactly healthy but a little won't kill you. This pau won't be as fluffy as regular pau because it's 50% wholemeal which makes it heavier.
If you want a fluffier pau you can adjust accordingly by replacing some wholemeal flour with the Hong Kong flour. Hong Kong flour is low protein white flour that has been bleached a lot. It's very light so it makes buns, breads etc softer. If you really can't find it you can use white flour.
The previous time I made this I used a bob's red mill gluten free flour and some corn starch instead of the HK flour and it was pretty okay too. You can do that if you wish.
What you'll need
Filling:
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup brown rice syrup (you can sub with honey, agave or maple syrup but I think you have to use less. In my opinion, brown rice syrup isn't very sweet)
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup corn kernels
3 tbsp coconut flour
Pau:
3/4 tsp instant yeast
75 gm wholemeal flour
75 gm hongkong flour
1/2 level tsp double action baking powder
1 tsp honey/brown rice syrup/agave/maple syrup
70ml water
1 tsp coconut oil
Extra ww flour if the dough gets sticky
How to
Filling:
1. Mix egg, brown rice syrup and milk in a sauce pan.
2. Heat over high flame until the mixture begins to bubble. Then over low heat simmer 13min, add corn kernels, simmer 3min longer.
3. Then stir in coconut flour and let the mixture cool. It will thicken by the time you need to use it.
Pau:
1. Mix wet ingredients.
2. Mix dry ingredients.
3. Make a well in dry ingredients. Pour wet into dry ingredients and knead into a ball. Add flour if too sticky. Leave to proof for 1h.
4. Punch down. Split into 6 equal portions. Flatten dough into a disk. Wrap dough around corn custard filling. Rest for 20min.
5. Steam over rapid boiling water for 10min. Leave in steamer for 3 min after cooking.
P.S The pau surface will be a bit sticky when its first done steaming. But when you let it cool and stuff it'll be fine!
