Vegan Bapao

I’ve made many types of bapao already; savory and sweet, with meat or vegan, but never with my own tofu filling.

These vegan bapao with tofu are seasoned with homemade hoisin sauce and sweet soy sauce (kecap manis). I’ve replaced the butter in the dough with vegetable oil and the honey in my hoisin sauce with golden syrup to make them 100% vegan.

I go for tiny bapao today. They lay in the palm of your hand. I weigh my dough for each bun. I use 15 grams each time.


Other bapao recipes in this blog:

Love to make bapao like this. Kids love it.

This recipe is enough for 20 bapao and is done in 1,5 hours.

Watch the video here, or read along for the recipe in text and pictures.


Vegan Bapao with tofu filling

Ingredients

  • 250 grams of tofu
  • 1/2 big onion
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
  • 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce
  • 1,5 tablespoon of kecap manis
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 15 grams of fresh ginger
  • 2 spring onions

Ingredients Dough

  • 200 grams of plain flour
  • 7 grams of instant yeast
  • 25 grams of sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of oil
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 100 milliliters of water

Filling

  1. Sauté the onions (not the spring onions), garlic and fresh ginger with the salt and pepper in some oil.
  2. Make the tofu fine with your hands and add it to the pan.
  3. Stir through and add the hoisin and kecap sauce.
  4. Add the chopped spring onions.
  5. Cook the filling for another 3 minutes.

Dough

  1. Add all the ingredients in a bowl.
  2. Let the salt not touch the yeast, otherwise, the yeast will die.
  3. Add water in two batches.
  4. Knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is shiny and you can pull it out without breaking it.
  5. Weigh 15 grams of dough, roll flat and fill with one teaspoon of tofu filling.
  6. Steam for 15 minutes.

I buy one block of tofu of 500 grams. This is a far too much for 20 mini bapao. I use 200-250 grams and I still have some filling left. The mix can be frozen easily for later use. Or make 40 mini bapao instead of twenty ;-).

I sauté the onions, garlic and the fresh ginger (finely chopped) in some oil. I add the tofu I crumble first. I mix in the spring onions at the end. This way they stay crisp and bright green.

I’ve made bapao in many ways already. From sweet till savory. Check out all the bapao recipes here.

Vegan Bapao dough

I’ve made vegan dough for bapao earlier for my jackfruit pao. I just leave out the butter and substitute it with some vegetable oil.

This is the double amount of dough than in this is recipe is shown.

You do not have to prove this dough before rolling the buns. I mix in all the ingredients and kneed it (for about 10 minutes) until the dough shines and is stretchy and flexible.

Then I weigh the dough. Every bun contains 15 grams of dough. I kneed every single piece of dough for a little bit more and then I roll it and fill it up with one teaspoon of the filling.

This is a bun filled with a meat filling but the picture shows well how to fold the bun close.

Folding bapao

I roll my piece of dough but I keep the middle part thicker than the edges. I show you how I fold my buns in this video (starts at 03:50).

I place them on a piece of parchment paper in my bamboo basket. I’ve cut the parchment paper open so steam can come through easily.

I place the lit on and let them proof for about 15 minutes or the time it takes to roll the rest of the buns. I fill up my steamer and make sure they’re not touching (they will puff up during steaming even more). I steam them for 15 minutes.

I love the fact these delicious vegan pao are small and therefore easy to eat. I serve them with a dipping sauce of sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) or spicy chili sauce.

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