Vegetable Curry Pau

I have always been wanting to make paus but failed terribly 2x with 2 different recipes. It was really disappointing until I saw this recipe shared by a member from an online forum which I frequent (thanks Lena). This one came out perfect for me, of course this is not the kind of paus you get at those dim sum places. The dough tastes almost like the ones you get outside (those regular steam paus) and I really liked it a lot.

Although the recipe uses sponge dough, you can do a straight dough method too.

Ingredients
A: Sponge
400 gm HKG/pau flour (Recommended using Bluekey pau flour)
210-240ml water * (pour bit by bit - need not use the 240ml)
1 ½ tsp instant yeast.

B: Ingredients for the pau
100 gm HKG/pau flour (Recommended using Bluekey pau flour)
120g gm sugar
10 gm shortening
1 ¼ tsp double action baking powder

Method
1. Mix ingredients A together
2. Knead until smooth and elastic
3. Let it rise for 40 mins
4. Mix dough from method 1 with ingredients B. and knead until well blended
5. Cut into equal portions about 40g
6. Wrap in filling
7. Let it rise for 20 minutes
8. Steam over high heat for 15 minutes

* I used Bake King's hkg flour and this flour absorbs quite a bit of water. So I reduced the water to around 210-220ml instead of 240ml. For those using other flours, please add water 200ml first and followed by the rest.

Note: I used my breadmaker to knead the sponge then followed by using the mixer when adding B. But you can use the breadmaker to knead the dough and take it out once the breadmaker stops kneading. No need to wait till cycle ends.

I made the dough first and freeze it and shape it the next day. You can freeze the dough too right after mixing the sponge with B. To use, thaw it before shaping and follow step 5 onwards.