Chocolate Steamed Buns (Choco-Pao Recipe)
Make soft, fluffy chocolate steamed buns filled with rich chocolate ganache. This homemade choco-pao recipe is a sweet Chinese-Filipino-inspired snack or dessert.
Ingredients
Chocolate Ganache
- 150 g dark chocolate (70%), chopped
- 100 g milk chocolate chopped
- ½ cup heavy cream (125 g) room temp
- pinch salt
Dough
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (290 g)
- ¾ cup water lukewarm
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar (30 g)
- 1 tsp instant yeast (3 g)
- 1 tsp baking powder (3 g)
- ¼ tsp salt (3 g)
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter ( 14 g) softened
Other
- parchment paper
Instructions
Chocolate Ganache
- In a saucepan, pour in about 700 ml of water and heat over medium heat.
- Once the water is gently simmering, place a heatproof bowl over the saucepan and add your chopped chocolate. This is what we call a double boiler.
- Stir the chocolate until fully melted, then turn off the heat. Gradually add the heavy cream and salt.
- Continue mixing until everything is well combined. You will notice that your mixture starts to thicken.
- Cover your chocolate ganache and let it chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
- Once chilled, use a tablespoon to scoop about 33 grams of ganache at a time, then use another spoon to help shape each portion into a small ball.
- Put the ganache balls back in the fridge to chill while we make the dough. Only take them out once your dough is ready.
Note: Avoid shaping the ganache with your hands, as the heat from your hands may soften it and make things messy. As much as possible, use spoons to shape it!
Dough
- In another bowl, combine the flour, sugar, instant yeast, salt, and baking powder.
- Gradually pour in the water while mixing with a chopstick!
- Once you have a lumpy dough, transfer it to a clean surface and carefully add the softened butter.
- Knead the dough until it is smooth. If it becomes too sticky, you can sprinkle in a little more all-purpose flour, but do this sparingly because you don't want to dry out your dough!
- Keep kneading until the dough is smooth. The goal is to have a soft dough that is slightly tacky!
- Divide your dough into eight small balls (60 grams each).
- Shape each dough ball into a ball and gently flatten it with your palm.
- Roll it out even further with a rolling pin, making sure it isn't too thin. It should be only slightly bigger than a coaster.
- Place a chocolate ganache ball in the middle of the dough and carefully pull the edges toward the center.
- Pinch and twist the edges together at the bottom to seal the bao. Then, gently roll it on a flat surface while cupping it with your hand to secure the chocolate inside.
- Place each bun on a small piece of parchment paper. Repeat with the remaining dough and chocolate ganache.
I love using a chopstick because it makes the dough so much easier to handle. This is actually my favourite tool when I started baking. It works wonders during the initial stages of making dough!
This particular dough is very sticky at first, but it will become more manageable as you knead. If you're having a hard time kneading it, remember that you can add a little more all-purpose flour (around 1 tsp) at a time.
Rolling the dough too thin may cause the filling to spill out, so be careful!
Proofing the Buns
- Lightly brush the tops with water. Cover the buns with a clean cloth and let them rest for about an hour in a warm environment.
If you're in a cooler climate, you may need to let them rest for 1 hour and 30 minutes. You want the buns to become slightly bigger than their original size.
Brushing the tops with water helps prevent the dough from drying out during proofing.
A little trick! I like placing a sheet of parchment paper over the buns before covering them with a cloth to prevent the cloth from sticking to the dough.
Steaming the Chocolate Buns
- Fill your pan with water and heat it over medium heat until the water is simmering.
- Place the buns in a steamer. You can steam four at a time, as they will expand during cooking. This also helps prevent them from sticking to each other.
- Wrap the lid of your steamer with a clean cloth before placing it over the buns.
- Place the steamer over the pan of simmering water and steam the buns for 10 minutes over medium heat. Once they're done, remove the pan from the heat, but don't remove the lid just yet! Let the buns rest for another five minutes.
- After five minutes, remove the lid and enjoy your chocolate steamed buns (baos) as a midday snack (merienda) or dessert!
The cloth will collect the condensation that forms on the lid, preventing water from dripping onto the buns. This helps them maintain a smooth, domed shape.
Letting the buns rest before removing the lid helps prevent them from deflating. In the past, when I opened my steamer immediately after cooking, the tops became crinkly. So, follow this step to help achieve that smooth top!