Best Manapua Recipes

CLASSIC MANAPUA (STEAMED BUNS HAWAIIAN STYLE)

Steps:

• Sprinkle yeast over 3 tablespoons lukewarm water and allow to stand until yeast softens.
• To remaining water, add oil or shortening, sugar and salt, stirring until melted or dissolved. Cool. Add yeast mixture.
• Place flour in a large mixing bowl or a heavy-duty mixer and add most of the liquid. Combine until flour incorporates liquid and starts to become a ball.
• Add remaining liquid to make a very heavy dough.
• Begin kneading the dough in the bowl. Continue kneading until you have a smooth ball that is beginning to show signs of long strands on the outside, indicating that the gluten has fully developed.
• Remove dough from bowl and rinse out bowl. Pour sesame oil into bowl, return dough and turn it around until covered with a thin layer of the oil.
• Cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until double in bulk (about an hour in a warm room).
• Place the dough in the refrigerator and allow it to rise (3-6 hours). Punch it down again and allow it to rise again (3 hours).
• Proceed with the filling while the dough is rising. In a saute pan, stir cornstarch, hoisin sauce, dry sherry, oyster sauce, ketchup, soy sauce and brown sugar into the 1 cup water until dissolved. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add char siu and simmer for 5 minutes. Take off heat and allow to cool completely. Chill covered until 1 hour before you are ready to stuff the manapua. Allow to return to room temperature before using.
• When ready to cook, cut 12 (3-inch) squares of waxed paper and coat 1 side with very light coat of nonstick cooking spray.
• Punch down dough and divide into 12 pieces. Roll each into a ball.
• Make the dough as thin as you can and try to keep the edges thinner than the center.
• Place the circle of dough in the palm of your hand. Spoon in a couple of tablespoons of filling, cupping the dough around it.
• With the thumb and finger of the other hand, pinch the edges of the dough as if you were making a fluted edging on a pie crust. Pinch the folds together, twisting them as you do so.
• Place the completed manapua on a square of greased waxed paper. Allow to plump up into a globe with a taut exterior.
• Heat a steamer with plenty of water or preheat an oven at 350 degrees F.
• If using steamer, fill steamer with manapua on their papers about 1 to 2 inches apart. Cover and steam vigorously for 15 minutes. Remove steamer from heat, let stand 5 minutes, then open. If using a metal steamer, place a folded tea towel across top of steamer, holding it in position with the lid. This will prevent steam from dropping onto manapua while steaming.
• If baking, place manapua on their papers on a baking sheet about 1-2 inches apart. Brush top of buns with a little vegetable oil and bake 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to stand 1 minutes. Serve hot.
• Manapua can be frozen. Frozen bau may be reheated by wrapping with a paper towel and microwaving for 1 minute.

MANAPUA

Steps:

• Dough: Mix dry ingredients together (including yeast).
• Add oil and water and mix well.
• Knead dough until smooth (about 10 minutes).
• Place in a large bowl; cover with a clean damp cloth and leave in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours.
• Filling: Mix together sherry, oyster sauce, soy sauce, water, sugar and cornstarch until free of lumps.
• Heat 1 T oil in a wok or pan over medium heat, add sausage and saute for 1 minute.
• Add vegetables and cook until crisp tender.
• Add liquid mixture and cook until thickened slightly.
• Cool before using.
• Divide manapua dough into 24 balls.
• Slightly flatten each ball, then roll out to 4-inch disks, leaving the center of the circle twice as thick as the sides.
• Place 1 T of filling in the center of the dough.
• Gather up the sides around the filling and twist dough to seal.
• Place with twisted side down on a 2-inch square piece of wax paper.
• Put buns 2 inches apart in a steamer and allow to rise for another hour.
• Steam for 15 minutes.
• If you prefer to bake the manapua, preheat oven to 350°.
• Set the buns 2 inches apart on a baking sheet.
• Brush with a mixture of 1 beaten egg, water and 1/4 tsp sugar.
• Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

HAWAIIAN MANAPUA (CHAR SIU) APPETIZER SANDWICHES

Steps:

• Filling:.
• • In a small size mixing bowl, combine garlic, ginger, oil, sugar, honey, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, food coloring, water, salt and five spice powder. Mix well.
• • Pour the glaze over the pork and let marinate in the Char Siu sauce, covered overnight in the refrigerator.
• • The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. bake the pork (covered) in the oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until fork tender. Turn oven up to broil and place meat under broiler for 3 to 5 minutes until the char Siu (pork) is slightly charred. Remove from oven, wrap in foil and let rest for at least 15 minutes.
• • Chop pork into small diced pieces. Add chopped green onion and combine.
• Dough:.
• Place the sugar and warm water in a bowl; mix until sugar dissolves. Add yeast and leave it for 5 minutes until it starts to get foamy.
• • Sift flour into a large size mixing bowl. Add yeast mixture, egg, oil and salt; stir to mix. Use your hands to bring the flour mixture together.
• • Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 to 6 minutes or until smooth and slightly elastic.
• • Place in a lightly oiled, large size bowl; cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise until doubled in size, approximately 2 to 2 1/2 hours depending on room temperature.
• •.
• • Assemble:.
• • Once dough has doubled in size, punch it down and divide into 12 even portions; shape into round 1 inch size balls.
• • Use a rolling pin to roll a ball into a 2-inch disk. Then pick up the piece of dough and gently pull the edges to enlarge to a 3-inch diameter disk. The dough will be slightly thicker in the center.
• • Place a rounded tablespoon of filling in the middle of the dough circle. Gather the edges and seal the bun. (Use water on your fingertips if needed, to seal your edges).
• • Place the bun, seal side down, on a greased baking sheet. Continue with the rest of the dough, leaving 2 inches in between each roll.
• • Once all buns are filled, brush surface with egg wash.
• • Place in a preheated oven of 350 F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
• Cook's Note: These appetizers can be made ahead of time and frozen for up to 3 months.

BAKED CHAR SIU BAO OR MANAPUA

Steps:

• 1. PROCEDURE FOR THE FILLING:
• 2. Heat 1/2 Tbsp. oil in a small saucepan, saute onions until softened and almost transparent. Remove from heat and set aside.
• 3. Heat remaining Tbsp. of oil in a large skillet, stir fry finely chopped char siu (seasoned pork) till tender.
• 4. Combine the remaining filling ingredients in a bowl and stir till well blended, then add the filling mixture and the sauteed onions to the stir fried char siu. Heat and stir until it is bubbling.
• 5. Combine the chicken broth and the cornstarch in a small bowl and mix till well blended, add to the hot meat mixture, stirring constantly until it thickens.
• 6. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
• 7. NOTE: FILL THE BAO (BUN) WHEN THE FILLING IS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE, NOT HOT, NOT REFRIGERATOR COLD.
• 8. PROCEDURE FOR THE BAO (BUN):
• 9. Mix together in a bowl, the yeast packet, lukewarm water and a pinch of salt. Set aside until it's foamy.
• 10. In a large bowl, combine sugar and room temperature milk, whisk until sugar dissolves. Add the 2 cups of the cake flour and mix well. In 3 increments, slowly add the 4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and combine well, but do not over mix.
• 11. Place the dough in a large bowl, and in a warm place, allow for the dough to rise till it doubles in size (approximately 2 1/2 hours, if enclosed in a microwave oven with a jar of boiling water on the side of the bowl).
• 12. Remove the dough from the microwave oven and discard the water.
• 13. Punch down the dough and cut the dough into 24 equal pieces. Form into dough balls and allow the dough balls to rest for about 15 minutes.
• 14. Roll out each ball into 4-inch disks, place a heaping Tbsp. of room temperature filling onto the center of the disk, gather the edges together and pinch it close with a twist.
• 15. With a cookie sheet, prepped with parchment paper, set the bao (bun), twisted side down and spaced evenly apart.
• 16. Put the cookie sheet of bao in a warm, moist area so that it can rise for about 30 minutes.
• 17. Brush the tops of the bao with the beaten egg and bake for 22 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
• 18. Remove the bao from oven onto a cooling rack. Serve hot or warm.
• 19. To retain freshness, bao may be frozen. To reheat a frozen bao, let stand for about 5 minutes, then wrap with a damp paper towel and microwave in the oven for about 1 minute, more if needed.

DELICIOUS CURRIED MANAPUA PUFFS

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, mix together chicken, green onions, water chestnuts, oyster sauce, sesame seeds, curry powder, salt and pepper.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
• Leaving about 2 inches between each biscuit, flatten biscuit dough onto the baking sheet. Place approximately 1 teaspoon of the chicken mixture onto each biscuit, then pinch the dough around the mixture to form an encasing ball.
• Bake in the preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

CHAR SIU BAO (MANAPUA) AS MADE BY ZHE RECIPE BY TASTY

Steps:

• Make the bao dough: In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, yeast, vegetable oil and ⅓ cup warm water and stir to combine. Slowly add the remaining 2 tablespoons of water, mixing constantly. Knead the dough in the bowl until smooth and well combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
• Make the char siu filling: Dice the onion and chop the char sui into ½-inch pieces.
• In a medium bowl, stir together the char siu sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar.
• In a medium nonstick pan, sauté the onion over medium-low heat until translucent, 1 minute. Add the chopped char siu, sauce, and water. Stir to combine, then simmer until the sauce thickens, 2 minutes. Transfer the filling to a medium bowl and chill in the refrigerator for about 1 hour, until cool.
• After rising, punch the dough down and knead until it is back to its original size. On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 5 48-gram balls. Flatten and roll out each portion, making sure the middle is thick while the sides are thin. Hold a dough round in the palm of your hand and add 36 grams of the char siu filling to the center. Use your other hand to pinch the edges of the dough together up and over the filling while rotating the bao in your hand.
• Place each bao on a small square of parchment paper. Set in a steamer basket, cover, and let rise for about 15 minutes, until slightly puffed, before steaming.
• Fill the bottom of a steamer or double boiler with water and bring to a boil. Add the steamer basket with the bao, cover, and steam for 15 minutes, then turn off the flame and let rest in the steamer for 5 minutes before serving.
• Enjoy!

BABY BAKED MANAPUA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook ground pork in a skillet until no longer pink. Add water chestnuts and char siu mix. Simmer 3 minutes. Stir in green onions and remove from heat. Cool. Separate biscuits. Roll a biscuit in sugar and flatten into a 3-inch round. Place 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of the round and pinch to close, forming a ball. Place pinched-side down on a square of wax paper, then on a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining biscuits. Dot each manapua with food coloring. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Makes 30 manapua. (Manapua may also be steamed 15 to 18 minutes).

MANAPUA

Steps:

• Bun:.
• In a custard cup, sprinkle the dry yeast over the 3 tablespoons of warm water and let stand until the yeast is softened.
• In a small saucepan, heat 11/2 cups water, solid shortening, salt and sugar. Stir until melted. Cool.
• Combine the softened yeast and shortening mixture in a large bowl.
• Add flour, 1 cup at a time mixing well after each addition. Knead until dough is stiff. Let rise until double in bulk, about 2 hours.
• Punch dough down and knead again.
• Cut into 2 inch balls and stuff with filling, making sure that there is no opening for the filling to fall out.
• Place on a small square of waxed paper (about 3" X 3"). Let rise for 11/2 to 2 hours.
• Steam until done, about 15 - 20 minutes. Serve hot.
• Filling:.
• Pan fry ham, lup chong, bamboo shoots and mushrooms.
• Add oyster sauce, sugar, soy sauce and red food coloring.
• Cook until the mixture absorbs the sauce.
• Add green onions before turning off the flame.
• Cool before stuffing into the buns.

MANAPUA

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in 1/2c of warm water with spec of sugar. Sift flour, sugar, and salt. in a bowl add water butter and dry ingred, combine and add risen yeast; knead 5 min. let dough rest and rise at least 30 min, covered. pull off 24 rolls and flatten, add filling, pull dough up around filling. Steam buns in greased steamer about 15 min.