Red Bean Paste Pau (Tau Sar Pau)

White fluffy paus with sweet red bean filling

I love having pau especially sweet filling pau with a cup of unsweetened tea for breakfast. Most of the time my family would get pau from chinese kopitiam (coffee shop) which are kept in large portable gas steamer but those pau are not made in house, most are mass-produced in a factory and distributed to various kopitiams in the city.


I was at the baking section of the supermarket and saw some pau flour. My mum has never made pau before even though they are a favourite in the family. Without any idea and recipe on how to make pau, I got a box of pau flour and some organic red beans home.

When I got home, I showed my mum the pau flour and said let's try making pau. She said ok and I  looked up some recipes online. This recipe is adapted from Delicacious with some alterations.

Ingredients:- 
Dough
300g Hong Kong flour/ pau flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tbsp shortening
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
30 ml water

Red Bean Filling
1 cup red bean
3/4 cup sugar

Method:-
Red Bean Filling
Prepare the red bean filling first. Place the red beans in a pressure cooker and cover with water 1/2 inch above the red beans. Cook for 40 minutes. If not using pressure cooker, soak beans beforehand and bring to a boil in pot/ slow cooker and simmer for about 2 hours until soft.

Drain water in the beans and mash. Add sugar to and some vegetable oil to get a smooth paste.

Dough
In a large mixing bowl, sift flour and baking powder and yeast. Add sugar and shortening and knead. Add water and continue kneading until dough is springy and smooth. 

Let dough proof for about 30 minutes or until double in size.

Meanwhile, weigh 30g of red bean paste for each of the dough balls. Cut square parchment paper to be place at the bottom of paus.

Remove dough from bowl and form dough into small balls of 40g each.

Flatten the dough balls by pressing with fingers and wrap dough with red bean paste. Place folded side down on parchment paper.

Place paus about 2 inches apart to allow room for expansion. Let pau proof for another 30 minutes prior to steaming. 

Prepare the steamer. Place paus in the steamer when water is at rapid boil. Steam for 15 minutes. 

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It was not easy pleating the paus as the dough keeps shrinking even before I could wrap the filling. Wrapping in the filling definitely requires some practice.


The best part was using the pressure cooker to cook the red beans. I've used a slow cooker before and it took hours for the beans to become soft. Alternatively, you can boil the beans overnight in a slow cooker. I had to learn how to use the pressure cooker because I wanted quick homemade red bean paste instead of the prepacked ones used for moon cakes.

Our first paus had a lot of holes because we left it to proof for too long. It didn't really look like pau. It was so light and soft more like a bun.

My mum's second attempt with reduced proofing time got us buns which taste more like pau. The shape's a bit wonky here but it tastes great.


These are so yummy!