Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Clifford Endo
and today we're attempting to recreate
Michelin-starred pork buns from Tim Ho Wan.
And no way we're tryin' to be Michelin star chefs
in a single afternoon,
but we're gonna give it a shot.
So Tim Ho Wan is a chain
and they are famous for many things,
one of those being their pork buns.
Their pork buns have very spongy texture.
First thing we've gotta do,
is we've gotta taste them.
So we've got thinly chopped barbecue pork on the inside,
you can taste some hoisin in there,
maybe some oyster sauce
and it's got that Char siu pork thing
where it's a little bit red on the outside.
What we're really gonna try to do here
is mimic this spongy bread
'cause we're really trying to get that light, airy texture
and that topping, wow, gives it a lot of sweetness.
They're very good.
So usually when we try to recreate something,
the first thing we do is usually consult the internet,
but there are no recipes, so we just gotta go by this thing.
Aaaah, by taste. And we're gonna try to put together
some sort of dough that we can replicate with this.
I'm gonna try to figure out some sort of topping
that can also replicate it.
I'm gonna use bread flour
and I'm gonna use cake flour.
The reason why is because we're really trying
to get that light, airy texture.
So we're gonna use a mixture of milk and cream
and there's actually a little bit of sweetness
in that dough.
I'm gonna add around 1/3 of a cup of sugar
just in case it doesn't work. An egg.
And then we have a little bit of salt.
And then some yeast.
We're gonna throw it in there;
there's a lot of liquid in there
and then we're gonna mix it for about 15 minutes,
just so we're really incorporating it
and that will actually give it time
for that yeast to activate and for it to rise.
As we can see from the first little bit,
right here that dough's coming together.
All right, so we're gonna back this down a little bit
and we're gonna let this rise;
just on the countertop for about an hour.
It should maybe double, hopefully even close
to triple in size.
Now while that rests, we are going to make our topping.
Now this is what I really think
sets apart these pork buns from other ones.
Butter, that's what I think the base of the this is.
And so I'm kinda winging this.
We're gonna use powdered sugar
to help set that and keep that in place.
I have another 50 grams of cake flour.
Again we're staying away from AP flour
just because it's a little thick and a little tacky;
we want this to be light
and hopefully a little bit crispy.
I'm gonna incorporate this all together
and we want it to be kinda crumby.
Then we're gonna keep working it
until hopefully it becomes sort of a paste.
It kinda looks like a cross
between an icing and a cookie batter.
That goes in the bag just like so.
I think that's close.
We are going to grab our dough.
We are going to roll it out,
and we're just going to stuff it
with the pork mixture.
All right, so I've got a little bit of dough here.
I'm going to put about a heaping tablespoon
of filling inside.
That pork mixture's pretty easy.
We just used hoisin and oyster sauce.
This is the one thing that is actually google-able
in this recipe, so just do that.
We're here for all the other stuff
that you cannot find.
I'm gonna take these; I'm gonna fold it up
almost just like a beggar's purse dumpling.
I'm gonna flip it upside down,
and there is gonna be our bun.
This one I'm gonna maybe go a tiny bit bigger.
Fold this up; this one's a little thicker.
We're gonna go here.
Ya know what, maybe these smaller ones
do work a little bit better.
This is yeast in here,
and it will possibly expand.
So I'm gonna take these;
they're gonna go on a sheet pan
and then again we're gonna rest them
for another hour, right.
At this point, you probably could have gone
to Tim Ho Wan and eaten like 37 pork buns.
Here are six that I made before.
I've gotta use our jam.
I am gonna pipe these around.
I think there's a lot of butter in here.
I don't know if this is gonna hold on top.
Let's go in the oven.
350 because that's all baking things.
Let's just assume that that's it.
All right. 25-ish minutes.
Okay. We've got a little bit of the drippy
around the outside.
We were kinda expecting that.
It's crispy on the top.
The bread's brown.
We got the coloring on the bottom.
And we're gonna slice this open.
Look at that! Look at that!
The top is super flaky.
Our inside is a little bit more red.
That's cause of our Char siu;
it had a little bit more coloring in it.
That's fine. It actually doesn't affect
the flavor that much.
The texture on it actually seems pretty similar.
See the crumb on the bread there
and see the crumb on the bread in here,
that is actually really f***ing close.
What's left to do?
But to taste these.
I'm not gonna do that alone.
No, I'm gonna bring in
our culinary producer, Jackie Rothong.
Second, one of our producers, Dan Geneen,
who is probably the world's biggest fan
of Tim Ho Wan pork buns.
And last, but not least,
the man who makes it all happen behind the camera,
Scotty Kan, who's also a massive fan
of Tim Ho Wan pork buns,
so we're gonna go side-by-side.
First one everyone, let's try the original
Tim Ho Wan pork buns.
- It's like crunchy pork candy.
- The dough's really soft, though.
- Now, time for ours.
- I thought it was gonna be a disaster.
The bottom is perfect.
- They're pretty close, Cliff. (laughter)
They're pretty close - They're pretty close.
How do you think we're doing it right
and how do you think it's off?
- The dough is pretty close.
- The dough's close and that's the hardest part.
Did we recreate Tim Ho Wan's pork buns?
- I think in terms of how much are these
like Tim Ho Wan's, I'm gonna give it a 65%.
- Okay, not bad!
We're on the right track. - Yeah.
- Now it's just a tinker.
We reduce the flour content.
We make 'em a little smaller.
We fill 'em a little bit more.
Those three things will get you close.
So guys, thank you so much.
Thank you. - Thank you.
- Thank you. And for more videos like this
please click right here.
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See that's closer. Look at that.
I got these little bubbl--
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