Einstein said “Imagination is More Important Than Knowledge” For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

I have been thinking of making this flower rolls for eons. Last year my friend came to my house and noticed my spring onions growing wild! Too many of them. She recommended I made spring onion oils. I am not a big fan cause I do not like the ‘brownish’ looking spring onions after. I’ve never needed to buy spring onions ever for years. They just grow all through winter in my garden which is a South facing little micro climate area in Hertfordshire. I am really lucky!

I lost the use of my bamboo steamer a few years back as I kept it in the shed and it went mouldy. It’s very difficult to buy one of bamboo the size I wanted until recently. I bite the bullet and got a new one few months back as they are expensive! Hubby was ‘you’ve not use your bamboo steamer yet’ few few times already and I pretended to ignored him I know he is hinting for my special ginger parcels.

Today I have made spring onions (scallions) and lap cheong flower rolls. This idea been in my head a long time but I just needed to find out how to make the green of the spring onion remains fresh looking even after baking!

My boy on the other hand do not like to eat spring onions and won’t touch lap cheong (Chinese sausage) and he requested for ham and cheese. so I made some ham and cheese for him too!

While I was cutting the ham I remembered I have some pineapple I was saving for rojak but hey ho I will use it for him to make him a happy boy. So the Hawaiian Flowered roll is born!

My mind was in over drive thinking of all the combinations possible both sweet and savoury now that I have decided I want to use this combination of flours and liquid ratio. It gives me a soft roll and I much prefer steamed rolls to baked really. I find steamed boa/rolls much softer and less dry than bread. Easier on the palate

I tweaked my char siew bao recipe a bit and viola this flower dough roll is born. For the steps to making this dough please refer to https://www.julieolive.co.uk/2020/07/28/easy-char-siu-baozi/ to see how to make the dough.

Use the my fours to liquid ratio as a guide and experiment. I have done a few suggestion here and hope you enjoy it.

Having more liquid makes for a softer boa/roll but the shape would not look as good but eats better.

Having less liquid gives you a better looking bao/roll but do not taste as soft just ecstatically pleasing to the eye.

TIP – To keep your spring onions and chives green even after baking you first soak them in 2 litres of cold water + 1 tsp of baking powder for 30 minutes before slicing for use. In this way your spring onions will still look just plucked from garden even after baking. Refer to my pic

TIP – To eat the next day all you have have to do is microwave it 30 seconds.

Char Siu Baozi ( 叉烧包 ) taste a heck of a lot better with charcoal BBQ char siu. I will not make (叉烧包) again with char siu make any other way. With sesame seeds and coriander, this is how I remembered it used to be when I was young, hmmmm…..when I was younger? Some 30+ years ago.

This type of baozi fillings can hardly be found anymore. My son used to love the char siu bao when we have Dim Sum and when I buy home the ready made bao. However in recent years they are so full of fat pork and only taste sweet that he has gone off them. He was so happy when I made these for him with pork shoulder. The hubby who don’t like fats pork appreciate them too.

I have been hankering to make myself some for ages as I just could not get fillings I like and the filling is always wanting. Then it occurred to me it is missing that BBQ charcoal taste. So last week I made 2kg plus of char siu with extra marinate to make the sauce and saved some for today. For my char siu recipe please click here https://www.julieolive.co.uk/2020/07/22/char-siu-chinese-bbq-pork-ala-julies-recipe/

It is much better to make your char siu, cubed them, cook with the saved marinate (please refer to link) adding cornflour slurry to thicken then place in a shallow container with lid in fridge to use the next day.

TIP – Do not add the sesame seeds and coriander leaves until it is time for you to wrap so the coriander stays green and the sesame seeds stay light. Much prettier looking. I do like pretty looking food. Eat with the eyes first for me.

Next is to figure out the easiest way I can make the ‘bun/skin’ making as I still cannot use my left shoulder and hand that much still due to my frozen shoulder. I have been thinking of a simple way in bed resting each nights. kekekekekeke

Finally I tried doing everything using my Kenwood titanium and I only wrap. Trial and error until it is ok to write out a recipe – hence the easy char siu baozi is born! It also takes only 3 hours max from starting to tummy!

I must have made this about 5 times now in so many weeks. Before I only ever make baozi once in a blue moon as I can easily buy here in London. Lockdown ……punya pasal. We have to make everything ourselves. Luckily I like cooking.

TIP – I will take a pic and update when I can get the flour I preferred. I made a second round for these pics yesterday using cake flour and it was not too bad but not as white as the other bao flour with a green cabbage in front of the packaging. You can get the flour from most Chinese supermarket in UK. Any low gluten bleached flour is all right to use. Just your baozi will be less white.

Update 07/01/2022 This is the flour I used besides the cake flour in the old pics.