Pork Floss Buns 豬肉鬆包

Have you ever tried Chinese pork floss, 豬肉鬆?  If not, you're totally missing out cuz pork floss is the bomb and it's the meat version of cotton candy!  Pork floss is meat that is stewed in soy sauce and spices until imbued with flavor and fall apart tender, then teased apart and cooked again until completely dry, in the process becoming a light tender fluff that's packed with intense and incredible yummilicious meat flavor.  It's so good that you just always want to have a bit more!  

Pork floss is used inside rice rolls, or eaten with congee, or with a bit of bread.  One of my favorite (and easy!) tricks is to grab a slice of bread, slaughter on some butter, add some pork floss, roll it up and it's a quick delicious and very popular snack in our household.  Even my wee cat loves the stuff!  

This time I decided to go a bit more formal and make the proper Pork Floss buns, just like you can buy at the bakery!  A soft enriched bun with a hidden heart of pork floss as well as a luscious piling of pork floss on top, this bun is as good looking as it is tasty!

Here's our Pork Floss Buns sliced open, porky inside and out!

The milk bread dough after the 1st rise

These buns themselves are made from our milk bread tangzhong recipe which is also the type used by the bakeries.  Milk bread is special in that it starts off with a "roux": a mix of flour, milk and water that is cooked until it gelantinizes before being added into the rest of the dough.  This trick enables the milk bread to come out super soft, tender and fabulously tasty as well as allowing it to have a longer shelf life.  

I think the "roux" makes this bread particularly easy to make and a good rise is assured.

Other than the bread you will need pork floss 豬肉鬆 of course.  Just as a note, there are other kinds of 'floss' made from different kinds of meat.  We used to always buy fish floss 魚肉鬆 when I was a little girl and it was just as yummy as pork floss.  But mostly on the market nowadays in HK I see pork floss.  

Look for pork floss in your Asian grocery market in the section that sells Chinese snacks.  Or sometimes you'll find it near the potato chips (not sure why).  Also in HK I've seen it sold in the stores that specialize in snack foods.  

Check the ingredients to make sure it's MSG free.  You don't need MSG in pork floss, it's super tasty on its own.

To complete the bun we need to make a sauce that will pull everything together.  This sauce is a mix of mayo and sweetened condensed milk.  Mayo provides that creamy yumminess that it gives everything it touches and condensed milk provides a sweet milky flavor that is just a little bit of all right.  

We put a bit of this sauce with the pork floss inside the bun to give it an added bit of moistness and flavor.  We'll also use it to smear on top of the bun before topping with more pork floss.  It allows the pork floss to stay put.

Dough round with dollop of sauce

Pork floss added

Once the milk bread dough has finished its first rise punch the dough down and divide into equal pieces.  I like to use a food scale for this so that my buns turn out the same size.  Roll out into a circle and add a spoonful of sauce to the middle.  Then add a scoop of pork floss.  

Dough gathered together

Dough pinched closed

Gather the dough edges together and firmly pinch closed.  This will be the bottom of the bun.

2nd rise finished and ready for the oven

Let the now stuffed and shaped dough buns rise again, covered, until double in size.  Glaze with an egg milk glaze just before baking for beautiful color and shine on the buns.

Fresh out of the oven

Here are the buns, fresh out of the oven,  Look how they shine!

Before the very last step I just want to say that you don't have to have pork floss on both the inside and the outside.  You could just have it inside only.  Or outside only.  It's up to you.  So my pork floss in and out buns are a maybe a little bit overkill.  But that's because I LOVE pork floss, okay?!

So what I'm trying to say is that you can make simple milk bread buns w/o the filling and then skip to this last stage which is the topping.  It's going to be pretty darn good enough already.

Back to the last step*!  Okay, let the baked buns cool completely.  Smear more of the mayo/condensed milk sauce on the bun.  Dribble pork floss all over generously.  And your porky piéce de rèsistance is done!

Tip*: Remember to only add the topping when you're ready to eat a bun right away.  Otherwise store buns in an airtight container for up to a week until ready to top and eat.  

Pork Floss Buns Recipe 豬肉鬆包

(10 buns)  Prep time:10 mins  2nd rise: 40 mins  Cook time:15 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 portion Milk Bread dough (see our milk bread recipe)
• 2 cups pork floss, 60g

    Sauce

• 3 tbsp mayo
• 1 1/2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

    Glaze

• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp milk

Directions:

Make milk bread dough according to the milk bread recipe.  After the lst rise (the dough should have doubled) punch down the dough and divide into 10 equal pieces (around 86 g per portion, if you're using a food scale).  

Roll out one portion into a circle about 3 1/2 inch in diameter.  Add 3/4-1 tsp of sauce to the middle of the dough.  Top with 2 1/2 tsp pork floss.  Gather the sides of the dough together and pinch firmly close.  Place pinched side down on baking paper lined baking sheet.  Repeat for all the buns.  

Cover and let rise 40 mins or until the dough is doubles in size.  Reserve the remaining sauce for topping the buns.

Be sure to preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C) for 10 mins before the rise time is up.

Make the glaze by beating the egg and then adding milk and mixing until combined.  Brush the top of the risen buns lightly with the glaze.  Bake in the oven for 15-17 mins or until the tops turn a golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool.  

Top the buns that you will eat right away and store the rest in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.  Also cover and store remaining sauce in the fridge.  

To top the buns, use a spatula to spread some sauce over the top of the buns.  Sprinkle pork floss over, pressing lightly, until the desired amount of pork floss is added to the top of the bun.  Ready to eat your buns now, enjoy the porkiness!

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