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**BAO RECIPE, MAKES A DOZEN**

1 cup (237mL) milk
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon neutral oil (plus extra for greasing the bao)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup (40g) starch
all-purpose flour (about 3 cups, 360g max, but I do it by feel)

Combine all the dough ingredients in a bowl with as much all-purpose flour as you can stir in with a spoon. Cover and let sit about 20 minutes. Knead in more flour until the dough ball is smooth and just barely sticky. Cover and let rise a couple hours until doubled.

Roll out the dough to 1 cm thickness and bunch out rounds (I use the mouth of a pint glass), placing all the finished rounds on a sheet of parchment paper or coffee filters. You can roll out your dough scrap and punch out more rounds as needed. Lightly smear the tops of each round with oil and fold each one over on itself to create a semi-circle. Cover and let proof about 30 min before steaming.

Steam until the buns just finish puffing up and they feel baked inside when you poke them — about 10 minutes. After cooling, they can be frozen and thawed very quickly.

**SANDWICH RECIPE, MAKES A HALF DOZEN**

6 bao buns (see above)
1 egg
2 slices "American" cheese
salt
pepper
butter
water/milk

Gently open the bao buns and stuff each with a few scraps of cheese.

Beat the egg with salt, pepper and a splash of water or milk. Melt a film of butter in a nonstick pan and heat until foaming. Pour in the egg, slosh it around a little but do not stir. Once the egg cooks into a sheet that is solid enough to fold over on itself, well, fold it over on itself and kill the heat.

Tear the egg into scraps and stuff them into the bao buns. Place the buns in the pan with the residual butter and turn the heat back on. When the bottoms have just turned golden brown, splash just enough water in the pan to make a lot of steam and immediately cover — re-steam until the cheese is melted and the bread warmed through.