• For The Bao Dough
• In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, instant yeast, baking powder, kosher salt (and sugar if you're using it) and gently whisk to combine.
• Add in your warmed soy milk (you can also use water but soy milk will yield a softer and richer dough) and vegetable oil and mix to form a tacky dough ball. Scrape out the bowl well onto a work surface to knead.
• You should be able to knead it without it sticking to your hands, if you find you need more, add about 1 tsp and knead until it's easier to work with. The more flour you have, the stiffer the dough will be. I personally prefer really tender bao, so I try to avoid adding any more than in the recipe.
• Knead until you get a smooth dough that springs back when you poke it (about 5 minutes). Gather into a ball and tuck the seams in at the bottom to smooth.
• Add about 1 tbsp to the bowl and spread to coat the bowl. Add the kneaded dough in and turn to lightly coat in the oil. Let let rise for 30 min (smoothed seam down), covered in a warm place.

For the Char Siu Filling:

• In a nonstick and oven-safe pan (like a cast-iron or a NeverStick pan), combine shaoxing wine, hoisin sauce, brown sugar/maltose, red bean curd, red bean curd liquid, white pepper, five spice powder and minced garlic. Mash up the bean curd with a fork or a whisk and heat over medium heat to begin the reduction.
• Add in your preferred protein: I've used about 2 cups reconstituted soy curls (about 1 cup dehydrated) and I've used seitan before. Whichever your preference is, I just happened to have seitan prepared.
• Cook to reduce the sauce and toss to coat your protein of choice. Once the sauce has thickened and reduced well, broil in the oven on high for about 5 minutes until you get some charring.
• Remove from oven and transfer to a bowl to cool until cool enough to handle

For the Bao:

• Once your bao dough has doubled in size (~30 min), gently punch down the down and divide into 6 equal parts. I had about 430g of dough total, so I divded by 6 to get about 72g of dough per ball. You can make 8 bao instead though, and divide into ~53g per ball.
• Each piece of dough starts to form a dryish skin fairly quickly, so I generally like to tuck that inside the dough ball and then pinch the bottom seams, then cup my hand over the ball with the seams underneath, then roughly move my hand in a circular motion to seal the seam. Repeat with all your dough balls, then cover with a bowl or a damp kitchen towel to keep them from drying out.
• Preheat your pot of water or steamer pot over medium heat and bring the water to a boil while you prepare the bao. Add a splash of vinegar if you'd like your bao to be more white, but this is not necessary.
• Working with one dough ball at a time, gently flatten and roll out the ball into an even, 8-10 cm flat circle (about 3.5-4 inches). I like to make the edges thinner while keeping the middle a bit thicker so the pleating isn't super thick on top.
• In the centre, add about 1/4-1/3 cup of the cooled char siu mixture and pleat the bao to envelop the char siu filling. I'm pretty bad at this, but as long as you pleat and pinch to secure well it should be fine. Place the pleated bao on parchment paper squares. Repeat until all your baos are ready!
• Steam your bao over the preheated steamer pot (covered) for 20 minutes, then turn off the heat (DO NOT REMOVE THE LID). This 5 min rest in the steamer allows for the bao to set so they won't collapse once you remove them from heat.
• After 5 minutes, remove and enjoy immediately!