Micah's BBQ Pork Steamed Buns

You can fill these steamed buns with just about anything and they'll be delicious, or even cook them flat and create a taco style meal with them.  This recipe is modified from the Food Network recipe here.  I prefer them a little sweeter and have found rolling them out a little thinner makes for a better meat to bun ratio.  Both the pork and dough should sit over night, so this is best made over 2 days.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/brian-boitano/pork-steamed-buns-recipe.html

Any kind of steamer and oven are required.

Filling:

1 rack pork back ribs
3/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup sweet bbq sauce (I use Famous Dave's Sweet and Zesty sauce)
Optional - Any simple vegetables, cabbage, green onion, and the like work really well.  Amount depends on your preference.

Buns:

1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour, plus more for kneading and rolling
1 1/2 cup cake flour
4 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil, plus a little more to coat the bowl


Filling

• Marinate the ribs with the hoisin and bbq sauce over night.  I use the bag they come in and twist and rubber band it to seal.
• Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees.
• Cover a sheet pan with tin foil and place the ribs, meat up, on it.
• Squeeze out all of the sauce you can across the top of the ribs.
• Cook for 2 hours, basting every 30 minutes.
• Let rest and cool before cutting all of the meat from the bones and roughly chopping

Buns

• Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a small bowl.  Let sit for a few minutes, the yeast will foam and bubble.
• In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, surgar, and baking powder.
• Make a well in the center and add the warm milk, oil, and activated yeast.
• Work the dough with your hands or a spoon until it just starts to come together, it will be a mess.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured board or countertop and kneed until the dough becomes smooth and soft.  About 10 minutes.
• Scrape the large bowl clean(semi-clean, just get any big chunks) and lightly oil it.
• Put the dough in the bowl and turn it over once to coat very lightly with the oil. 
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge over night.

Bringing it all together:

• Cut vegetables to a fine chop and cook if necessary.  Mix with the chopped rib meat.  (green onions and cabbage will cook fine in the buns and don't need to be cooked separately, carrots or thicker vegetables won't cook all the way through)
• Roll the dough out into a log 14 inches long and cut into 14 even pieces.  Trying to work our 14 even pieces without measuring is a pain, so I suggest using a ruler or tape measure.
• Ball each piece and set aside.
• On a flour dusted board or counter top roll each piece of dough out into ~4 inch circle and set aside.  Re-flour the surface for each ball. 
• When you're ready to fill the dough, put 1 piece of dough on the board and thin out the sides, leaving the middle a little thicker
• Put 2 full spoon fulls of the rib meat in the center of the dough.
• Pull the sides up around the meat, it should fit tight without needing to stretch the dough much extra.
• Pinch and twist the dough at the top to seal
• Steam for 12-15 minutes