I was inspired by Kristine Fraser and decided I would also try making Disney World foods at home. Which is awesome because Disney foods but even more awesome because I rarely cook anymore…(I’m skipping the Dole Whip from her list, because that’s not an official recipe, I don’t care what anyone says. Dole Whip is vegan and that recipe isn’t vegan. Also, we have the official Dole Pineapple Frozen Yogurt mix which DOES make more realistic Dole Whip anyway.)
As I’ve already mentioned, Satu’li Canteen is one of my favorite restaurants on property and the Cheeseburger Pods will always be on my plate – even if they did shift them over to the kids’ menu only. (HMPH!) This is the recipe that scared me the most, out of all of the recipes Kristine posted.
I’ve never made bao buns, and that’s what Cheeseburger Pods are. I am not a bread baker, either. I don’t own a steamer basket. This recipe was WAY out of my comfort zone, so I read a ton of recipes and blog posts about making bao buns – both in and out of the Foodie, held my breath, and then…. kept putting off making these. I truly postponed them 6 times before I couldn’t postpone it any longer and I did it.
I DID IT.
They are not beautiful like normal bao buns. I had some issues with them during the steaming process. But, I DID IT. I’m really quite proud of myself. So let me tell youuuuuu (hi Pippin) about it.
Let’s start with the filling – it’s just the cheeseburger spring roll filling that I made a few weeks ago, with some tweaks I mentioned in that post. I added 2 more ounces of velveeta and a wee bit more pickle, but otherwise it’s the same recipe.
For the buns, I used the recipe Kristine included in her FB post and I followed it exactly. Mostly.
- I had a wide range of sizes when I separated the dough into rods and pieces so it was a bit of a struggle and my buns were too small, too big, and just right. How to get them all just right is the problem. (Should I find myself on perpetual furlough, I’m going to become a bao bun expert and solve this problem… just sayin’. )
- At some point in my research, I read that you can just use cupcake wrappers instead of parchment paper so I did that because who has time to cut out 15 little squares of parchment paper for multiple sized bao buns? Not me – which was a mistake. The wrappers stuck to the buns – badly. Not good. Don’t use cupcake wrappers, ok?
- This is where I left Kristine’s instructions behind and moved to these instructions for steaming them in the Instapot. The times for the steam and the pressure cook settings were NOT right for my machine. It wasn’t until much later that TW told me that not all machines are the same size or type so cooking times vary. Hah. Nice to know, now. Times pretty much needed to be doubled for our machine – and even then it just didn’t seem to be consistent. Sometimes I’d vent and NO STEAM came out, on either setting. Other times I’d vent and TONS OF STEAM CAME OUT FOREVER AND EVER. No rhyme or reason as the water level was the same for each attempt. I’d steam for 3 minutes, vent, see that they weren’t “done,” add another cup of water, steam again for 3 minutes, vent, and they’d be done. Except when they weren’t. Same thing happened on pressure cook setting. Shrug. In the end, they all worked and the buns (except for the one I tore apart mid-cooking to see what it looked like.) It just took multiple steamings/pressure cooking rounds. The steam setting made the best dough so if I do this again in the Foodie, that’s the setting I’ll use.
I froze five buns and hope they turn out ok. I’ve eaten three for lunch for the last three days (Reheat one at a time in the microwave for 45 seconds with a damp paper towel over it.)
I LOVE these things. TW’s mom, again, not a huge fan. TW liked them but not as much as I did. She’d like it better if the filling was different. Or if I figured out a better filling to bun ratio. Oh, and she also thinks my filling needs more mustard. I don’t but since I love mustard, I’ll increase it next time. And there WILL be a next time.