How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

I have posted some entries on my website regarding how to perfect your steamed and baked siopao buns, i remember one student from Bicol province who said it reminded him of the baked siopao buns his mother made for him. Yes, you can bake these buns if you like. You will not encounter problems with shrinking tops since the surface is exposed to more dry heat than steaming, creating a golden brown crust. Another student requested that we toast the tops, and so we did, their versions also in bicol, (he attended the class with his wife and 10 year old kid)has hard boiled eggs for filling. Which i did last week and this week again. It makes the siopao more filling, the longganisa and chorizo versions were not popular at our household so i used slices of salted eggs and hard boiled eggs instead. the biggest tip , Again, never uncover the steaming buns after steaming them. Just leave the lid or cover, let the buns cool off for a few minutes then take them to a warmer (if you want to serve th...

Anyone having a grand time steaming siopao, mine went well except that i have no idea why the tops are shiny and proofing for 3 hours still created a dense dumpling. My siopao back home is very good, light and fluffy but it has always been a hit and miss. There are days when some of the buns would have wrinkles on top, other days perfect. I have not figured out what is ruining the buns, i tried putting the buns in running boiling water, steaming them before the water boils and both gave good results, but then, a fluke batch would come out just out of nowhere... I am thinking about the proofing time, which is so out there, i used many 30, 45, and hour or so, i thought that if i overproof the dough, the buns would shrink, but i once steamed two buns i left out in the proofing room for like an extra hour and they did not shrink, so i am ruling out the proofing time. What then causes the shrinkage and the pockmarks, like mushrooms, they spring at will.