Eyeball Custard Bun

Bloodshot eyeballs! Ahem. Just a PSA not to get too carried away while you’re scrolling in the dark, waiting for LO to fall asleep.
To kick off a series of wacky kitchen experiments, here’s a creepy cool custard bun recipe we tried out to amuse the kids during Halloween.

Day 0

With Halloween creeping round the corner, we got inspired to join in the spooky fun – to create something terrifying out of something people find comfort in.

We started throwing food ideas on the table. Fingers, brains, witches, mummies, ghosts, the lot. While getting ourselves creeped out, we decided that dim sum – namely Eyeball Bun with Pumpkin Custard Filling would be a winner!

None of us have ever made custard bun before, much less eyeballs. But never fear, there’s always google to save the day. Using our collective eye’bao’er, we managed to find recipes which we would tweak to add in the star ingredient, pumpkin.

With our recipes and ingredients prepped, we were ready to start our bao’werful Halloween experiment.

Day 1

The day had come to set off on our journey. Lab equipment? Checked. Recipes? Checked. Ingredients? Oh no! We had forgotten the pumpkin!

In the midst of our predicament, the ripened bananas in the pantry saw their chance and called out to us, ‘EAT ME!’ they said. Everyone agreed that using bananas instead would be a good bet. After all, who ever said that you couldn’t go bananas during Halloween?

We wanted to make the custard filling ‘liu’ like liu sha bao. But alas, it was not meant to be.

After making our banana custard based on the superior measuring method of agar-ation, our filling looked suspiciously thick and we doubted whether our lava would be able to escape the confines of the eyeball bao’lcano.

It was quite interesting to see the bao dough getting kneaded in the machine. The amusing result was a big chubby-caterpillar shaped dough. If only the dough had started crawling out of the bowl on its own accord. Now THAT would be one for the books. While the dough was portioned and left to rest under a damp cloth, we kneaded charcoal powder into a small portion of dough to form the pupils of the eyeball. Next up, it was time to put our suspiciously thick banana custard into our dough balls, which we had flattened into circular sheets. Although this seemed simple enough,
 
we were no match for the task. Hilarity ensued as dough tore, filling spilled, and filled pau burst from being too full. But overall, we did a pretty decent job of filling our bao. It was time to creepify our eye’bao’lls! With toothpicks, black dough, and red and blue food colouring in our arsenal, we got to work designing our bloodshot eye’bao’lls. We then proofed our eye’bao’lls. We were reaching the end of our eerie experiment. The last leg of our journey included hopping on a steam train to steam our baos. Full steam ahead! The final step of steaming our proofed eye’bao’lls was upon us.
 
After what seemed like ages, our steamed eyeball custard buns were ready. The result was quite good for a first try. The bao was fluffy and well cooked. Our suspicions of the banana custard came true and it did not flow out like lava when we tore into the eye’bao’lls. On the bright side, the banana custard was delicious. Pictures were taken and people were horrified. I’d say mission accomplished.
 

Day 2

The day had come to set off on our journey. Lab equipment? Checked. Recipes? Checked. Ingredients? Oh no! We had forgotten the pumpkin!

In the midst of our predicament, the ripened bananas in the pantry saw their chance and called out to us, ‘EAT ME!’ they said. Everyone agreed that using bananas instead would be a good bet. After all, who ever said that you couldn’t go bananas during Halloween?

We wanted to make the custard filling ‘liu’ like liu sha bao. But alas, it was not meant to be.

After making our banana custard based on the superior measuring method of agar-ation, our filling looked suspiciously thick and we doubted whether our lava would be able to escape the confines of the eyeball bao’lcano.

It was quite interesting to see the bao dough getting kneaded in the machine. The amusing result was a big chubby-caterpillar shaped dough. If only the dough had started crawling out of the bowl on its own accord. Now THAT would be one for the books. While the dough was portioned and left to rest under a damp cloth, we kneaded charcoal powder into a small portion of dough to form the pupils of the eyeball. Next up, it was time to put our suspiciously thick banana custard into our dough balls, which we had flattened into circular sheets. Although this seemed simple enough,
 
we were no match for the task. Hilarity ensued as dough tore, filling spilled, and filled pau burst from being too full. But overall, we did a pretty decent job of filling our bao. It was time to creepify our eye’bao’lls! With toothpicks, black dough, and red and blue food colouring in our arsenal, we got to work designing our bloodshot eye’bao’lls. We then proofed our eye’bao’lls. We were reaching the end of our eerie experiment. The last leg of our journey included hopping on a steam train to steam our baos. Full steam ahead! The final step of steaming our proofed eye’bao’lls was upon us.
 
After what seemed like ages, our steamed eyeball custard buns were ready. The result was quite good for a first try. The bao was fluffy and well cooked. Our suspicions of the banana custard came true and it did not flow out like lava when we tore into the eye’bao’lls. On the bright side, the banana custard was delicious. Pictures were taken and people were horrified. I’d say mission accomplished.
 

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