Cinnamon Apple Manapua Recipe

Cinnamon Apple Manapua Recipe

Ingredients for insides: 5 large Granny Smith apples; peeled, cored and sliced into thin chunks 3/4 Cup sugar 1/4 Cup flour 1 Tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/4 tsp ground allspice 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1/2 Cup currants 2 Tbsp butter or margarine Procedure Combine all ingredients except butter and mix well. Pour into a greased 9"x13" pan, dot with butter, cover with pierced foil and cook at 375 F for about 40 minutes. Check apples for doneness with a fork. Remove when fork tender and cool well before using in manapua stuffing. Ingredients for Bau part: 1 pkg Rapid Rise yeast 1/4 Cup lukewarm water 1 1/2 Cup room temperature milk 1/2 Cup sugar 3 Tbsp canola oil 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 4 Cups all-purpose flour 2 Cups cake flour Procedure Take 1/4 cup warm water, a pinch of sugar and yeast package, combine in a small bowl and allow to stand until foamy. In a large bowl place sugar and pour in room temperature/warm milk. Mix with wire whip until sugar is dissolved. Add two cups of cake flour and mix well. Add salt, baking powder and canola oil and mix well. Add yeast mixture and mix well. Slowly add the remaining 4 cups of all-purpose flour. Combine well, but do not knead excessively to avoid gluten formation. Allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. (It takes me ~2 1/2 hours in a closed microwave with a jar of boiling water.) Punch down, cut into ~24 pieces and form dough balls. Allow dough balls to rest for about 15 minutes. Roll out each dough ball to a disk ~4" in diameter. (Mine look like an albino sunny side up egg. There is a large lump of dough left in the center to compensate for all the dough gathered on the bottom when closing the disk around the meat.) Place ~1 heaping Tbsp of filler into center of disk, pinch closed and twist. Set filled dough ball on 2" square of waxed or parchment paper, twist side down. Place bau in large bamboo steamer. (Mine takes 6/layer, 2 layers steamer.) Place in a warm, moist place to rise for about 30 minutes. (Again, I do this in a closed microwave with freshly boiled water in a jar.) Place the covered bamboo steamer over a wok with about 1" of boiling water. The water should be about 2" from the bottom of the steamer. Steam for 15 minutes, then remove from heat. (I do not remove the bau from the steamer immediately. I wait for about 1/2 hour to allow the bau to cool and "set" before exposing them to room temperature. This reduces the thermal shock and seems to prevent the formation of "divots" on the surface of the dough.) Stamp top center gently with rubber stamp and red food coloring. Serve hot or freeze to retain freshness. Frozen bau may be reheated by wrapping with a paper towel and microwaving for 1 minute.