Happy Chinese New Year! I started 2016 with a food project. I wanted people to cook/bake/make Chinese pastries, I wanted people to get excited about Chinese pastries like they do with doughnuts and pies and cupcakes. So I thought one of the best ways was to get the food community...bloggers, photographers, instagrammers involved. There are so much great Chinese treats out there and people should know about them. Here's what I made or attempted to make. The mini chicken pie. Yeah, it looks NOTHING like the ones you find in a Chinese bakery, also the crust is totally wrong. I used the Four & Twenty Blackbirds pie crust recipe which is awesome and flaky but it should be more crumbly and cookie like. ALSO, I had spent days trying to find out how they shape the pies. In the end I made them more like mini chicken pot pies with the crimping and stuff. Now I'm tempted to go intern at a Chinese bakery just so I know how to properly make this.

But this as a Hong Kong chicken pie "inspired" creation, it's pretty darn tasty.

Did you make or bake something for my project? Remember to include the hashtag #bakewithdonny so I can see and please include a link in the comments below! Hopefully you have learned something cool from this project.

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Makes 4 pies 1.5 lb chicken thighs (4 pieces) 1/2 onion diced 2 cloves of garlic grated 1 teaspoon grated ginger 2 tablespoons xo sauce 1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon fermented bean sauce (optional) A can of chicken stock 1 egg Oil Salt + pepper

First, make the pie crust. I used the Four & Twenty Blackbirds pie crust recipe. I made enough for a double crust pie. When the dough is resting in the fridge, make the filling.

Pre-heat the oven, 350 degrees.

Remove the skin from the thighs and lay them flat on a sheet pan. Season both sides. Then lay a piece of parchment paper on top follow by another pan...follow by something heavy (also oven safe). This is to keep the skin flat. Put the pieces of skin in the oven and bake for 40mins. When they're done, place the skins onto paper towels to soak up the oil and then dice them up for sprinkling.

Remove the bone from the thighs and cut up the meat into 1/2 inch cubes.

In a pan on medium high heat, add some oil. Toss in the chicken and cook till you don't see any pink on the outside. Add in the diced onion and cook for couple minutes. Add in garlic and ginger. Add in all the sauces (xo sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, fermented bean sauce). Then season to taste.

*Note: The xo sauce I bought is not the same one I used to buy. I couldn't find the brand I wanted and settled on another brand. The jar that I got isn't as strong in the xo sauce flavor so after tasting the filling, I added another tablespoon. I suggest you give the filling a taste as well and tweak as you like. You might want more fermented bean sauce flavor or maybe more sesame oil flavor.

Add the flour to the filling mixture, stir and add the chicken stock. Let mixture simmer for few minutes. Then take it off the heat and let cool.

*Note: I only added enough stock to go half way up to the pieces of chicken. I didn't want it to get too saucy. If you like it more saucy, add more stock.

Increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees.

While the filling is cooling, roll out the dough. Line each mini pie pan with dough and some overhang. Use a fork and poke some holes in the dough. Spoon in the filling. Place another piece of dough on top and then crimp the edges.

Beat up 1 egg and brush all the pies with the egg. Put the pies into the oven and bake till golden brown, roughly 45-50mins. When the pies are just about to turn golden brown, sprinkle chicken skin on top. Finish baking.

Make a pot of oolong tea and eat a pie.

Are you familiar with Chinese bakeries? They're pretty rare outside of Chinatown. Chinese bakeries are awesome because they offer such a wide range of baked goods and pastries and it's also common to find some dim sum stuff there too. There are some old school bakeries that will mostly sell the basics (hot dog buns, roast pork buns, almond cookies, wife cake) while there are some fancy new ones that have included western pastries like eclairs and croissants. Wikipedia has a great list of baked goods that are common in Chinese bakeries while Serious Eats has a nice list that includes pictures. I had a thought last year. With all the people going crazy over cronuts and donuts and babkas and rugelachs and pies and cupcakes....where are all the excitement for Chinese pastries?! Do we need someone like Ansel to make it popular? Does it need to be updated? Re-invented? I have to say that the hot dog bun I had when I was a kid, taste the same as the one I had couple days ago. Maybe it is time to update it.

So here's a thought. What if I get all of you to just make something. I have put together a list of the most common pastries and baked goods I could find and included recipes from the internet to help y'all get started. I wasn't able to include ALL the pastries but you're welcome to make something else. It's up to you if you want to keep it traditional or make it your own. Keep it simple or go crazy. Let's make Chinese pastries popular, yeah?!

February 8th is Lunar New Year so I thought that would be a GREAT day for all of you to post (blog/tumblr/instagram) your results. And please tag your instagram post with #bakewithdonny

Hot Dog Bun GS3A4259-1 GS3A4281-1 Recipes: i am a food blog, The Woks of Life, Flavours of Asia (Video)