Chinese Steamed Buns Mantou Food

CHINESE STEAMED BUNS

Steps:

• Prepare warm water around 35 °C and melt the sugar in. And mix the yeast with the water. Mix well and set aside for around 5 minutes. If you do not want sugar, just skip it.
• Place salt and flour in a large bowl. Pour the water with yeast slowly to the bowl with flour and stir with a chopstick.
• Then knead the flour into smooth and soft dough. At the very beginning, it might be a little bit sticky. Or you can simple resort to a stand mixer.
• Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for around 1 hour or until the paste ball doubles in size.
• When the dough is double in size, get paste ball out, dust the operating board and re-knead the dough for 3-4 minutes until the dough becomes almost smooth again. Divide the dough into two parts, keep kneading and shape each part into 1 inch thick long log.
• Remove the two ends and use a very sharp knife to cut the log to smaller pieces (around 2 cm wide). Try to keep the original shape. Place the buns to a lined steamer one by one. Leave some space among each one as the buns rise after steaming.
• Add cold water to your wok or steel steamer. Cover the lid and rest for 10 minutes in summer and around 20 minutes in winter or until the bun becomes fluffy again.
• Use high fire to bring the water to a boil and continue to steam for around 20 to 25 minutes (depending on the size of your buns).
• Remove off the fire and wait for around 5 minutes before opening the lid. Serve warm or re-steam to soften before serving.

CHINESE STEAMED BUNS (MANTOU)

Steps:

• In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast and sugar over 4 tablespoons of the warm water and leave it for 15 minutes.
• Place the flour in a bowl and make a well in the center. Pour in the yeast mixture and the remaining water. Mix everything to form a dough.
• Turn it onto a floured board and knead until smooth.
• Return dough to the bowl, cover and let it stand in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.
• Punch down, cover again and let it stand for 20 minutes longer.
• Knead the dough again and shape into rolls.
• Bring the water in the bottom of a steamer to a boil. Place the rolls in the steamer, leaving a 1- inch gap between them. Cook for 10 minutes or until firm and cooked through.
• Serve them hot.

CHINESE STEAMED BUNS (MANTOU)

Steps:

• You will also need a rice steamer and some parchment paper.
• Directions:.
• Mix yeast, flour and sug arand salt. Stir well. Add melted lard, vinegar and egg white, mix thoroughly. Result should resemble grains of sand. Add in enough water to turn dough into a ball.
• Knead for about 6-8 minutes with a dough hook in your mixer. If kneading by hand, take a little longer.
• When properly kneaded dough is not overly sticky, very smooth, pulls apart without being stringy. If you under knead your dough, it will flatten when you steam it. If you over knead your dough, it will become very hard.
• Oil up dough ball and place it in a metal bowl. Put a damp paper towel or rag over your bowl let it rest in a warm place to rise for an hour. It should double in size. If you wish, you can set your oven on the keep warm setting and place your bowl in there for an hour.
• Soak the wood ears and shiitake mushrooms in hot water to revive them. Chop them into fine pieces. Next chop your chives. Place your pork and chicken into a bowl and add all of the chopped items. Mix thoroughly. Add in seasonings.
• To test: Place a spoonful in a bowl and nuke it in the microwave. Try it out and add more seasoning as needed.
• Your filling should be relatively sticky and dry. If it is too watery, your dough will get soggy and it will be hard to fill. Make sure everything is well drained!
• Cut parchment paper to 2-3 inch squares. If your buns will be big, cut bigger squares. This will keep your buns from being stuck to your steamer.
• Knead dough to get all of the air out. Knead into sausage shapes and cut into little pieces. Flatten your dough with your hand and spoon filling into dough. Bring all edges to the center and pinch closed. Place on top of parchment paper and set in a cookie tray to rise for 30 minutes.
• Do not overstuff, buns will expand too much. Insure the bottoms of buns aren't too thin or juices from filling will make bottom soggy.
• Ready your steamer and make sure to boil extra water for steaming. Place your buns in the steamer. Steam for 15 minutes (or 20 if your buns are big) and enjoy!

MANTOU / BAOZI / STEAMED BUN DOUGH II

Steps:

• Mix the yeast and flours in a large bowl.
• Dissolve the sugar and add the peanut oil in the water, which should be 120-130 degrees.
• Add water mixture to the flour bowl and mix thoroughly.
• Knead dough until it becomes a consistent ball, adding milk or more flour as needed (I usually end up using a tad more than 1/2 cup of milk).
• Cover dough in a bowl and allow to rest 10 - 15 minutes.
• Remove dough, pound it down, and re-knead until it forms a fully elastic dough ball.
• Place ball in a greased, covered bowl and allow to rise for 40 minutes to 1 hour, until doubled or tripled in bulk.
• Divide into 16-24 small dough balls, or roll out into one large flat rectangle on a floured surface.
• Flatted dough balls with a rolling pin, OR measure 3 - 5 inch rounds out of the pressed rectangle.
• Fill each flat round with roughly 2 tbs of the filling of your choice in the center. Pull the dough on all sides from the corners up to the top, and 'twist' to close.
• Steam filled buns for 15 - 25 minutes over high heat.
• NOTE: Plain buns can be obtained by simply omitting the filling.

SWEET POTATO MANTOU (CHINESE STEAMED BUNS)

Steps:

• Peel and cook sweet potato.
• Puree cooked sweet potato in blender with water or milk and sugar.
• Pour sweet potato liquid into a bowl, sprinkle with yeast, and allow to dissolve.
• Sift dry ingredients together.
• Stir flour mixture into yeast mixture. Knead in 1 additional cup of flour as needed.
• Melt butter or lard and knead into dough.
• Let rise until double (60-90 min).
• Roll dough into flat rectangle; starting from front edge, roll dough into log. Cut log into 16 equal segments. (See photos and instructions for more attractive ways to shape the buns here: http://wendyinkk.blogspot.sg/2009/08/steamed-sweet-potato-mantou.html and here: http://wendyinkk.blogspot.sg/2011/08/purple-sweet-potato-rose-mantou.html).
• Place buns in steamer basket, on cheesecloth, about 1 inch apart.
• Steam vigorously for 15-20 minutes.
• (The buns can be cooked in the steamer basket of your rice cooker while the rice is cooking. They don't all fit at one time, so I freeze the the rest of the shaped, raw, buns on a flat baking sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag. I can pull them out a few at time to thaw and steam as needed.).

HEALTHY STEAMED BUNS / MANTOU

Steps:

• Dissolve the yeast in 1 cup water.
• Add the oats and whole wheat flour and mix.
• Add ½ cup of the remaining water.
• Add white flour, continue mixing.
• Add the remaining water (½ cup) (NOTE: the dough is supposed to be slightly sticky and watery, not like normal bread dough, so add more water if it's too dry).
• Place in a warm area (25-35 degrees celsius) and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size or until it has reached the top of the bowl.
• Knead the dough with some more whole wheat flour (it can take awhile since it's sticky) and shape it into a log.
• Divide log into 10 pieces and shape into buns/balls.
• Place buns in steamer and steam on high heat until you see steam coming out.
• Reduce the heat to medium and continue steaming for 10 minutes.
• Serve & enjoy!