Steam Buns (蒸包)

Matcha buns with red bean fillings

I became hopelessly obsessed with steam buns this week. After making a batch last weekend and wasn’t quite happy with the texture, I went on a deep dive into the world of steam buns, watching every Youtube videos I can find and comparing different recipes from multiple chefs. I even stood beside my steamer and watch how “strong” the steam was at its lowest setting to try to determine the most gentle way to steam these little guys without ruining the smooth outer skin.

Turns out, this dish with seemingly simple ingredients is highly technical and has to be very specific in the steps to produce good results.

You’ll get:

10 soft steam buns with fillings of your choice.

You need:

• 200g Hong Kong Bleached Pau Flour, or All Purpose Flour
• 2g instant yeast
• 24g fine sugar
• 100ml milk, room temp.
• 20g water, room temp.
• 15g vegetable oil
• Tiny pinch of salt
• 5g green tea powder (optional)
• 200g red bean paste

Your equipments:

• A steamer
• A pair of chopsticks
• A flour sieve
• A small rolling pin
• A middle size mixing bowl

To make:

1. Dissolve yeast in water and set aside.
2. Sieve flour into a mixing bowl
3. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in yeast mixture, milk, salt and sugar.
4. Mix the shaggy dough with a pair of chopsticks so it doesn’t stick to your fingers.
5. Pour oil in and begin kneading with your hands.
6. Knead until smooth, in a delibrately slow and gentle manner to keep the dough soft and its gluten relaxed. If you find the dough tightening up during kneading, stop for a minute to let the dough relax before continuing. Note: if you overknead and tighten up the gluten too much at this point, you’ll end up with a very bumpy dough which will affect the appearance and texture of your buns at the end.
7. Place dough in a bowl and cover with cling wrap. Proof for 30mins.
8. Meanwhile, divide fillings into 10 portions, 20g each. I used store bought red bean paste. Rolled them into round balls and set aside.
9. Once 1st proofing is done, uncover cling wrap and punch down your dough to release air.
10. Divide in 10 equal portions, 30g each. Shape them into round smooth balls.
11. Using a rolling pin, roll your dough ball into a flat round wrap about 9 to 10cm diameter. Make the edges thinner with the rolling pin.
12. Wrap filling into the dough and pinch to seal the opening. Then place the bun with its sealed end facing down, so that the ugly sealed end is hidden from view.
13. Rub a little oil to the bottom of your steamer basket so the buns wouldn’t stick to it, then transfer your buns into the steamer basket.
14. Proof for 12mins, uncovered.
15. Meanwhile, bring the water in your steamer pot to a rolling boil and then turn it down a very low simmer.
16. Once 2nd proofing is done, place your steamer basket with the buns in them onto your steamer pot, cover and steam for 10min, using the same low simmer heat.
17. Once done, turn off heat. Lift the lid to open a tiny gap for the steam to escape slowly. Wait 5mins before removing lid completely.
18. Serve immediately or store the buns in an airtight container.

Note:

• Many other recipes call for baking powder as an secondary leavening agent beside yeast but I find it unnecessary. The unactivated baking powder can taste metallic. And the skin of the bao will inevitably contain some baking powder too, it’ll activate during the steaming and make the skin more bumpy. And if the baking powder isn’t properly mixed into the flour it can also give the pao yellow spots. So I decided to leave it out.
• First proof develops the structure and flavor. Second proof isn’t technically a proof because all we need in the buns are tiny little air sags. Unlike bread making that requires more gluten structure to provide softness and bounce, bao just need the dough to remain soft and pillowy. So 2nd proof is basically just to relax the dough before steaming. If you let 2nd proof carry on for too long the yeast will produce too much air in the dough and cause the skin of the pao to become very bumpy. Not appetitising at all! This is completely different from bread-making. There’s no need to do windowpane test or observe 2x dough size increase which are often mentioned in break-making recipes.
• 30g dough will give you a bao about 7cm across. If you like your bao to be bigger — like the ones you get in coffeeshops — you can increase to each dough portion to 45g and filling to 30g each.

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My name is Rayner. Cooking and baking are my hobbies and my way to get my mind off work. Come follow my food journey and see what I’m cooking up for the family.

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