Steamed buns are a Chinese dish I've seen references
to here and there. For example, Mui makes them using
her martial arts skill in Shaolin Soccer. I've
heard how good they are, how soft and light and fluffy,
but... steaming bread to cook it? Wouldn't that
just give you lumps of mushy dough? I finally got
curious enough to give it a try. The result... well,
if it was a waste of time I wouldn't bother to post
a recipe for it, would I?
What you'll need to make 24 buns:
||1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 tsp white
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
cup warm water
||1/2 cup warm water or milk
1 1/2 cups
1/4 tsp salt
tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp vegetable
or peanut oil
|Finish-up & cooking:
1/2 tsp baking powder
In your mixing bowl, mix the water and flour
from the "starter" stage, then sprinkle the
yeast and sugar on top. (The water should be about 110
degrees to make a good environment for the yeast.) Leave it for around 15-30 minutes.
Stir in the remaining water/milk (I prefer milk),
flour, salt, sugar, and oil. Mix it into dough. Flour
your work surface, turn the dough onto it, and knead
it until it's smooth. Then grease a bowl lightly, return
the doughball to the bowl, roll it around to coat the
ball with grease, cover it, and let it stand for an
hour and a half until it has doubled in size. (The original
recipe called for it to rise for 2.5 to 3 hours, but
the rolls I got when I did that tasted obnoxiously yeasty.)
Punch down the dough with the back of your fist,
then spread it on the lightly floured working surface.
Sprinkle the baking powder evenly over it and then knead
it for five minutes. Then put half of the dough back
in the bowl and cover it again, and pull off bits of
the dough you still have out and shape them into spheres.
You can put these on squares of parchment paper, to make them easier to handle later. You should
end up with about a dozen rolls, unless you feel like varying
the sizes. Take out the other half of the dough and
do the same thing. Then cover the rolls - a deep pan
will do, as will a "tent" made out of plastic
wrap and four tall glasses - and let them rise for another
Almost done! Now comes the fun part. Take the basket
out of your steamer and bring the water to a boil, then
reduce the heat to a simmer. Place some buns, still
on their paper, in the basket, leaving an inch
between them. Place the basket in the steamer, put a
paper towel over the top, and put the lid on over that.
(This will prevent condensation from dripping back down
on the buns and creating blisters.) Steam them over
simmering water for 15 minutes, or until they are firm.
Take them out and presto! Steamed buns! Now repeat several
you happen to have a huge enough steamer to do all these
You can fan the buns while they're fresh out of the
steamer to give them a shiny finish. And if you blow
on them when they're hot they'll contract slightly,
and them puff out a little when you stop. Weird!
You don't have to stick with plain rolls. You can
also add fillings such as anko or meat.