Here is the recipe that my paternal grandfather taught me.
Ingredients
- 16 squares parchment paper, each 7cm by 7cm in area
- 350mL warm water
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
- dash salt
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1.5 tablespoons oil
- 600g white bread flour
Directions
- In a small bowl, mix the sugar and salt in the water, and then mix in the yeast. Let it rest for a while and it should smell active.
- Add the oil to the mixture.
- In a large bowl, add the flour and scoup out a hole in the centre. Add the liquids to the hole and gradually incorporate the flour.
- Knead the dough until it forms into an elastic and smooth ball, which takes about 15 minutes. The dough should not stick to your hands, and be quite stretchy.
- Roll out the dough into a tube that's about 5cm in diameter.
- Slice the tube into 16 loafs. Lay each of the loafs on its cylindrical edge, not the face, on top of a square of parchment paper.
- Wait 20 minutes for the loaves to rise. They won't rise much, but you just want the surface of the loaves to be puffy.
- Arrange the loafs in one or more bamboo steamers. They will expand more on their faces, so don't put loafs face-to-face, or they will stick together.
- Place the bamboo steamers on top of hot boiling water. Cover, and steam over high heat for 15 minutes.
- Remove the lid and remove the loaves to a plate, before turning off the heat. You do not want water to condense on the buns.
Makes 16 loaves. Serves 4 when eaten by themselves (and you'll want to do that when they come out of the steamer.)
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Comments
You sure you didn't just leak a secret recipe to the public?
Not only that, I don't think it's a secret at all. And why shouldn't I spread the joy of freshly steamed bread?
I don't remember if they come out the brilliant white that restaurant buns do, but I don't particularly care for that. For the sake of appearance or texture, a lot of things are done by Chinese restaurants that I really don't want to do with my food.
Thanks!
You may opt to do a second rising before cooking, although I don't know how that affects the texture. They may be softer and chewier that way, but that's not really how these buns are supposed to be.
Wholemeal flour will probably work, although the texture will be quite bizarre. I would personally dislike it, but you can try to see if it fits your tastes.
You let the bread rise the same amount of time.
350mL is about 1½ US cups.
600g of flour doesn't convert to cups at all. You're best off measuring using a scale as flour can weigh anywhere from 100g to 150g.
You really just need to improvise something that lets plenty of hot steam circulate around the bread, without immersing them in water. The advantages of bamboo steamers are that they are cheap and by stacking them you get enormous capacity.
I am eager to try your recipe, but I am wondering if these tasty buns will work well with an egg custard filling...I sure hope they do!
Thanks in advance,
Creamy Egg Bun Lover
That’s distinctly different from this recipe and I’ve yet to bake those yet. If you Google for “cocktail bun recipe”, you will probably find something that will work.
Good luck!
ASAP Please....
i believe that the HK style of this filling is not just any sweet custard. on close examination, it had tiny bits of mashed preserved egg yolk! the small bits were indeed salty but provided contrast to the sweet custard.
I don't have any bamboo steamers though, only a big metal steamer - hoping it'll be ok? Or maybe the buns will come out soggy! Well will let you know how it goes!
I use regular white flour obtainable from any grocery store and my "man-tou" come out white.
Thanks for the recipe! Just got a bread maker and my mom loves man tou! Will be trying it out in a few hours! :D
I've been looking for a steamed white bun like this for such a long time and I come across your web. I'd like to try out this recipe. I come from Indonesia but I live in New Zealand. Last time I tried a recipe for a steamed bun was a long time ago. Traditionally, we have a homey recipe like this bun but we stuff it with either shaved palm sugar or the mixture of coconut threads and palm sugar, which is called unti-unti in Javanese. Anyway, I've lost that ancient recipe and I have to try it from the start. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
ab
im trying it out now
x
The buns came out delicious.
Thanks
There are some places that have soft all-purpose flour, which is good for cakes, but lousy for bread.
I like mantou (which I call siopao). I have a 3-decker steamer which I bought from an oriental store. How do you prevent the dough from getting all soggy? You said to raise the lid with chopsticks. Can I also use flour sacks to cover the bottom and top so that they absorb the water? Can you recommend a good steamer that won't leak water to the buns?
Thanks.