Chinese Steamed Bread Buns (Mantou) Recipe (Steam Buns)

Chinese Steamed Bread Buns (Mantou) Recipe (Steam Buns)

Welcome to Xiao's Kitchen. My name is Xiao Wei, ever since my Mother taught me how to cook at an early age, I have always had a strong passion for Cooking. My family still live in Inner Mongolia in the northern part of China, where I visit each year and pick-up new Asian/Chinese recipes.

Traditionally, mantou, bing, and wheat noodles were the staple carbohydrates of the northern Chinese diet, whereas rice, formed the main diet of the southern Chinese. They are also known in the south but are often served as street food or a restaurant dish, rather than as a staple or home cooking. Restaurant mantou is often smaller and more delicate and can be further manipulated, for example, by deep frying and dipping in sweetened condensed milk. The Mongols are thought to have taken the filled (baozi) style of mantou to many countries of Central and East Asia about the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th century.

The steam bun is good for serving with stews, hot pots, soups, stir-fries and many more.

Ingredients:
400g Plain Flour
10g Yeast
10g Sugar
220ml Warm Water

Method:
1. Combined the yeast with the loot warm water & stir, then leave to stand for 5 minutes
2. Place the flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl
3. Then gradually add the water and yeast in with the flour and mix
4. Knead into a smooth dough, then cover and leave in a warm area to ferment, leave until it doubles in size
5. Knead the dough again for 2 minutes, replace the cover and leave until it doubles in size again
6. Dust a clean surface with flour
7. Place the dough on the work surface, make a hole in the centre of the dough to form a ring
8. Work the ring to an even thickness at about 5cm diagonally
9. Cut the ring into 10 equal size pieces, and then work each one into a ball
10. Boil some water in a steamer- the water level should be 3cm below the first tier
11. Place the dough one at the time onto the tier – leave a 2cm gap between each piece
12. Once the water is starting bubbling just before reaching to the boiling point, place the tier from above onto steamer, cover immediately and steam for 25 to 30 minutes
13. Turn off the heat, leave for a minute before removing the lid
14. Remove the buns onto a dish, serve with stews, stir-fries or soup

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[ronin-ThorstenFrank]

Thx for doing this current series on sidedishes - I get now a clearer picture on this topic.

[Momzie]

I watched a lot of this type of buns before I've noticed that when you knead it less and steam. The buns collapse and when cooled they deflate. So when you knead them and roll them out trying to remove all the air from them so when you steam them they don't collapse and when cooled they remain high. Learned this the hard way as well.

[faoliusiu]

Thanks for showing recipes of all kinds of food...

[alassino]

400 gr of flour and 500 ml of water? it's impossible. this ratio makes 125% hydration. and this will be a strong soup, not dough.
your dough seems so hard. i think you are wrong or you hide something. please, be more carefully and don't give any wrong information here.