All purpose flour 200 g

Water 110 g

Instant dry yeast 2 g

Sugar 15 g

Oil 10 g

Pour everything together in a big bowl and use chopsticks to mix until you don’t see any liquid. Knead the mixture until everything comes together. Leave it inside the bowl and cover with a damp cloth.

15 minutes later, take the dough out and knead for 10 minutes until the surface is smooth, leave it in the bowl again and cover with the damp cloth for about 1.5 hours to 2 hours until twice in size (depend on the temperature).

Take the dough out and roll it to a long roll and cut it evenly to 6 pieces.

Take one piece out and knead it about 10 times, then roll it into a round ball. Then do the same for the rest of them.

Take the first ball out, use a rolling pin to roll it out to a oval shape, brush/spread some oil on it then fold it over.

Use a cake scraper to lightly cut some liners on the top then use a chopstick to fold the edges a little to make it look like leaf.

Use a damp cloth to cover them up and let rest for 30 minutes.

Bring some water to boil then steam the buns over the water in a bamboo steamer for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes turn the heat off then leave them in the steamer for 5 minutes. ( don’t take the lid off right after you turn the heat off)

中筋麵粉 200 g

水 110 g

快速發酵酵母 2 g

糖 15 g

油 10 g

把所有東西都倒在一個大碗裡，用筷子混合，直到你看不到任何液體。揉捏混合到成團。把它留在碗裏用濕布蓋住。

15分鐘后，將麵糰拿出來揉10分鐘，直到表面光滑，再次放在碗中，用濕布蓋住約1.5小時至2小時，直到兩倍大小（取決於溫度）。

把麵團拿出來，卷成一條長卷，均勻地切成6份。

拿出一塊，揉10次，然後滾成一個圓球。然後 其他的也照做。

拿出第一個球，用擀麵杖擀出一個橢圓形，刷/噴一些油，然後對摺起來。

使用蛋糕刮刀輕輕的在面上刻幾條綫，然後用筷子推一下邊緣，使它看起來像葉子。

用濕布蓋住它們，二次發酵30分鐘。

燒開一些水，然後將荷葉包放入竹蒸籠隔水蒸15分鐘。

15 分鐘后關火，然後將它們留在蒸籠中 5 分鐘。（記住不要馬上開蓋）

I Love steam buns so much that I had tried so many times in the past to make them myself, but there was always something missing and I didn’t know why. Recently I’ve tried different recipes and asked people so many questions, and today I made my best steam buns ever. Here is my recipe, hope you will like it too.

 

All-purpose flour 500g

Water 280g

Sugar 1tbsp

Rapid rise instant yeast 5g

 

Pork filling:

Pork belly 430g

Light soy sauce 1.5 tbsps.

Dark soy sauce 2 tbsps.

Cooking wine 1tbsp

Chicken bouillon 1/2tsp

Scallion ½ cup (finely chopped)

Mix everything together and marinate for a couple of hours.

 

Beef and cabbage filling:

Ground beef 70g

Cabbage 150g (finely shredded)

Carrot 2tbsps. (finely shredded)

Chinese Dried mushroom a few pieces

Salt 1/3 tsp

Chicken bouillon ¼ tsp

Sesame oil 1 tsp

Chinese vermicelli 10g

Soak the dried mushroom in water until soften. All vegetables need to be finely shredded, thin and short. Bring some water to boil, and cook cabbage in the boiling water for a minute. Also cook the vermicelli in boiling water for 15 seconds, then cut them really short. Squeeze all the water out of cabbage, and then mix with the rest of ingredients.

Red bean paste filling:

Red bean 225g

Water 2 cups

Sugar 250g

Vegetable oil 45g

Glutinous rice flour 15g + 3tbsps water (mix well)

Salt 1/3 tsp.

Soak the red bean in water overnight.

Cook the red bean and water in a pressure cooker for 7 minutes.

After the bean is cooled, pour it to a blender and blend until smooth.

Cook the bean paste in a cooking pan with the rest of ingredients until it is in thick paste condition, about 20-30 minutes. when it is ready, the bean paste will become whole big piece and not stick to the edge of the cooking pan.

You can do the same for the bean with green tea powder filling, only you need to an additional ingredient of 1tbsp of green tea powder that is mixed with 2 tbsps. of water, mix it with the rest ingredients.

Direction:

Mix all the ingredients for Bun dough together in a bread machine and turn the dough cycle on. The dough cycle is 90 minutes in total.

Once the time is up, usually it is twice in size, it is good. The time will vary depend on the weather temperature.  If you don’t have a bread machine at home, you can use a mixer to mix the dough for 15 minutes, then let it rise in room temperature until it is twice in size. If you have none of them, you still have your hands, use your own hands to knead the dough until it is smooth (I think it should be about 5 minutes)

Once the dough is twice in size, take it out of the bread machine, knead it by hand for another 5 minutes (you can use machine to do it too). Cut the dough into 10 to 12 even pieces, use a dump cloth or wet kitchen towel to cover them up,  take one piece of the dough, use a rolling pin to roll it out to a big flat round piece that is thin on the edge but thick in the center.

Place a spoonful of fillings in the center of dough wrapper. Use one hand’s thumb to secure it with your thumb pressing the filling lightly.

Use another hand, with your thumb and first index finger to pull up a little portion of the side of the dough. Fold and pleat evenly all the way as you go anticlockwise until you reach the end, enclose the bun. You’ll get a nice swirl pattern. You will need some practices to get to the perfect sharp, but it is not really that hard. I usually do Pleat for savory buns and smooth round surface for the sweet ones.

Once you finish pleating them, cut some parchment paper and seat them on top of the paper. Put them inside the bamboo steamer, let them seat for another 15 minutes, they will grow bigger again.

Bring some water to boil, steam them for 15 minutes.

DON’T OPEN THE LID OF THE STEAMER!!! Wait 5-10 minutes. If you open the lid right after you turn the heat off, the bun will shrink because of the colder air outside the steamer will heat the hot steaming buns.