Recipes

I chose to write this recipe because it’s the very commonly eaten food in China, mostly as breakfast. Almost the street seller or market at every corner has this to offer. It is easy to carry and cheap to buy. Not exaggerating, almost every Chinese grown-up has been eating this steamed bun. As southern Chinese people, we usually eat this together with spicy homemade pickles or preserved Tofu spreading on top of it. For me, it is the most delicious breakfast I can never forget.

After I came to Canada, I found that my family here also likes it. They like to put butter on top of it, or have it stuffed and sprinkled with cheddar cheese.

Here I’d like to introduce my personal recipe. Remember if you like the bun sweet, you can choose to put more sugar. The sugar and salt I put in this is only to balance out the smell and taste of the dry yeast.

Things we need:

• 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• Water or milk, about 1 cup
• 1/2 tsp dry yeast
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5 tsp warm water/milk
• two layers of steamer wok.

Directions:

1. Put dry yeast into 5 tsp warm water/milk, mix together with flour after the yeast is dissolved.
2. Mix the flour with about 1 cup water or milk.
3. Mix the sugar and salt with flour.
4. Knead the dough until the surface is smooth.
5. Make a ball out of dough and place it in a big bowl covered with a warm damp cloth at room temperature.
6. Let it sit aside to proof for 1 hour or 2 hours longer at wintertime until the size doubles.
7. Knead the proofed dough again to get rid of all the bubbles inside the dough.
8. Divide the dough into 4-5 parts and shape each part into a ball with smooth surface. Put each ball on a ball size square wax paper. And put all balls to the top of steamer wok. And don’t forget to leave some space in between each ball. Let it sit for another 20-30 minutes to proof.
9. Add cold water into the bottom of steamer wok, and put the top part of wok with dough balls back, cover it with the lid.
10. Turn on the burner until the water starts boiling and steam the buns for 15-25 minutes.
11. Turn off the burner. Let it cool for at least 5 minutes before removing the lid.

In the end, the steamed bun will be bigger than the original dough bun and it has a soft and fluffy texture. You can also add cheese or something else in the middle of the bun and/or on top of it.

Tips: If your dough is a bit sticky, you can add more flour to it. Just slowly add the flour not to end up with too much flour.