CHINESE FOOD BUN RECIPES

Steps:

• Prepare warm water around 35 °C and melt the sugar in. And mix the yeast with the water. Mix well and set aside for around 5 minutes. If you do not want sugar, just skip it.
• Place salt and flour in a large bowl. Pour the water with yeast slowly to the bowl with flour and stir with a chopstick.
• Then knead the flour into smooth and soft dough. At the very beginning, it might be a little bit sticky. Or you can simple resort to a stand mixer.
• Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for around 1 hour or until the paste ball doubles in size.
• When the dough is double in size, get paste ball out, dust the operating board and re-knead the dough for 3-4 minutes until the dough becomes almost smooth again. Divide the dough into two parts, keep kneading and shape each part into 1 inch thick long log.
• Remove the two ends and use a very sharp knife to cut the log to smaller pieces (around 2 cm wide). Try to keep the original shape. Place the buns to a lined steamer one by one. Leave some space among each one as the buns rise after steaming.
• Add cold water to your wok or steel steamer. Cover the lid and rest for 10 minutes in summer and around 20 minutes in winter or until the bun becomes fluffy again.
• Use high fire to bring the water to a boil and continue to steam for around 20 to 25 minutes (depending on the size of your buns).
• Remove off the fire and wait for around 5 minutes before opening the lid. Serve warm or re-steam to soften before serving.

Steps:

• Sift the flour.
• Add sugar, baking powder and lard.
• pour in water and knead until smooth.
• Cover with a damp teatowel and rest for 30 minutes.
• Saute the onions and pork briefly in the oil.
• Add water and seasonings and simmer until the sauce thickens.
• Spread this filling onto a plate to cool.
• Roll the dough into a long sausage shape and cut into twelve equal pieces.
• Roll each into a ball and flatten into a circle with your fingers.
• Place a spoonful of filling in the center and bring the dough up around it.
• Pinch the dough firmly to join it.
• Put each bun on a separate piece of parchment or wax paper.
• At this point the pastries can be frozen (IQF) by placing them on a tray in the freezer.
• Otherwise, brush each with a little water and set them in a steam basket.
• Steam over rapidly boiling water for 10 minutes.
• When steaming, do not crowd the pastries.
• If necessary steam them in batches.
• They can be rewarmed (once) carefully in the microwave.