STEAMED MANTOU 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:

• Lightly reheat milk to lukewarm and add yeast, sugar and salt.
• Mix well and set aside for 10 minutes or until the yeast has activated.
• In a mixing bowl, add all purpose flour, milk mixture and oil.
• If your have a mixer, simply use the dough function and mix it until they come together as a dough.
• Otherwise, begin mixing them with your hands or a fork.
• When the flour has absorbed all the liquid, begin kneading.
• Knead for about 10 – 15 minutes.
• If the dough is too wet, add more flour, or if it is too dry, add more milk.
• Cover the dough with a damp cloth or a cling film.
• Let the dough proof in a warm area for 45 minutes or until it double in size.
• Once proofing is done, flour your working surface with all purpose flour.
• Transfer dough onto the floured surface.
• Use a rolling pin or simply just your palms to gently flatten the dough into a square or a rectangular sheets of about 0.5 cm thick.
• Roll the sheets into a rolls and then roll it into an even longer rolls.
• Cut dough into a few pieces, the size of a mantou.
• About 2 inches width. Gently pull it to shape it into mantou shape.
• Transfer them individually onto parchment paper or tart paper cup.
• Proof them in an enclose warm area for 45 minutes.
• If you have an oven, simply proof them in the oven with the light bulb turn on and a bowl of hot water.
• Steam them for 20 minutes.
• Serve hot!