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Soft Chinese Steamed Buns

You can enjoy this soft and fluffy Chinese buns with just basic ingredients in your pantry.
Course Breakfast, Snacks
Cuisine Chinese
Keyword Bread, chinese steamed buns
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Resting Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 55 minutes
Servings 8 buns

Ingredients

  • 2 cup All purpose flour 1/4 cup for dusting
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons instant dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

  1. Add sugar and water in a small bowl and stir until sugar dissolved. Sprinkle over the yeast, whisk lightly and set aside for 5 minutes until the yeast starts to get foamy.

  2. In a mixing bowl, Combine flour, baking powder, salt. Add the oil and yeast-sugar-water mixture. Slowly stir to form a dough ball. At this stage the dough is still a little sticky.

  3. Transfer the dough to lightly floured work surface using the 1/4 cup flour. Incorporate the 1/4 cup flour little by little in the dough while kneading.

  4. Knead for 15 minutes until remaining flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth and elastic.

  5. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and coat the dough with little oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or damp cloth and allow to rest for 45 mins - 1 hour in a warm place until the dough is double in size.
  6. Punch down dough to pinch the air out, then turn into a lightly floured surface. Divide into 8 portion and roll the dough into a round ball. Put each ball on a wax paper square. Let stand covered until double in size, about 10-15minutes.

  7. Bring water to boil, then reduce to medium heat before placing the buns. Steam buns for 15-20 minutes.

  8. After steaming, turn of heat then let it sit for 5 minutes before lifting the lid, otherwise the buns might shrink because of sudden change in temperature.

  9. Enjoy our Chinese steamed buns plain or with pork barbecue and pickled veggies.

Recipe Notes

  • If the dough doesn't turned smooth after kneading, Cover the dough with plastic wrap or damp towel and let it rest for 15-30 minutes then knead the dough again until it become smooth then proceed to step #4.
  • Always knead in lightly floured surface to avoid sticky dough.
  • If you want to make bigger buns, Adjust the cooking time from 15 minutes to 25 minutes.
  • Chinese Steamed Buns can be refrigerated for 3 days and frozen up to 1 month. Re-steam before serving.
  • If you are using a steel steamer, wrap the lid of the steamer with a cloth to prevent the condensation water to drip in the steamed buns.
  • If you are using a steel steamer, you can steam the buns into high to medium high heat. If you are using bamboo steamer, you can steam the buns into medium-low.
  • The humidity affect the stickiness of dough. Continue to knead while incoporating more flour until it is smooth, elastic and not sticky anymore.