Charcoal Mung Bean Buns 竹炭豆蓉包子

Recipe created in 2013

Few years back, baking with bamboo charcoal was popular. A lot of people were baking bread with bamboo charcoal powder, creating black loaves or zebra looking loaves. Bamboo charcoal does not impart flavour to the bake, but there is a mild difference in texture. I have no idea whether this is activated or non activated bamboo charcoal powder because it's not stated on the bottle it came with.

Amy Yip Steamed Buns - KL Sel MFF #5

These buns were not well known for the taste.
It's for the size.

Amy Yip was an infamous actress back in the 90's, she's famous not for her acting, but for her F sized asset with a 21 inch waist. As to why these buns were named so... you should be able to guess why :)

Wholemeal Char Siew Pau - Filled Baos #3

I am not the kind of person who likes dimsum shops type of buns. Those too soft, super fluffy, smiling buns. I prefer those with better structure, less baking powder and better mouthfeel that doesn't stick between the teeth type of steamed buns.

My husband loves charsiew pau (CSP), and it's one of his must orders for dimsum. Most commercial buns use inferior meat and taste so oily and fatty. It's hard to find a char siew pau that I find to be tasty.

Purple Spiral Bun with Red Beans

Made with flipped dough

I first saw spiral buns on a Chinese website quite long ago. It was a plain mantou wrapped with a spiral dough skin. They looked very pretty.

I decided to borrow that idea and play with my own recipe. I want to fill the buns with red beans to match the spirals, LOL. I tried wrapping the dough with 2 methods, that is with the rolled side and the flipped side. Both sides yield buns that look different.

Layered Kaya Steamed Cake - Filled Baos # 1

First of all... I would like to tell you the name is misleading.

It's not a cake, but more of a steamed bread, a huge "pau" that is eaten sliced. If you're used to german yeasted cakes, then yeah, this is a cake. Bread or cake, I surrender.

The Chinese name is 千层糕, which translates to thousand layer cake. I only have 10 layers.

I was in the state of  'ding dong ding dong' when it came to naming this post.. hence the title and the word in my picture is different.

Candy Cane Steamed Buns - Red Green Week #1

My girls had a blast with these. They had fun "making" them and had fun eating them.

Steamed Flax Seed Milk Flower Rolls 亚麻子花卷 - Steamed Buns # 3

Flax seeds are nutritious. According to Wikipedia, besides being high in fibre and omega-3 fatty acids, it also helps to lower cholesterol and benefits those who are having breast and prostrate cancer. If you're diabetic, it's also good for you because it helps by stabilizing your blood sugar. But take this with caution if you are on oral medication. It's high fibre content may interrupt with the medication and you must drink lots of water whenever you take flax seeds, if not you may end up with intestinal blockage.

Purple Sweet Potato Rose Mantou - Steamed Buns # 2

25/6/2019 Updated: New Instructional Video below recipe

I've been looking for new ways to form my steamed buns or mantou and this is one of them.

If you want to make a heartfelt low cost present for your loved one, try making this and form it into a bouquet. Every bite of it sure comes full with sincerity and bliss :p

Steamed Banana Buns - Steamed Buns # 1

I love these buns. When they were steaming, they smelled so good. But Mike hated it. Mike only likes Sweet Potato Buns. He even hates my kids’ favourite glorious pumpkin buns. He said this smell like our kids’ s***

Hakka Beetroot XiBan 甜菜根客家喜粄

When I saw a kuih called ki ka ku on Sonia's blog, I was totally intrigued. Then later I found that it was actually a traditional hakka steamed chewy bun called 喜粄, "Xi Ban", translated as "Dough of Joy"

I tried making this with some adaptations from Sonia's recipe

Hakka Beetroot XiBan
Recipe adapted from Sonia

250g Glutinous rice flour
300g All purpose flour
150g Caster sugar  (you may increase, if you want sweeter)
50g Shortening
1 ½ tsp Yeast
300g Beetroot infused Water (boil some peeled beetroot chunks in 350ml water for 15 mins, just use the water), use more if needed
Banana leaves (soften in hot water, cut into round shape)

1. Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl, knead until soft and smooth.
2. Divide dough to equal portion (about 40g), shape into small round ball. Grease your hand with some cooking oil, place small round ball on the banana leaf, and flatten the dough by pressing your palm on the dough ball.
3. Cover with cling film and rest for 1hour
4. Steam over hot boiling water for 15mins or until cooked

Verdict:
Frankly speaking, this bun looks like a regular bun when torn, but it's chewy like a mochi. My husband didn't quite like it as it was too chewy for him, but it was fine for me. Colour wise, I was rather dissapointed when it turned into a peachy hue instead of remaining pink. And I steamed the buns in 3 batches, as my wok can only accomodate 9 at a time. And all 3 batches came out with different colours. You can see 3 out my 4 buns in the pics comes in different hues. The next day, the bun was crumbly without steaming, something like a scone. So, I'd say this bun is best eaten on the day it is made.

I did another recipe, with a much longer fermentation period, watch out for the post :)

Pumpkin Mantou

The mantou looks blur, but the background is clear. That's my phone. See how my current town, Kuala Kangsar looks like.

That clock tower is the major landmark in town. It shows you, there's you've reached town!!! It's in the middle of a roundabout. When you reach this roundabout from the mainroad from the highway, 9o'clock is where I am, 12 and you'll go towards the Perak Royal Grounds, and 3 o'clock is the other half of  the town.

Well, besides it being a landmark, it has its historical significance. It was erected by the British during their rule here, and it not only functions as a clock, but also acts as a marking post for floods. Major floods are not uncommon here. The worst that current residents still remember had the water covering the whole tower except for the dome. That was in the 60's, when pictures were still in Black and White. Mike's grandpa took a picture of it. There are copies of significant floods for sale around tourist areas. The worst that my husband ever saw was that the waters rose almost covering the 1st floor of their shop. I don't hope for anymore floods.. not that I'm staying here now.

I hope you still remember those pumpkin buns. I made them again, this time, plain, with no filling.
When Lydia saw them, she was ecstatic. But when she cracked the bun open, she said "No jam". Hahaha, she was really looking forward to the pumpkin filling. Anyway, both my kids loved this. Good to bring along when you need to travel, near or far. They are soft and don't spoil easily. Best is kids can eat them w/o a mess.

She has finished her share of the bun and Lydia looks bored in the car while waiting for Papa to do some stuff....

Steamed Pumpkin Buns 南瓜包子

I made my first batch of these using the same recipe from the same food magazine of those not so tender steamed banana cakes. I want to give the author a 2nd chance. Oh-no, I was so wrong. The buns from the original recipe turned out like leather!!!! Nothing like what was in the picture. How I hate these local publications.

And if you see a pumpkin bun recipe calling for
150gm cake flour

1/2 tsp B.P.

30gm egg white
60gm sugar
90gm pumpkin puree
Run away from it!!!!!!

These taste Urrrgghhh!!!

But…… the filling is really good (Lydia ate all the leather buns… err.. all the filling from the leather buns).
Well, part of the recipe works. The filling, they look like salted egg yolks. Look only… but taste absolutely pumpkinny.

Let me try to tweak the recipe of the bun dough.
I did by changing the flour, adding in some DABP, butter , and yeast, took out the egg white And now.. voila, a total change!!!! Absolutely yummy.
My MIL are always believe that some recipe book authors never tell you the whole story… and maybe she’s right this time.

Making pumpkin puree

Steam pumpkins until easily penetrable with a chopstick. Puree until fine.

For the filling
300gm pumpkin puree
30gm sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
Cook until thickens and use 2 teaspoons to form into little balls and place on a lined tray. Chill until time of use.

For the bun (retained the amount of sugar, pumpkin and flour from the ori recipe that you can see above, but tweaked the type of flour, additional yeast, DABP and butter)
60gm sugar
90gm pumpkin puree
1 tsp instant yeast (Mauripan doesn't work well with this recipe)
150gm pau flour
1 tsp double acting baking powder (or just use regular baking powder)
10gm butter

1. Combine sugar, pumpkin puree and yeast.
2. Combine pau flour, D.A. B.P and butter. Mix to form crumbs.
3. Pour (1) into (2) and mix to form a dough.
4. Knead dough until it is smooth and no longer sticky.
5. Let dough proof in a warm place until double in size. Remember to cover it.

Assembly.
1. Punch down dough after it has doubled. Knead it for 2 minutes and divide dough into 12 pieces.
2. Remove pumpkin filling from the fridge.
3. With lightly floured hands, take one piece of dough and flatten it, making it thinner at the sides.
4. Place one piece of filling, round side down onto flattened dough.
5. Wrap and seal bun.
6. Seam side down, make marks that resemble a pumpkin using a dinner knife.
7. Let buns proof (covered) for 45 minutes and steam on high heat for 12 minutes.

And now that they are done, please eat with your eyes

Well, I did this at night when Mike was around to take pics of me wrapping the buns. The next morning, when I tried to take pictures of them in the morning sun, because I was so dissatisfied with the pictures I took that night... this happened

Luckily I did take some pictures before Lyanne snatched the buns from the plate

How can Lyanne resist this bun, right???

Toddy Mee Ku 椰花酒面龟

Mee Ku, 面龟 is a Hokkien word for Tortoise Bun. It is basically a mantou, or plain steamed bun. This recipe is given by my mother’s neighbor cum church friend. I first tasted these when this neighbor, Mr Teh made them for a church fund raising programme. It was so delicious, and my mom said, it was the first thing sold out during the fund raising sale.

These buns were made using toddy. Toddy， 椰花酒 is liquor made from coconut flower sap. The sap is collected via chopped off coconut flower stems. The sap ferments with natural yeast and don’t think that this is mild…. It can make u drunk!!! Toddy taste sweet, but I don’t like to drink it. Some people nickname this as barley drink, just as beer is chrysanthemum tea. :)

Original recipe calls for margarine, but I’m using butter. Mr Teh didn’t give me a precise amount for toddy, but all that I know is, knead it with pure toddy, no water. And this toddy amount is from my experiment.


450gm all purpose flour
90gm sugar
350gm toddy (It’s not 350ml, alcohol is lighter than water, better weigh it, as there might be air bubbles in it, thus making volume measurement inaccurate)
65gm margarine/butter

Mix everything together and knead until dough is soft and smooth. Shape into 10 peanut shaped buns and leave to proof* until double in size. Steam on high heat for 20 minutes.

*Warning::: Proofing time was 8 hours!!!!! I shaped them before I slept, steamed them when I woke up. The oven is a safe place to multilayer proof buns. I tried using hot water in the oven to make a warm environment for proofing, but it killed the natural yeasts!!!! So better be patient and wait. This white fluffy buns are from my 2nd attempt.

You can speed up the proofing by sunning them, cover with a cheesecloth and lay them out under the hot sun. I was told with sunning them, the proofing is 2-4 hours. But I was also told, since toddy is a homemade liquor, the amount of natural yeast in them differs, therefore, nothing is 100% accurate. U have to watch out for your own.

The buns expand further when steamed, just like buns that has double acting baking powder added in. So, don't be fooled by them looking small. Steam them when they look doubled, and when they are steamed, they'll be triple of the "before proofing" size. Give them space to expand in your steamer
You can buy toddy and keep it in the fridge until time to use. Shake the bottle before pouring out as the yeasts tend to settle at the bottom. If u cannot find toddy, but can find "air nira nipah", u can use that too. Air Nira Nipah is the flower sap from another palm and it also ferments the same way as toddy. Once I bought that from a road side stall on the way from Kelantan to Terengganu. I thought that it is a sweet drink, one sip and I puked it all out. It tasted like toddy, alcoholic. U can know that it's really fermenting when u open up the bottle, bubbles rush up and sometimes, out.

Updated few hours later : From the comments, I got to know that "toddy" seems inaccessible to many, I will experiment with fresh coconut juice and wine yeast to make this again. Let's see whether I can get the same fine texture and smell with coconut juice. Regular baking yeast can't this result.

Updated 26/3/10 :


Read these to see where to get your toddy
Brickfields  behind Palm Court condominium
Klang-Teluk Gong  Coconut Flower Seafood Restaurant 03-31341167.
Butterworth Ong Cheng Huat Seafood 04 3314782
Georgetown Stewart Lane
Johor Bahru, Somewhere on the way from JB to Sungai Tiram, and lots in Kluang
Ipoh, somewhere, behind Hume St. or try Buntong area :)
Where ever Gula Melaka is produced, u can get toddy there. Just get the raw sap, that will be toddy in a few hours time.

Where to get Air Nira Nipah (Usually sold by Malay vendors. If it's bubbly the time u open the bottle, it's fermenting and good for meeku, but if it's chilled and there seems to be no activity, leave it at room temperature in a mineral bottle/ coke PET bottle for a few hours. The bottle will get hard with the pressure building from within from the fermentation process and when u open up the cap, whoooozzzz.... bubbles and gases will erupt!!)
Coastal trunks roadsides
       -Kelantan to Terengganu
      -Teluk Intan to Sitiawan
     -Kuala Selangor coastal road all along Sekinchan upwards


Taiping

Readers, if you happen to know where else, do notify me. Thanks.

Pandan Steamed Buns

Pandan Steamed Buns or Pandan Mantou....

The picture above is before they were steamed.
The picture below is after steamed. The green colour toned down quite a lot.

Here's what I did....

250gm pau flour
250gm all purpose flour
1 packet of powdered coconut milk
1 Tbsp double action baking powder (optional)
150gm sugar
½ tsp salt
200ml pandan juice
11gm yeast (1sachet)
½ tsp sugar
50ml water
30gm shortening, melted

1. Combine yeast, water and 1/2 tsp sugar. Let it froth.
2. Mix both flours, coconut milk powder, D.A.B.P, sugar and salt together. Make a well in the center. Pour in frothed yeast mixture and 3/4 of the pandan juice.
3. Mix until a dough is formed. Add more pandan juice if dough is too dry, but do so by the tablespoons.
4. Knead until a smooth dough is formed, add in melted shortening and knead until it is well combined, as in, u don't feel anymore oiliness.
5. Leave to proof for almost an hour in a almost fully covered container (I like to put it in a covered pot, my pot cover has ventilation holes). Dough is ready when it is doubled.
6. Punch down and knead for another minute.
7. Divide dough into 40gm pcs. You can get about 24 pcs.
8. Shape dough and leave to proof for another 45 minutes or until shaped dough has doubled.
9. Steam on high heat for 12-15 minutes.

* If u prefer to use fresh coconut milk, use concentrated pandan juice. See my previous post on how to make it. Just make sure pandan juice + coconut milk is 200ml.

Steamed Sweet Potato Mantou

Mantou or steamed plain buns, are nice to eat. Be it on its own or dipped in gravy. It's good.

I used to make this by guesstimate last time, but now, I made an exact formula for it. This method of shaping was taught by my MIL. She used to make freaking good Sweet Potato Buns, altho I've never tasted them b4, they sold like hot cakes back when she made them for sale. Mike said they(MIL's) were good, very good. Well, this is not her recipe, she's lost hers. Too bad for me!

Steamed Sweet Potato Mantou/Buns Recipe
500gm pau flour
250gm steamed orange sweet potato.
100gm sugar
1 Tbsp double action baking powder
½ tsp salt
40gm shortening, melted
11gm yeast (1sachet)
½ tsp sugar
150ml water

1. Proof yeast with 1/2 tsp sugar and water until it froths.
2. Mix flour, D.A. B/P , sugar and salt together. Knead in steamed sweet potatoes. Flour mixture will look crumbly.
3. Pour in frothy yeast mixture and combine to form a dough. Knead until dough no longer sticky and turns smooth. Add more flour if it's too sticky or more water(by the teaspoon) if it's way too dry. Only add in more water if u cannot gather all the flour into the dough. How much water depends on the moisture content of the sweet potato4. When dough is smooth, knead in melted shortening, until dough no longer feels oily.
5. Leave to proof until double, about an hour.
6. Punch down and knead for another minute. Divide dough into 35gm pieces, and shape as u like. Leave to proof until shaped mantou has doubled.
7. Steam on high heat for 12-15 minutes.


The Method of Shaping Sweet Potato Bun

The bounty.... all doubled up, ready for the steamer


Steamed and yummy, ready for my tummy

Updated 17/4/2013: Video on how to shape the buns

Steamed Pumpkin Buns 南瓜包

I bought one big pumpkin for my pumpkin jam, and there was more than a cup of pumpkin puree left.

Planned to make these into steamed buns, but in the end, I baked half of it.
I might have oversteamed it, as the baked ones turned out well, but my steamed ones sort of collapsed. I think I should steam them at medium heat, due to the high butter content, cos the baked ones were fine, as they were baked at a med low heat.
Tastewise, still fine. I quite like it, but I think I’d change the flour used to all bread flour the next time I make it, instead of a mix.

100ml water
1 sachet dry yeast
400gm pau flour
100gm bread flour
1 tsp double action baking powder
50gm sugar
300gm pumpkin puree
100gm butter
some pumpkin seeds for decoration

1. Dissolve yeast in water. Add in a pinch of sugar. Set aside and let it froth.
2. Mix pau flour, bread flour, double action baking powder and sugar together.
3. Make a well and pour in yeast mixture and pumpkin puree.
4. Combine well and knead until dough is no longer sticky.
5. Put in butter and continue to knead until butter is well incorporated.
6. Cover and leave to proof until double, about an hour.
7. Punch down and knead for another 10 minutes.
8. Divide dough into 20 portions, almost 50gm each.
9. Line tart tins with muffin cases.
10. Roll each portion into a ball and place into lined tart tins.
11. Leave dough to proof until double, about 45 minutes.
12. Steam on high heat for 10-12 minutes.

For Baked version
After step 8, Roll each portion into a ball and place into muffin cups. Leave to proof until double. Top with pumpkin topping and pumpkin seeds. Bake at 150C for 15 minutes.

To make pumpkin topping: Take 2 Tbsp pumpkin puree, mix with 1/2 tsp sugar and 2 tsp flour. Mix well, and put mixture into a clean plastic bag. Snip off one small corner and pipe as desired.


*** You might need to bake it at a higher temperature, as my oven browns bread very easily. 150C is just nice for my oven.