{"id":6832,"date":"2021-01-19T22:09:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T03:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.simplyasianhome.com\/?p=6832"},"modified":"2022-12-19T23:04:57","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T04:04:57","slug":"chinese-steamed-buns-plain-or-stuffed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.simplyasianhome.com\/chinese-steamed-buns-plain-or-stuffed\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Steamed Buns (Plain or Stuffed)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chinese steamed buns are light, fluffy, mildly sweet white bread buns. They can be plain (aka Mantou) or stuffed with different types of filling (aka Bao). It can be stuffed with savory fillings to create great dim sum or lunch buns. It can also be used to create sweet buns. I love this bun recipe because it is delicious, versatile, and is easy to make if you just give the dough time to proof. The number of ingredients is few and you can probably even find the ingredients in your pantry now if you like baking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Mantou\"
Steamed Plain Buns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Steamed
Steamed Savory Buns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Sweet
Steamed Sweet Buns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

My favorite bun recipe: Nom Wah’s mantou recipe:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Growing up I never learned how to make this type of dough and neither did my family, so you can definitely call me a novice in steamed bun making! However, we LOVE to eat them and always love to order them when we go out to eat! After trying various steamed bun recipes, I settled on one I thought was easiest and most delicious! My advice: Don’t be lured by some of the mantou\/bun recipes that are “quick”, because the key to good fluffy mantou is when the recipe preserves some important rules of bread making!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After trying several recipes, I love Nom Wah’s Mantou Recipe. I found the recipe to be quite easy and relatively fail proof! However, I do have some tips and made a few modifications in the steps in my the version the recipe below to make it even easier! I also added in details, so you can use the same recipe to make stuffed buns (savory or sweet)! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nom Wah is a dim sum restaurant in New York City’s Chinatown, which has been in existence since the 1920s. I recently received The Nom Wah Cookbook<\/a> as a gift this holiday season (it was just published on October 20th, 2020) and boy am I glad I have it, because after trying some online recipes and failing at making “just the right” mantou or bun, the buns I made from Nom Wah’s recipe is great! With other recipes, either my dough didn’t rise enough or the dough wasn’t as smooth. Nom Wah’s dough recipe is simple, fluffy, and delicious! Being fail-proof is important for someone like me who is just learning to make buns! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>\"\"\n\n\n\n

What ingredients do you need?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The basic ingredients are all-purpose flour, dry yeast, baking powder, sugar, milk, oil, and water – that’s it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The keys to fluffy buns: Activating the yeast and proofing patience.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I really like the Nom Wah recipe, because it retains typical bread making rules to ensure your bun dough turns out just right. The recipe will tell you to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n