Steamed man tou

Recipe for Steamed Man Tou

This article was published by: Matthew

Share this content!

⚠ Note: for metric to imperial (or vice-versa) conversion please refer to our article on Cooking Measurements 101.
♼ Featured image may be generic and may not represent the (final) appearance of this recipe.

About this recipe

In this blog post I will guide you thru the steps and ingredients needed to craft this recipe. Grab your favorite apron and let's start.
steamed man tou is a traditional Chinese steamed bun that is light, fluffy, and incredibly versatile. Made from a simple mixture of flour, yeast, sugar, and water, these buns are a staple in Chinese cuisine. The dough is shaped into small rounds and then steamed until they become soft and pillowy. Steamed man tou can be enjoyed plain or served with various fillings, making it a popular choice for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Keywords: steamed man tou, Chinese cuisine, fluffy, versatile, traditional

steamed man tou details

Steamed man tou, recipe Rating: 4.3
Number of votes:91 INGREDIENTS:

Main Dough:

200g cake/superfine flour

100g pau flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

50g castor sugar

40g water

2 tsp instant yeast

100-110g milk

70g Dough Starter

10g shortening

2 tsp pandan paste

METHOD:

1. Sift cake flour, pau flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Combine flours with sugar, water, instant yeast and milk. Beat until a smooth dough is formed.

2. Add in dough starter and shortening. Continue to knead until the dough is smooth, elastic and close to the stage where a thin membrane can be formed when dough is stretched.

3. Divide dough into two equal portions. Roll one portion into a ball, covered with a damp cloth and set aside. Add pandan paste to the other portion and knead to incorporate paste well into the dough. Rest both dough for 5-10 minutes.

4. Now, you have one white dough and one green dough. Divide each dough into half again. You have 4 portions of dough now, two of each colour.

5. Use a rolling pin to roll out each white dough and green dough to 3mm thick rectangular sheets. Lay a green sheet on top of a white sheet and roll like swiss roll. Repeat for the other two sheets of dough.

6. Cut each roll into 3-4 portions. Line each man tou with a piece of greaseproof paper. Cover man tou with damp cloth and prove for 30 minutes.

7. Boil water in a steamer. Reduce fire to medium heat. Steam man tou for 10-12 minutes. Serve while man tou are still hot.

NOTE:

1. The dough starter recipe will give you about 4 portions of starters. Store the rest in air-tight container in freezer. Just bring a portion of starter back to room temperature when you need it for other pau products. Use it for making e.g. Meat & Vegetable Pau, Ying Shi Juan, Hua Juan, Char Siew Pau (Barbecued Pork Pau) etc.

2. Please adjust water content of this recipe. Remember amount of water required depends on types of flour used, type of liquid used, temperature and humidity of atmosphere at the time of making the pau.
3. Unless the dough is too sticky to work with, avoid using too much flour to dust your working surface. This may result in thick and hard pau skin.

4. Unlike bread dough, dough for man tou or pau does not have to be kneaded to the thin membrane stage. Knead until gluten is formed in dough.

5. You can replace pandan paste with pure juice from about 2-3 pandan leaves. Pound leaves and squeeze to obtain juice. Add 1-2 drops of green food colouring if your wish.

6. Avoid water condensate at steamer’s lid from dropping to the man tou. Dry lid with a cloth every time you uncover the steamer.

7. If you are not able to finish all the man tou at one time, keep them in an air-tight container or plastic bag and freeze. Just reheat whenever you want to have them. Estimated storage period is 2-3 months.