Dough for steaming, recipe with photo

Dough for steaming

Ingredients

Wheat flour – 400 g + some for dough rolling

Dry yeast – 1 tbsp.

Water – 30 ml

Milk – 200-220 ml

Baking powder – 1 tsp.

Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp.

Salt – 1-2 tsp.

Sugar – 2 tbsp.

Soda – 1

Photo of the finished dish

Check out the recipe

Step by step recipe with photo

Steamed, fluffy and light yeast dough products are an integral part of Chinese cuisine. Fluffy and tender Mantou buns and airy Baozi cakes with savory and juicy fillings have made Chinese cuisine famous the world over. And one of the key ingredients for success was the dough used to make both of these dishes.

In any Chinese English-language blog, you’ll come across a question about how to make this dough properly. After all, despite its apparent simplicity, the Chinese version of this dough has its own nuances of preparation and recipe features that help achieve the very airiness and incredible lightness for which this dough is famous.

Today I want to show and tell you how to make steamed dough, so you can please your loved ones with airy and tender steamed Chinese cakes and buns. Shall we begin?

Prepare the ingredients. In addition to the other usual ingredients, to make yeast dough according to the Chinese recipe, we need not only yeast, but also some baking soda and baking powder.

Dissolve 1 tbsp of sugar in a little warm water.

Add the yeast. Allow the mixture to stand for 10-15 minutes until the yeast activates and forms a foamy cap on the surface.

Sift the flour.

Make a hole in the center of the flour and add to it warm milk, 1 tbsp of sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Adding the baking soda and the baking powder at once to the dough is one way to prepare it; another, no less popular way, is to sprinkle the baking soda and the baking powder on the ready dough while kneading it.

Add the yeast, mix the ingredients and knead into a smooth dough. While kneading the dough add vegetable oil, ideally sesame oil or olive oil. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour, and vice versa, add a little water or milk if it is hard to knead.

Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes until, when pressed with the tip of your finger, the dough begins to gently spring back into its original shape.

Cover the dough with vegetable oiled clingfilm and place it in the heat for 1-2 hours or in the cold for 3-4 hours.

Knead the dough twice, every hour or every two hours as the dough grows and increases in volume.

Chinese yeast dough for steaming is ready.

Using this dough, you can make airy Mantou buns or the famous Baozi cakes.