Each week, my son has been asking me to make mantou as his fellow Chinese students are eating it for their tea during our weekly Chinese lesson. So I followed the Food Network website to make this but I have altered the recipe.
To make this, I need:
- 1/2 tablespoon yeast
- 2 tablespoon caster sugar
- 200 ml warm water
- 500 g Plain flour
- In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast and sugar over 4 tablespoons of the warm water and leave it for 15 minutes.
- Place the flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the yeast mixture and the remaining water. Mix everything to form a dough.
- Turn it onto a floured board and knead until smooth.
- Return dough to the bowl, cover and let it stand in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.
- Punch down, cover again and let it stand for 20 minutes longer.
- Knead the dough again and shape into rolls. I had made it into smaller buns as I do not have a large steaming tray. I am using my Jamie Oliver Homecooker to steam the buns. I turn it up to 210 degree and steam for 15 minutes.
My mantou looks quite yellow as I used just plain flour. In order to achieve white bun, it is best to get strong white flour from a Chinese supermarket.
Thanks for sharing the recipes, will try and make for my girls as they love these chinese buns 😉 x
Oooh, I love these and have wondered how their made. Great tutorial – I’ll be trying it! Pinned. Thanks very much for linking up with #recipeoftheweek. There’s a new linky live now – would be brilliant to see you there again! 🙂 x
I had never heard of these but they look easy so I might give them a try!
They look really interesting. I’ve never tried steaming a dough like that before 🙂
You can steam in a vegetable steamer or in a bowl in a saucepan of water with the lid on 🙂
Bet they tasted nice. Didn’t know you could steam bread either
So few (and simple) ingredients. Damn shame I don’t own that steamer thingo!
Interesting, I think every nation has its own creative way of using flour, sugar and water to create yummy stuff. And not two are ever the same!