Black sesame and oat mantou (steamed bun)

Here's the recipe

Recipe modified and translated from Carol.

*old dough 100g (see following for preparation of old dough) *I did this step too, according to her, it improves the fragrance and texture to great extent. But I had to leave mine in room temperature for about 3hours for it to double its size. It didn't proof when in the fridge.

*300g Cake flour/  superfine flour (I didn't have cake flour at home. Instead, I used 270g all purpose flour with 2tbsp corn flour)

*1.5tbsp black sesame powder

*1tsp Instant active yeast

*100g fresh milk (lukewarm) 

*3tbsp rolled oat in 50g fresh milk (soaked for at least 15min)  

*30g Brown sugar

*1/8tsp Salt

*50g Rice Bran Oil

Preparation of old dough

*120g all purpose flour 

*1/2 tsp instant active yeast 

*80g warm water  

*pinch of salt 

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and knead till it becomes a smooth dough (about a few minutes, max). 
2. Cover bowl with cling film and let proof for 6-8hours under room temperature, or let proof in fridge until the next day.  

• Old dough that is not used up can be kept in the fridge for 3-5 days or in the freezer for at least 1 month. Thaw before use. 

 Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients and knead. I used my Donlim breadmaker to knead. Knead until the dough is stretchy and has smooth surface (about 10min in my bread machine).

2. Leave to proof in an oiled bowl till it double its size. (i did this in the bread machine using the Proofing mode, about an hour)  

3. On a floured surface, punch the risen dough to knock out all the trapped gas.

4. Using a rolling pin, roll into a thin flat dough. Roll up like rolling up a swiss roll  

5. Cut into 10 equal pieces. (I made some into bun some, since he loves the round bun)

7. Place onto non-stick parchment paper.

8. Let proof for another 30-40min.

9. Steam in vigorously boiling water for about 12min. Wrap the lid with a tea towel to prevent the condensate from dropping back onto the pau, which will uglify the outlook. Do not open the lid right away. Let cool gently so that the skin of the pau wont turn wrinkly.

Steamed oat milk bun/ mantou 奶香燕麦蒸包/馒头

The lil' fella loves pau. Whenever we're out having breakfast at a place that serves pau, if he sees the pau, he'll be making noises, wanting the pau eagerly. But interestingly, he doesn't like the pau's filling, be it savory or sweet. He'll make sure he doesn't eat any bit of the filling. I ended up walloping the filling while he savor his pau. So for today's breakfast, I made him his favorite pau using a soft and fluffy mantou recipe I've previously tried out. It was originally a recipe for soymilk pumpkin bun with red bean filling. But I didn't use the pumpkin puree nor the soymilk this time. Neither did I have any filling for it. I just made it plain with milk and rolled oat soaked in fresh milk. It turned out surprisingly fragrant. It smells a little like custard bun even though this recipe hasnt got any egg nor butter (I replaced the butter with rice bran oil).

I left him with his breakfast while I prep up other stuffs in the kitchen. When I went back to check on him (in just less than 5 minutes), he had already finished up everything, including the chopped banana. It shows he really loves his steamed bun. Guess I'm making more steamed bun for breakfast this week.

Here's the recipe

Recipe modified and translated from Carol.

*old dough 100g (see following for preparation of old dough) *I did this step too, according to her, it improves the fragrance and texture to great extent. But I had to leave mine in room temperature for about 3hours for it to double its size. It didn't proof when in the fridge.

*300g Cake flour/  superfine flour (I didn't use pau flour, cos I went through the ingredient list, it already contain sugar, shortening etc in it, I didn't want it. I wanted to adjust my own)

*1tsp Instant active yeast

*100g Fresh milk (lukewarm) 

*3tbsp rolled oat in 50g fresh milk (soaked for at least 15min)  

*30g Brown sugar

*1/8tsp Salt

*50g Rice Bran Oil

Preparation of old dough

*120g all purpose flour 

*1/2 tsp instant active yeast 

*80g warm water  

*pinch of salt 

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and knead till it becomes a smooth dough (about a few minutes, max). 
2. Cover bowl with cling film and let proof for 6-8hours under room temperature, or let proof in fridge until the next day.  

• Old dough that is not used up can be kept in the fridge for 3-5 days or in the freezer for at least 1 month. Thaw before use. 

 Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients and knead. I used my Donlim breadmaker to knead. Knead until the dough is stretchy and has smooth surface (about 10min in my bread machine).

2. Leave to proof in an oiled bowl till it double its size. (i did this in the bread machine using the Proofing mode)  

3. On a floured surface, punch the risen dough to knock out all the trapped gas.

4. Using a rolling pin, roll into a thin flat dough. Roll up like rolling up a swiss roll  

5. Cut into 10 equal pieces. (I made some into bun some, since he loves the round bun)

7. Place onto non-stick parchment paper.

8. Let proof for another 30-40min.

9. Steam in vigorously boiling water for about 12min. Wrap the lid with a tea towel to prevent the condensate from dropping back onto the pau, which will uglify the outlook. Do not open the lid right away. Let cool gently so that the skin of the pau wont turn wrinkly.

Oat mantou with dried fig

I haven't made mantou for a very long time, cos I've been busy baking bread lately. I've been doing some blog-hopping and I've seen some really good looking mantou from Bernice's place, so I decided to make some for breakfast. This oat mantou is a good one. I made it in the evening and it was soft and fluffy when out of the steamer. The next morning, it is still soft. But I still heated them up by steaming them for about 5min, cos I like my mantou warm. This mantou feels soooo breakfast-y, cos it has soaked oat and dried fruits in it. I have chosen to add chopped dried figs in mine. The mantou itself isn't sweet, but every bite will have bits of chopped figs in it, which gives the sweetness, so it's okay.

 

Dried figs are one of those dried fruits with very high calcium content. The other dried fruits with rich calcium content are dried apricot and dried prunes. So if you haven't been using them in your bakes or cooking, try them.

 

 

This mantou is soft and fluffy, and remains soft even till next morning.

 

Here's the recipe, adapted from Bernice's kitchen.

 

Ingredients A

• 50g rolled oat, organic
• 150g hot boiling water

Ingredients B

• 15 rice bran oil
• oatmeal (Ingredients A)
• 80ml water
• 50g chopped dried figs
• 15g dark muscovado sugar (I've used this to replace normal sugar, to give it an iron boost)
• 300g all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp active instant dry yeast

*Listed according to the order the ingredients are added into breadmaker

 

• 15g all purpose flour, added in during second knead, after first proof

Instructions

1. Add boiling water to oatmeal. Cover and let sit for 15min. After 15min, stir and let chill for later use.
2. Combine all ingredients and knead until the dough is smooth and no more sticky. (I've used my Donlim breadmaker to knead this for about 7min*).
3. Cover with cling film and proof for 1.5-2hr or until the dough doubles its original size. (I proved mine in the breadmaker without any temperature on, it took me about 1.5hr).
4. Punch out trapped air. Add in 15g flour. Knead until the dough is smooth, about 2min in my breadmaker.
5. Using a rolling pin, roll to a flat disk, roll up. With the seam side down, slice the rolled-up dough to equal portion (Bernice has used thread to slice her dough, I couldn't find thread at home, but I'll definitely try it in future). Place on baking paper/ steam paper (I used banana leaves) and proof for 40min until dough becomes fluffy.
6. In slow boiling water, steam for about 10min (depending on size of mantou). After 10min, move the lid to allow a small opening to let the steam goes off.
7. Turn off the heat. Let sit for 5min before finally removing the lid. (These steps taken are to ensure that the skin doesn't goes wrinkly).
   
   If you've checked out my photo, you would have known I didn't do these steps, that's why my mantou turned out wrinkly :p