Shanghainese Buns - Mantou

For Thanksgiving at Siddharth's house, I decided to skip the typical sweet potato rolls and make authentic Chinese steamed rolls called mantou. These are little steamed wheat buns that are shaped like little pebbles, a staple in northern China.  I had these at my grandma's house a lot in lieu of a bowl of rice. They could be purchased at any Asian food markets in the frozen aisle. The texture of the mantou is similar to the buns you would order at Chinese restaurants for dim sum also called bao, but these buns don't have anything inside. Our family would eat it as a side with our meals. Some people eat them as snacks by dipping them in condensed milk or even deep frying them! I've never tried, but I'm sure these would be delightful. 



The recipe is quite simple but it takes some time because we used yeast. We let our dough rise for at least 4.5 hours prior to steaming them. If you do decide to deep fry them, we suggest you steam them first, let it sit, then deep fry. 


Recipe:

1 tsp yeast

1 tsp sugar

5 tbsp warm water

5 tbsp milk

1 ¾ cups white flour 

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp fat (butter or oil)

¾ tsp baking powder (supposedly prevents wrinkling)

1 tsp salt

Proof the yeast by combining the top 3 ingredients first. In a food processor, combine the dry ingredients, then add the yeast mixture and 5 tbsp of warm milk. Form dough and let rise for 4 hours.  Punch down, divide into 16 pieces and shape. Let rest for 15 minutes. Steam for 15 minutes. Let cool to room temp.