Mantou or steamed buns or flower buns

I do apologized.. I've been away for this long. I do have a lot of recipes that I would like to share and am currently finding the time to post it. I've also been away for almost two months on vacation with my baby (DH joined us later).


We were in Malaysia and Sydney, Australia with lots of family, friends and great food. I miss having family and friends that truly care. Family and friends that is sincere and mind their own business instead of trying to butt into anything and everything they can about yours or your families' s life. Really dislike selfish and nosy people that pretends that they care!


Anyway back to my mantou, I had great mantou when we were dining in Sydney that I felt like having some. Yesterday I found a recipe and decided to attempt making them. It came out horrible and I threw every thing away. What a waste of ingredients since it was not edible at all!!



Since it was already pretty late in the evening and my baby would not let me put do anything I decided that I would try again the next day. I went online and did some searching and found a recipe that I knew I could trust. I've tried recipes from this blog and I'm pretty sure she won't steer me wrong. Thank you Florence for such a wonderful recipe once again!

Recipe adapted from here


Ingredients:
Dough Starter
150g cake flour
50g plain flour
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp yeast
110g water

Method:
I put all these into my bread maker on the dough cycle. When the dough cycle is completed, remove 70g for use and keep the rest in a freeze bag and chill in the vegetable compartment for use thereafter. The whole process is about 1 hour 20 minutes.


* I divided my dough into 70g and then put it in an airtight container to be stored in the freezer. Thaw it out to room temperature when needed.
*** If you don't have a bread maker, you have to knead the dough manually till it is smooth then prove the dough in a covered bowl for at least 45 minutes.

Main Dough
175ml skim milk
70g sugar
200g plain flour
100g cake flour
5g yeast
70g dough starter
1 tbsp corn oil (I used 1tbsp of vegetable shortening)

Method:
1. Put in all the ingredients except the oil into the bread maker, use the dough cycle. When the dough gathers into a ball, add in the oil and let the machine do its kneading till smooth. The whole process should be about 15 - 20 minutes depending on your bread maker.
2. Remove dough from bread maker, roll into a flat sheet then roll it up swiss roll style.
3. Cut into pieces of about 50g each and put it on a piece of square greaseproof paper. Place them in a steamer, make sure you leave enough room between each mantou for expansion during its final prove.
4. Prove for 45 minutes before steaming on medium heat for 12 minutes.

*** If you don't have a bread maker, knead the dough manually till smooth before dividing and shaping.

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I wanted to shape some into the shape of flowers but my attempt failed pretty bad! Since is such a successful recipe and I have more dough starter I'm pretty sure I will make some more. Then, I'll try and shaping my buns again. Wish me luck!!

Apart from my flower shape, the mantou was a great success. It is not as sweet as the commercial ones which is good and there are no preservatives! My baby gobbled some when I just took it out of the steamer. I will definitely make more so my baby can snack on them too!