I've never been a big fan of steamed buns. I always felt like buns really needed to be baked to be any good. Steaming them just seemed sad. But TF really likes steamed buns, so I figured I'd give this recipe a try. And it turns out that homemade steamed buns are actually really good! I loved these! I felt like they needed some sort of sauce since the filling didn't have much umph, but the buns themselves were really, really delicious.

Steamed Vegetable Buns

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

Filling

• 450g baby bok choy
• 8 fresh shiitake mushrooms¹
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 115g 五香豆腐干 (five-spice dried tofu)
• 1 tsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt²

Dough

• 3/4 c. warm water
• 1 tsp. instant yeast
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 4 tsp. oil, divided
• 280g all-purpose flour
• 20g cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda

Directions

Filling

1. Prepare an ice bath.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add half the bok choy. Cook for 10 seconds, then quickly transfer the bok choy to the ice bath. Repeat the blanching process with the remaining bok choy.
3. Once the bok choy has cooled completely, drain it, squeezing out as much water as possible.
4. Finely chop the bok choy. (A food processor is helpful for this. I don't have one, so I did it by hand.)
5. Finely chop the mushrooms.
6. Heat a wok over medium heat.
7. Drizzle the oil into the wok.
8. Add the chopped mushrooms to the wok and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes.
9. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
10. Finely chop the tofu and set it aside.
11. Return the the chopped bok choy and pour off any liquid that has accumulated. (This will prevent soggy buns!)
12. Add the mushrooms and tofu the the bok choy.
13. Add the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, white pepper, and salt and mix to combine.
14. Cover and chill while dough is being prepared.

Dough

1. Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Stir in 1 Tbsp. oil.
3. In a separte bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda and mix to combine.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.
5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, working from the centre outward.
6. Once the flour has been mostly incorporated, turn the dough out onto your work surface and begin kneading.
7. Knead for at least 10 minutes. The dough should be very smooth and supple. If it is lumpy, uneven, or tears, keep going!
8. Shape into a ball and place in a bowl.
9. Brush the top of the dough ball with the remaining 1 tsp. of oil. Cover and let at room temperature for ~1 hour.

Assembly

1. Once fully risen, turn out and knead for a few minutes to deflate and remove gas pockets.
2. Divide dough into 30g portions³.
3. Round each piece of dough and cover with plastic wrap to stop it from drying out.
4. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it out into a flat disc ~8cm in diameter, thinner on the edges and thicker in the middle.
5. Place a spoonful of filling in the centre of the disc.
6. Holding the bun in the palm of one hand, being pleating the edges. Once you've worked all the way around, keep the last pleat pinched and work your way around again. Twist and close until the bun is almost completely closed. There should still be a small open hole at the top, but it should be mostly closed and neatly pleated.
7. Place each bun on a square of parchmentpaper (5-6cm squares work well).
8. Place place the buns (on their parchment squares) into a steamer. Be careful not to crowd them.
9. Cover and let rise for ~20 minutes.
10. Make sure there is sufficient water in the bottom of your steamer and bring to a boil over high heat.
11. Once water is boiling, reduce heat to medium. Steam for 10 minutes.
12. Turn off heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Do not remove lid during this time!
13. Remove cooked buns from steamer and get the next batch ready to go. Each batch much start with cold water.
14. Serve hot.
15. To reheat, microwave for one minute or steam for 6-8 minutes.

---

¹ I didn't have any fresh shiitakes so I just rehydrated a few dried ones. My dried mushrooms were quite large, so I only used six. ^Back
2 I'd be tempted to leave out the salt and add in a teaspoon of dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, or hoisin sauce next time. The filling was good, but I feel like it really needed something to give it a bit more presence. Of course, adding one of those dark sauces would probably have a negative impact on the aesthetics. They blanched bok choy is lovely and vibrant in this version. But I think I'd be willing to sacrifice some aesthetic value in the pursuit of better flavour. Just something to keep in mind if you're after something very pretty. ^Back
3 The original recipe called for making 14 equal portions. This worked out to ~40g of dough per bun. I did this, but when I made a second batch the next day, I found 30g portions much easier to handle. So I would actually recommend making more smaller buns (18-19) vs. a smaller number of larger ones. ^Back