生肉包 ( Chinese Steamed Meat Bun) + How To Pleat A Bun

This steamed bun is made with raw meat filling as its name suggested. Of course, the filling would be cooked after steamed. Check out another version of steamed meat bun, made with cooked filling. If you ask me which one I prefer, both of them have different flavour and I like them all. However, the one made with cooked filling has my childhood memories associated with it and it bring additional "taste" to me.

My boy was trying to hijack my model! Sometimes my model or props gone missing in the middle of photo shooting.

Ingredients for dough (makes 12 buns):

Bun

8g instant dry yeast
160ml lukewarm water
½ tsp white vinegar or lemon juice (optional)
280g low-protein flour aka hong kong flour
100g wheat starch
90g icing sugar
20g shortening or vegetable oil

10g baking powder
15ml cold water

Fillings:

3 hard-boiled eggs

A

• 300g chicken thigh, cut into bite size
• 1 cm ginger, minced
• 1-2 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp shaoxing wine (chinese cooking wine)
• ½ tbsp oyster sauce
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp corn starch

B

• 200gm minced pork
• 2 tsp finely chopped ginger
• 2 tsp oyster sauce
• ½ tsp garlic powder or finely chopped garlic
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• ½ tsp salt or to taste
• ¼ tsp ground white pepper
• ½ tbsp corn starch
• 1 cup finely chopped cabbage

Methods:

Fillings:

1. Divide each egg into 4 wedges.
2. Marinate filling A and B separately, set aside for about 30 minutes.

Buns:

1. Sift together flours and icing sugar. Place sifted flour mixture in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle.
2. Fill well with lukewarm water, vinegar and yeast. Use a spatula, gently stir the water to dissolve the yeast then slowly bring together flour mixture.
3. Add in shortening or oil and knead for 10-15 minutes until soft dough is formed. It should be smooth on the surface.
4. Cover dough with damp cloth and let it rise for 30 minutes or until it is doubled in size. I used bread maker’s dough mode to prepare my dough up to this step.
5. Dissolve baking powder in cold water, sprinkle over dough and knead until well combined. Divide dough into 12 equal portions and flatten with a rolling pin to make a 3” circle. Then place 1 tablespoon of minced pork filling, 1 piece of chicken and 1 wedges of egg in the middle of circle. Wrap and pleat the dough to seal (refer to photo appended below). Place bun onto a 1.5” square parchment paper, seal side up.
6. Arrange buns into a steamer, leave about 1” gab in between buns. Spray water mist over buns, and steam in a preheated steamer on high heat for 12 minutes. Remove buns from steamer and cool on rack to prevent soggy bottom.
   

Notes:

1. There is no need to rest the dough after adding in baking powder, but if time allowed, rest it for 10 minutes or so to get fluffier buns.
2. Adding a few drops of vinegar into steaming water will produce whiter buns, but this is optional.
3. Steamer must be preheated otherwise bun would not rise to the volume as it should be.
4. Spray the surface of buns with water mist helps to produce buns with smooth surface after steamed.
5. DO NOT open the lid during the steaming process.
6. If there are yellowish spots on the steamed buns, it means the baking powder is not fully dissolved.

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Awhile ago, a reader asked about the wrapping technique in creating beautiful pleating. This afternoon I managed to get T to snap some photos when I was making these buns, what a nice timing! Let's let those photos do the talking...

1. If you prefer more pleats, make smaller pleats.
2. For making xiao long bao (the type with soup in it, and a small opening on top), the pleating method would be different and end product is something like this one.