Steamed yeast buns has always been my nemesis. It looks so deceptively simple yet, I find it harder than any cake, bread, and pastry. It is harder than making croissants, than that 1000 layer French mille-feuille, harder than the impossible to handle HK reverse puff pastry.

Why.

Simply because I refuse to use the standard ingredients for this really quite simple bun. No bleached flour, no milk in the dough, please. So I will always end up with rubbery, rubbery, yellow yellow buns which I will just go and bake instead.

Today, I gave it another go. Still not using those bleached flour, and changed the way I handle a bit. Not too difficult, and soft buns greeted me at the end of the hour. Give it a go, it is worth the many years of trying for me.

Big Pork Dumpling

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Ingredients

Dumpling Skin

125 g Low gluten flour cake flour
60 g High gluten flour bread flour
30 g White Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
3 g Instant Yeast
1/3 tsp Baking Powder
90 g Warm water
12 g White Lard vegetable lard

Filing

150 g Ground Pork
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp Soya Sauce
1 tsp Pepper ground, white
1 tsp Chicken bullion
1 tsp Ginger ground or 1 Tbsp juice of ginger
2 bunches of spring/green onions sliced thinly
2 hard boiled eggs

Instructions

Dumpling skin

Combine all dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, add the water and knead for 1 minute on a machine (I used the Thermomix) or until smooth if hand kneading (takes about 3 minutes if hand kneading).
Put it aside covered and prepare the filing.

Filing

Mix everything together and cut the eggs into quarters.

Wrap

Divide dough into 8 portions (~40g each). Do likewise to the pork mixture (~25-30g each).
Roll each portion of dough into a round ball. Flatten along the circumference more.
Place one portion of the filing and one portion (1/4 of an egg) of egg into the wrap.
Gather and seal the dumpling.
Place the dumplings on non-grease proof white paper.
Allow to rest and proof for 30-40 minutes.
Steam for 25 minutes under high heat.
Let it rest in the steamer with cover ajar for 2-3 minutes before removing the buns from the heat source.
Eat when it is really hot.