Steamed bun, also called Baozi, is a round-shaped dumpling with yeast-leavened dough. It is a popular dish all over China, and even one of the most known street food in the worldwide Chinatowns nowadays. You can find them with variations in fillings crossing regions, and even from one restaurant to another.
How can you make the restaurant standard steamed buns at home? Well, it might be easier than you expected! With our wide selection of Asian sauces and spices, together with the failure-free recipe below, you can prepare this flavorful dish at home.
The Essential Chinese Condiments You Should Have
We highly recommend having the below 5 condiments as pantry essentials to make any Chinese dish at home. Find them in our shop online!
- Soy sauce: is also referred to as light soy sauce (in Chinese 生抽 or 酱油). It is used in every type of Chinese cooking: stir-frying, marinating, dressing, dumpling filling seasoning, etc. Its main purpose is to give the ingredient a salty and umami flavor.
- Dark soy sauce: it is less salty and sweeter than la salsa di soia. It is with a dense texture and dark color, usually used to give a shiny caramel tint to the dish. The most popular way of using it is in marinating the meat and stir-frying dishes.
- Oyster sauce: it has a powerful ability in adding an umami flavor to the dish, the oyster sauce nowadays is widely used in every Chinese cuisine. What’s better? It suits all ingredients.
- Sichuan pepper: it is a unique aroma widely used in Chinese cuisine. It has a citrus scent with a hint of sweetness.
- Five-spice powder: It is a mixture of five grounded spices: Star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and fennel seeds. You can use it as an almighty condiment to build up more flavor to the dishes, as it contains flavors from multiple spices.
Hoisin Sauce for Extra Umami
You could already obtain the perfectly seasoned meat filling using the essentials mentioned above. However, we would suggest adding some hoisin sauce to give the filling an extra layer of umami. It will make your homemade buns stand out.
Ingredients
The Dough
- All purposed flour: 500g
- Yeast: 5g
- Water: 250g
The Filling
- Minced beef: 300g
- Beef fillet: 200g
- Chopped scallion: 1
- Grated ginger: 3g
- Soy sauce: 6 tbsp
- Dark soy sauce: 1-1.5 tbsp
- Oyster sauce: 2 tbsp
- Sichuan pepper powder: 0.5 tsp
- Five-spice powder: 0.5 tsp
- Hoisin sauce: 2 tbsp
- Water: 6 tbsp
- Sesame oil: 2 tbsp
Preparation
The Dough
- Mix all the ingredients listed in the group "The Dough". Knead them together into a dough.
- Rest the dough for 10 minutes.
- Knead the dough again until the surface becomes smooth. Rest it again for 30 minutes until the size doubles (consider resting the dough longer in winter).
The Filling
- Mix the minced beef with chopped scallion, grated ginger, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, Sichuan pepper powder, and five-spice powder.
- Add water to the seasoned minced beef and mix until the meat absorbs the liquid thoroughly.
- Cut the beef fillet into small cubes. Marinade it with the hoisin sauce.
- Add the seasoned beef cubes into the minced beef. Mix them together.
- Add the sesame oil and mix it well with the meat.
Making Baozi
- Knead the leavened dough to deflate the air. Then roll it into a long log.
- Cut it into smaller pieces with each piece weight around 20g.
- Dust a thin layer of flour on the dough, and press the dough into a flat round shape.
- Use a rolling pin to roll each piece into a bigger disk.
- Place some filling at the center of the disk and close the Baozi following the steps shown in the video below.
- Place the Baozi in the steamer leaving some space among each of them.
- Boil some water in a pot and put the steamer on top. Once the water starts to boil and there is steam coming out, lower the fire and keep cooking the Baozi on steam for 15 minutes.
Isn't this easy and fun to make the famous steamed buns at home? Shop the Chinese sauces and spices from our shop online and make these fluffy buns at home!
