Category: recipe

Steamed Buns (Banh Bao Hap) Recipe

writ­ten 4/19/2025, updat­ed 4/29/2025

Ingredients

3 ½ Cups + ½ Cup  All-Pur­pose Flour (White Lily or Martha White, if pos­si­ble)*

2 ¼ tsp or 1 pkt  Active Dry Yeast

⅔ — 1 Cups  Sug­ar

1 ½ Cup  Water or Milk

½ tsp  Bak­ing Pow­der (option­al)

Supplies

Large Mix­ing Bowl

Wood­en Spoon

Mea­sur­ing Imple­ments

Plas­tic Wrap and/or Clean Dish Tow­el

Work­space

Paper (for bun bot­tom)

Steam­er

Time and Servings

Time: 5 minute Yeast + 15 minute Prep + 5 hour Rise + 30 minute Shape + 20 minute Steam = ~6 hours TOTAL

Serv­ings: 14 buns (2in)

Directions

Yeast

  • Heat Water or Milk (1 ½ Cups) to 100–110F
  • Dis­solve Sug­ar (½ tsp)
  • Add Yeast (2 ¼ tsp or 1 pack­et)
  • Cov­er and let sit 5–10 min­utes until foamy

Dough

  • Com­bine Yeast Mix­ture with Flour (3 ½ Cup)
  • Mix using a wood­en spoon (because it will be sticky) until com­bined
  • Add remain­ing Flour (½ Cup) and gen­tly mix in

*NOTE: Make sure to read the pack­ages on the flour you’re using. The soft­er flours, like White Lily, call for an addi­tion­al amount of flour per cup to equate that of nor­mal all-pur­pose flour*

  • Cov­er with plas­tic wrap and a clean dish­cloth
  • Let rise for 4–5 hours
  • While wait­ing, pre­pare any fill­ings, and allow to cool

Cook

  • Punch down and knead (don’t over­do it)
  • Let sit for 5 min­utes
  • In the mean­time, pre­pare the work­space with some extra flour
  • Add water to the steam­er and turn it on
  • Cut paper into 2in squares if not done already
  • In small batch­es, shape the dough into 2in balls, being care­ful not to over­work the dough
  • If adding fill­ing, flat­ten and fill, pinch­ing the tops togeth­er
  • When desired shape and fill­ing are achieved, then put each ball on 1 square of paper (will pre­vent them from stick­ing to the bot­tom of the steam­er)
  • Place them into the steam­er bas­ket, apart from each oth­er (they will dou­ble in size)
  • When steam­er is boil­ing, put them in and close the lid
  • Steam for 5–10 min­utes
  • Remove and let cool a bit

ENJOY!

Notes

Attempt 1, April 2025: Bak­ing Pow­der gave it a bit of a bit­ter taste. Not sure I’d rec­om­mend using that. Orig­i­nal call for ½ + 1 Tbsp of Sug­ar was not enough, espe­cial­ly for the plain ones. Rec prob­a­bly 1 Cup for plain. Buns came out over­worked and hard. Wasn’t sure how much to work the dough, but it seems that the least work­ing, the bet­ter, to keep things light and airy. If work­ing too much, then let rest in between. Didn’t real­ize that White Lily flour required and extra amount to equal that of nor­mal AP flour, so flour ratio was off. Used Oat Milk. Testers want­ed more sweet for the fill­ing. Used Lee Kum Kee Char Siu sauce on top of home­made char siu for that plus onions on the stove. Would rec­om­mend home­made ver­sion instead of the jar for the sauce next time. That way there’s more con­trol over taste.

Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies

Writ­ten 12/31/24, updat­ed 12/31/24

Recipe from Real Sim­ple Mag­a­zine. NOT veg­an (and not rec­om­mend­ed as veg­an). Pep­per­mint infused and as a top­ping

Materials

Ingre­di­ents

1 pkg Fudge Brown­ie Mix

16 oz Cream Cheese, soft­ened

½ cup Gran­u­lat­ed Sug­ar

½ cup Sour Cream

½ tsp Vanil­la Extract

½ tsp Pep­per­mint Extract

2 ct Large Eggs

⅓ cup+ Crushed Pep­per­mint Can­dy

Option­al: ½ cup Choco­late Chips

Option­al: ⅓ cup Heavy Cream

Sup­plies

Muf­fin Trays w/Liners OR Bak­ing Pan OR Spring­form Pan

Parch­ment Paper

Bak­ing Spray

Mix­ing Spoon

Sil­i­cone Spat­u­la

Large Mix­ing Bowl

Mea­sur­ing Imple­ments

Tooth­pick

Elec­tric Beat­er

Cool­ing Racks

Kitchen Mal­let

Serving and Time

Serv­ing: 24 Brown­ies

Time: 20 minute Brown­ies + 20 minute Prep + 15 minute Bake + 1.5 hour Cool + 10 minute Set = 2–3 hours TOTAL

Directions

Brown­ies

  • Pre­heat oven to 350F
  • Pre­pare Brown­ies accord­ing to pack­age
  • Either line a Muf­fin Pan (12 count) with lin­ers OR grease/parchment paper a Bak­ing Pan
  • Pour brown­ie bat­ter into bake­ware
  • Bake for about 20 min­utes until tooth­pick comes out clean­ly
  • While per­form­ing next steps, let cool

Prep

  • In a large mix­ing bowl, use an elec­tric beat­er on medi­um speed to work Cream Cheese (16 oz) until smooth, about 2–3 min­utes
  • Add Sug­ar (½ cup), Sour Cream (½ cup), Vanil­la (½ tsp), and Pep­per­mint Extract (½ tsp — a lit­tle more if you want more of pep­per­mint fla­vor, but not too much lest it be bit­ter)
  • Beat on medi­um-low speed
  • Add Eggs (2 total), 1 at a time until all com­bined
  • Fold in Pep­per­mint Can­dy (⅓ cup – more if desired for more pep­per­mint)

Bake

  • Make sure oven is at 350F
  • Spread pre­pared mix­ture over top the brown­ies
  • Bake about 15 min­utes, until cheese­cake is set
  • Cool in the pan on top of cool­ing racks for 30 min­utes
  • Refrig­er­ate uncov­ered for at least 1 hour up to 24 hours (if longer than 4 hours, cov­er)

Top­ping (Option­al)

  • Right before serv­ing, using a microwave-safe bowl, add Choco­late Chips (½ cup) and Heavy Cream (⅓ cup)
  • Microwave for 30 sec­onds
  • Stir
  • Microwave for 30 sec­onds
  • Stir until smooth
  • Microwave more if need­ed
  • Spread over top the cheese­cake and gar­nish with Crushed Pep­per­mint Can­dy (desired amount)
  • Refrig­er­ate for 10 min­utes until set

SERVE and Enjoy!

Notes

  • Do NOT do this as a veg­an recipe!! It’s not good! I tried mak­ing veg­an cheese­cake 6 times and it is nev­er good despite using a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent cream cheeses
  • 2024: Made the mis­take of mak­ing brown­ies in a dif­fer­ent pan and then try­ing to cut it out in the shape of the spring­form pan I was using. NOT a good idea. Just bake it in the pan first. Oth­er­wise the bot­tom is weird. If I were to do it again, I would add more pep­per­mint as a whole as I couldn’t real­ly taste it in the cheese­cake. Did not do the option­al frost­ing top
  • Recipe calls for soft pep­per­mint can­dy. I used can­dy canes. The soft­er can­dy prob­a­bly would  melt bet­ter
  • Try­ing it in a muf­fin pan is not a bad idea