Tag: buns

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.