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Mantou

Plain steamed bread with nothing inside it, where the whole difficulty is the minute after the heat goes off.

Not vegetarian — contains lard.

Ingredients

Method

  1. THE LID STAYS ON AFTER THE HEAT GOES OFF, five full minutes, and that is the whole recipe. Steam inside a bun meets cold air the instant the lid lifts, the gas contracts and a smooth white bun wrinkles and sinks while you watch. Everything before this is ordinary bread. This is the step that is not.
  2. THE DOUGH IS STIFFER THAN A BREAD DOUGH AND MEANT TO BE. A soft dough steams into something damp and collapsed. It should feel firm and slightly reluctant under the hands.
  3. Yeast and sugar into the warm water, left 5 minutes until it clouds.
  4. Into the flour with the fat, brought together, then kneaded a full 10 minutes. Unlike the pulled noodle this one wants the work: it should finish satin-smooth with no seams, because every seam shows on a steamed surface.
  5. Risen covered about 1 hour, until doubled.
  6. Knocked back and kneaded again 5 minutes. Rolled into a thick sausage and cut into 12 with a single downward press -- a sawing cut drags the surface and the drag steams into a scar.
  7. Each piece onto its own square of paper, spaced well apart in the basket. They swell more than seems reasonable.
  8. SECOND RISE IN THE COLD STEAMER, 25 minutes, lid on and no heat under it. They should look puffed and feel light.
  9. Heat on from cold, and steamed hard 15 minutes from the moment it is properly going.
  10. Heat off. Lid on. Five minutes. Then lift the lid away from you and take them out.
  11. They reheat perfectly from frozen in 5 minutes of steam, which is the only sensible way to keep them. A day in the fridge turns them hard and steaming does not bring that back.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes