Can you make steamed buns with only yeast and sugar? What else should you put in steamed buns besides yeast and sugar?

Baozi is a common type of pasta. There are many ways to make it. Different methods use different ingredients and have different flavors and textures. Baozi generally needs to be fermented, and many people will add some yeast and sugar. So can you make baozi with just yeast and sugar? Let's take a closer look!

Can I make steamed buns with only yeast and sugar?

No, because when we make steamed buns, we need all-purpose flour, water or milk to mix the dough, yeast to ferment, and stuffing for the buns. Sugar is secondary and optional. But sugar still has a certain effect. Adding a moderate amount of sugar can promote dough fermentation and make the buns taste sweeter. But if too much sugar is added, the effect will be counterproductive, because ordinary yeast is not suitable for a high-sugar environment, and the fermentation effect will be affected in such an environment. Therefore, the proportion of sugar should be controlled:

If you only need sugar to promote yeast fermentation, you can add 1 gram of sugar for 100 grams of flour. If you want the buns to taste sweeter, you can increase the proportion of sugar appropriately, but do not exceed 8 grams.

To make steamed buns at home, we usually use 200 grams of ordinary flour, add 100 grams to 110 grams of warm water, 2 grams of yeast, and 2 grams of sugar to knead the dough. There are various fillings for steamed buns, including meat buns and vegetarian buns.

How to make steamed buns

Required ingredients and ingredients:

Dough: 200g all-purpose flour, 100g warm water (35 degrees, add more if not enough), 2g yeast, 2g sugar

Filling: 200g pork, 2 spoons of light soy sauce, 1 spoon of dark soy sauce, 1 spoon of oyster sauce, some chives, 10g cooking oil, 2 spoons of starch

Specific process:

Step 1: Pour 200 grams of medium-gluten flour into a basin and set aside. Medium-gluten flour is ordinary flour. The bulk flour in supermarkets is generally medium-gluten flour, which is suitable for making buns and steamed buns.

Step 2: Prepare another small bowl and put 100 grams of warm water between 30 and 40 degrees in the bowl. The temperature should be about the same as body temperature when testing. Too high a temperature will scald the yeast and the dough will not rise. The water temperature in this range can promote fermentation. Pour 2 grams of yeast into the warm water and stir until it melts and set aside.

Step 3: Pour yeast water into the flour while stirring with chopsticks until the flour becomes floc-like. Then use your hands to knead the floc into a smooth dough. If it feels too dry, add a little warm water. Be sure to knead it evenly to make the flour, hands and basin shiny. The word "shiny" here means "smooth".

Step 4: Cover the dough basin and place it in an environment of about 30 degrees to ferment for about 50 minutes. I put the dough in the oven and ferment it using the fermentation function. If you don’t have these tools, you can put the dough basin in a pot of hot water in winter to ferment. The temperature of the hot water in the pot should be around 45 degrees, not too high.

Step 5: While the dough is fermenting, we will prepare the meat filling. Take 200 grams of pork, preferably with a uniform amount of fat and lean pork, and chop it into meat filling. Add 2 spoons of light soy sauce, 1 spoon of dark soy sauce, 1 spoon of oyster sauce, an appropriate amount of chopped green onion, 2 spoons of starch, and 10 grams of cooking oil. Stir evenly with chopsticks, and stir in one direction until the meat filling is firm. This way it tastes better.

Step 6: Take out the fermented dough, the volume has obviously expanded by 2 times. Open the dough, the inside is a dense honeycomb, which means the dough is fermented. Sprinkle a layer of dry flour on the chopping board to prevent sticking, put the dough on the chopping board and knead it to expel the gas inside, so that the dough shrinks to the size before fermentation. (--If the dough is too sticky, be sure to sprinkle some dry flour, and the flour should be even and thin. Adding too much dry flour will not ferment. Adding dry flour can not only prevent sticking, but also make the dough smoother and the buns look better.)

Step 7: Roll the dough into long strips and divide it into small pieces of even size. Take one of the pieces and roll it into a round dough sheet with a thicker middle and thinner edges. Put 1 spoon of meat filling in the middle, pinch it in circles to make folds, and finally wrap it. (--It is better to make the bun skin thicker than the dumpling skin. If it is too thin, the filling will leak easily. The skin is thicker in the middle so that it can hold the meat filling. The thin edges are because they become thicker when pinched together.)

Step 8: After all the buns are wrapped, put enough cold water in the steamer, then put the tray and anti-stick cloth on it, put the buns on it and arrange them properly, leaving a certain distance between the buns, cover the buns and let them rise for 20 minutes. (--Because the buns need to rise again and will expand, so in order to prevent the buns from sticking together, leave a certain distance between the buns.)

Step 9: After the buns have risen for the second time, press them gently with your hand. If they feel chewy, they are done. Turn on medium heat and steam for 10 to 20 minutes depending on the size of the buns. Turn off the heat and simmer for 3 minutes before uncovering the pot. (--Don't uncover the pot immediately after turning off the heat, to prevent the buns from shrinking when they get cold and collapsing, which will make the buns look ugly.)

In addition to meat filling, you can also make dumplings with other fillings, such as purple sweet potato filling, red bean paste filling, etc. The steps for kneading and leaving the dough are the same.

What should I pay attention to when making steamed buns?

1. In fact, you don’t need to add too much sugar when making buns and dough. A high proportion of sugar will not only inhibit fermentation, but will make the bun skin taste too sweet and rob the bun filling of its flavor.

2. Master the recipe for kneading the dough, knead the dough in the correct way, and control the water temperature and fermentation temperature of the dough. Only then will the dough ferment successfully and you can make soft and delicious buns.