Steamed Buns

I have always been interested in steamed buns Being an avid fan of old martial arts movies. To be skilled in Kungfu, one must acknowledge the connection to steamed buns, Lol.

Steamed buns are like a Chinese dumpling but are a stuffed dough which is then steamed. It can be filled with many of different types of meats to fruits and jams. I did some research and in my opinion, most of the fillings on recipe searches proved to be much like an eggroll, dim sum, dumpling or wonton fillings.

I made my filling by chopping up a partially frozen chicken breast, 2 cups of coleslaw mix, 3 scallions diced up fine, 3 tablespoons of Soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, a shake or two of garlic and ginger powders, a 1/4 cup of white wine, 1 beaten egg, and a teaspoon of chicken flavored Better Than Bullion. Salt and black pepper.

Some of the recipes cooked the chicken first. I noticed that with pork dumplings they did not so neither did I with the chicken.  I just put all of the filling ingredients above into the food processor and pulsed it until I had a course chop. I then put the filling in a bowl. covered it with plastic wrap and placed it in the refrigerator until I was ready to assemble my buns.

I used a common bread dough recipe for the dough. I allowed it to go through 2 risings and a rest before I divided the dough into 10 equal pieces and then made a 6" round with every piece. I flattened the dough into a disk and then with a rolling pin, I rolled the outside edge of the dough all the way around spinning the piece of dough as I rolled. I did not touch the center of the round with the rolling pin leaving the center thicker than the edges.

I then filled each round with about 2 tablespoons of the filling and pulled the edges up to the top working around in a circle, and pinched the dough tight. I then put the seam side down and rolled the bun in the cups of my hands making sure the bottom seam was tightly sealed and the dough on the top was nice and smooth.
These rounds are then supposed to be places onto parchment paper. I had none so I sprayed some small pieces of aluminum foil with vegetable spray and used them.
o I took a canner tray and turned it upside down in a cast iron dutch oven. I then took a piece of decorative sheet metal and cut a round out of it to fit over the canner tray to the width of the dutch oven. I then place a bolt through the center for lifting this contraption in and out of the steam bath. I call it a steamer shelf.
It worked rather well actually.

I steamed 3-4 buns at a time over medium-high heat for 15 minutes. The removed the dutch oven from the heat, cracked the lid a 1/4" to allow the steam t escape but not let cool air into the pot. The recipes I looked at said that the cool air would deflate the buns.

I ate the first bun right away being the test subject an all. It was exactly what I wanted it to be and am extremely happy. The result was this recipe, the pictures and my work lunches for the rest of the week.

My steam rack

The buns ready for the steam bath.

Steaming away. 

Out of the steamer.

Cooling

The inside. 

I was tempted to brush these with some beaten egg yolk, sprinkle on some sesame seeds and bake them but that will be another adventure. It's too hot to turn on the oven today. I did a turkey roast on the Barbecue today while creating these.