Baozi | Veg Baozi | Chinese Steamed Bun | Breakfast recipe

Baozi , a soft and delicious stuffed steamed bun from china. It's usually served as breakfast and also it's one of the popular street foods in china. These Chinese Steamed buns can be made with various fillings including vegetables, meats and so on. 

While browsing through Instagram, these baozi pictures from symmetry breakfast really caught my attention and immediately I noted down the dish name in my todo list. Later when I chose to make breakfast around the world as a theme for the first week in this mega marathon, I thought this could be ideal breakfast to give it a try.

Related: How to make Chinese Spring roll

Honestly, I was skeptical of making steamed buns with yeasted dough since I hadn't tried anything steamed with yeasted dough and also hadn't tasted this baozi  before, so  wondered how it would taste. Out of curiosity, I had given a try on this steamed bun and it turned out so delicious and pillow soft. 

While making the dough itself, I knew that it's gonna be delicious, all because of the flavor from the sesame oil. Never used sesame oil with APF before, i knew that this oil would go well with rice flour, but i never guessed that it could give such an amazing flavor to the APF. Truly, the flavors from ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil together are really out of the world, now I know why this dish is so popular !!!

By looking at the ingredient list and the procedure, you may think that this dish is similar to momos/dumplings, but it's not. It has a unique texture because of the yeasted dough and also it tastes good even when it's cooled unlike dumplings (it becomes chewy when it's cooled down). 

I had a few leftovers from the morning and in the evening microwaved it for 30- 40 secs before serving and it taste as good as in the morning. Before check out the recipe, if you like to know what i have shared on the past 3 days under International Breakfast, here they are 
Day 1 - Mysore Masala Dosa from India
Day 2 - Mani pittu from Srilanka
Day 3 - Mofo Gasy from Madagascar

Baozi(Chinese Steamed Bun)

Preparation Time : 40 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Breakfast | Recipe Cuisine: Chinese
Baozi, Chinese Steamed Buns, Veg Baozi Baozi , a soft and delicious stuffed steamed bun from china. It's usually served as breakfast and also it's one of the popular street foods in china.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
For Bun
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Instant Yeast - 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1/8 tsp
Sesame Oil - 1/2 tbsp
Luke warm Water - 1/4 cup
For Filling
Cabbage - 1/2 (small size)
Spring onion - 2
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Sugar - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Soy Sauce - 1 tsp
Sesame oil - 1 tsp

Procedure

First let's make dough for the bun.In a bowl, add flour, yeast,baking powder,sugar & salt. Mix it well. Then add the oil and mix it with your hand until the oil incorporated into flour well. Add the lukewarm water.

Make a soft and pliable dough. Cover it with cling wrap and keep it in warm place for 40  minutes to 1 hr. Now for the filling ,shred the cabbage finely.

Heat the water in the steamer and bring into boil, place the cabbage in the steamer basket and cook it for just 1 to 1&1/2 mins.

In the mean time, chop the green onions and finely shred the ginger and keep it ready. After 1&1/2 mins, remove the cabbage from heat and let it cool a bit and then squeeze the water from the cabbage as much as you can.

Place it in a bowl and then add the green onions & ginger. Add the soy sauce.

Next add the oil, sugar & salt and give a good mix.

After the dough is doubled, gently punch it down and take the dough from the bowl & place it on the working surface. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces.

Take a piece of dough and roll into 4 inch thick disc with the rolling pin(if needed use the flour for dusting). Place 1/4 of the filling in the center.

Start pleating the dough on the edges as shown in the pic below and seal the end together. Place it on the parchment lined steamer basket.

Steam cook the bun for 10-12 mins on medium flame. Gently remove the buns from the parchment paper  and it's ready to serve.

Serve hot with soy sauce.

Related: How to make flower shape momos

Notes:

• While rolling the dough, make sure that the center is thicker than the edges, it really helps to pleat the edges easily.
• The main reason for steam cooking the cabbage ahead is to remove the excess water from the cabbage. Otherwise the bun would be soggy.
• Once the bun is steamed, it's very soft to handle immediately. Give it a rest for few mins before removing from the steamer basket.
• Highly recommend to use sesame oil in the dough and filling. It gives great flavor to the bun.
• This buns would be doubled after steamed, so leave enough space in the steamer basket.