Sorry not sorry for yet another Chinese bakery post, but this is just where I am at this point of my life. I have no regrets. When I saw that Kristina’s cookbook also included a recipe for 奶黄包, I knew I would have to try it.

Recipe by Kristina at Eat Cho Food

Once again, I struggled with the yeast component of the recipe. I didn’t have instant yeast, so I had to proof the active dry yeast in warm water and sugar, and I just don’t think it rose as much as it could have. As a result, I feel like the dough was slightly chewier than it could have been, but that could also have been due to my hand kneading. It’s so tricky to tell what’s the secret to bread dough, but I’ll keep trying! Nevertheless, I thought the dough/filling combination ended up pretty yummy.

As you can tell, my buns do not look like the buns typically found in a bakery or dimsum restaurant. Those buns are typically round and smooth, without any pleats, but I wasn’t sure how they seal their buns. As far as I can tell, you have to smooth out the pleats and then place it pleat-side down when steaming. Unfortunately, my pinching technique was not great so there was often a tiny hole at the top of my buns, and the filling was also less solid than I had hoped, so I felt very cautious about flipping the buns. As you can tell from the below picture, I had a very steep learning curve with the pleating.

It turns out the secret is pinching very firmly. If you don’t pinch hard enough, the pleats will become undone. I will definitely keep that in mind if/when I make steamed buns again. Do you have any baking tips that could help me in my future attempts?

Until next time, happy crafting!