The reason why steamed buns are hard

When making buns, if the skin of the steamed buns is hard, it means that the dough was not kneaded well and is relatively hard. When making buns, the dough should be neither too hard nor too soft. In addition, the choice of bun filling is also important. If too much lean meat is chosen, the buns will feel hard. Therefore, you should put some fat meat and some vegetarian filling appropriately.

Recommended method: soft bun skin

There are several key points to make the bun skin soft, the most important of which is that the dough cannot be too thin. Many people misunderstand that the softer the dough, the better, which is wrong. In fact, the weight ratio of powder to water should be maintained at 2:1. For example, for 500g of powder, a maximum of 250g of water should be used. If there is more sugar, the water should be reduced. The dough should be firm after being rolled into a ball, and not be soft. The longer it is left, the wider it will spread. Dough that is too soft will have dead skin.

Material

(A) First fermentation dough (old dough):

Warm water (40 degrees C) - 80 g

Granulated sugar – 2 tsp

Instant yeast – 1 tsp

Cake flour/pack flour - 160g

(B) Second fermentation of dough:

First rise dough - whole portion

Cake flour/pack flour - 80g

Corn starch - 75g (can be substituted with corn starch if corn starch is not available)

Granulated sugar/Powdered sugar – 75g

Lard or cooking oil or white oil - 15g

Ammonia powder (edible ammonia) - 1/2 level teaspoon (2g - optional)

Water - 30g (if the dough is too dry, you can add another tablespoon of water)

Double baking powder/baking powder – 1/2 tbsp (6g)

practice

1) In a mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast, sugar and 1 tablespoon of flour from the first fermentation dough (A) into 80cc of warm water. Make sure the yeast is active (rich foam), then add all the low-gluten flour and knead into a uniform dough. Cover the dough and let it ferment at 30 degrees C for 6 hours. After six hours of fermentation, the dough will more than double in size and have a strong wine aroma.

2) Sweet dough method:

1. First, add 6g of double baking powder to the starch and low-gluten flour and sift them for later use. (You can also choose to dissolve the baking powder and stinking powder into water together to avoid freckles on the bun skin due to insufficient dissolution of the baking powder)

2. Dissolve 1/2 teaspoon of stinky powder in 10g of water, add (A) dough that has been fermented for 6 hours, and then add (B) other ingredients such as granulated sugar, oil, water, etc. and knead until the sugar is dissolved.

3. Finally, add the sifted dry powder and knead on the workbench for about 10 minutes until it becomes a uniform sweet dough (this dough has a high content of powdered sugar and will be stickier and drier). The dough cannot be too soft, otherwise it will be difficult for the buns to become soft and bloomy.

4. Divide the dough into 10 to 12 portions and roll each into a ball.

5. Flatten the dough and wrap it with 1 portion of filling, about 20 to 25 grams. Close the mouth. It doesn't matter if the skin on the top is a little thick. The soft bun skin is not like the ordinary buns that require thin skin and rich fillings. Firstly, its skin tastes loose and sweet; secondly, if the skin is too thin, especially the skin on the top has no thickness, there will be dead skin.

6. Line the steamer with bun paper, cover it, and place it in a warm place such as next to the stove. After 20 to 30 minutes, start boiling 1500 to 2000cc of water in the steamer. Add a tablespoon of white vinegar to the water so that the skin of the steamed buns will not turn yellow.

7. After the water in the steamer boils, put the buns in the steamer and steam them over high heat for 10 minutes. Make sure the steamer lid is closed tightly to prevent air leakage.