Pumpkin Spring Onions Chinese Flower Steamed Buns 南瓜葱花卷

After being praised for steaming my first batch of Chinese flower steamed buns, I'm inspired to make something pretty and flowery again...

Since I'm obligated to use pumpkin, an autumn ingredient as the theme ingredient for Little Thumbs Up for this month, I'm making use of its bright orange colour to help me to create something bright and pretty for Spring.

Well, let's see...

Pumpkin spring onions flower Chinese steamed buns 南瓜葱花卷

Nice bright colour, isn't it? ... but I have to say that these pumpkin flower buns are not as prettily shaped as the plain ones that I made previously.

Although the previously made plain flower steamed buns are nicer in their looks, I find them a little too soft to eat with lesser texture or structure as the buns collapse immediately after their first bites. For this reason, I hope to pursue and explore more steamed bun recipes from the book, the first book of noodles for beginners by Carol Hu.

I have used a different shaping method from the book to shape these buns and wonder if this is the reason why the buns are not as pretty as expected. Personally, I don't think the problem lies with this alternative flower bun shaping method as the dough is actually quite sticky to handle.

Clearly, this recipe doesn't make pretty flowery buns but it makes very delicious buns with wonderfully moist and fluffy texture. You will see what I meant...

I started making these buns with this butternut pumpkin...

I like the natural sweetness of this ingredient.

I have to say that making this pumpkin steamed buns dough can be a little tricky. 

As this recipe contains mainly mashed pumpkin, the mash acts as the liquid agent to absorb dry ingredient and bind them together to form a dough. However, the absorption power of different batches of mashed pumpkin can vary depending on the actual water content of steamed pumpkin and type of pumpkin used. For this reason, I have increased the amount of milk slightly to combine all ingredients into a sticky dough initially and fine tune the texture of the dough slowly by kneading in more flour subsequently. This is what I did.

I made a sticky dough at first.  After proving, I kneaded in more flour to form an easy-to-handle dough

These are the ingredients and steps that made the steamed buns pretty and yummy!

Keep stretching and twisting to get more defined flowery patterns.

These buns need any extra timing for second proving.

Not so flowery buns... Ops! The corners of the dough don't make very pretty buns.

... but they are all fluffy and delicious!

Here is the recipe mostly adapted and translated from the book, the first book of noodles for beginners by Carol Hu

Makes 10

(including two not-very flowery looking buns made from the end of the dough)
For the dough:
180g pumpkin, steamed and mashed
215g all purpose flour
100g low protein flour, preferably bleached and self raising (optional) for extra fluffiness and fine texture
plus 15-20g to knead before rolling
1/8 tsp salt
20g caster sugar
1/2 tsp yeast
20ml vegetable oil, preferable canola oil
1/4 cup or 60 ml milk, lukewarm

To shape the buns:
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
3-4 spring onions, finely sliced

Using a breadmaker, mix all dough ingredients and knead into a smooth dough and allow it to prove for 1 hr. At this point, you can either store the dough in the fridge to use it on the next day or use it now.

If breadmaker is not available, kneading this dough by hand is possible. Combine pumpkin, both flours, salt, caster sugar and yeast in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour mixture, add milk and oil mix to form a dough. Transfer dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead to form an elastic and smooth dough (at least 15 mins) and then let it rise for 1 hr.

Before rolling, knead in 15-20g of low protein flour to fine tune the dough texture. Add more if it is required.

Roll into a large rectangle sheet with 5mm thickness.

Sprinkle 1/4 tsp salt evenly on the rolled dough. Using a pastry brush, brush the sesame oil on the dough. Then, distribute the spring onions throughout the oiled surface.

Start rolling the sheet along the longer side of the rectangle and roll it into a Swiss-roll-like rod and cut into 20 equal pieces. Place two pieces of cut dough on top of each other. Hold both ends with your finger and pull. Stretch and twist the dough while pulling and this will form a nice flowery pattern.Tuck in the ends of the dough into its bottom as you allow the flowery pattern to display as the main part of the bun.

Place a piece baking paper on each of the shaped buns and place them on steaming racks and place the rack under lukewarm water (about 37°C) and let it prove for 1 hr or double the size.

Steam buns for 15-20 mins or until done. The steam timing varies if you have multiple layers of steamed buns to steam. The layer that is closest to the direct steam will take 15 mins to cook. When ready remove the buns immediately from the steamer and serve warm.

Happy Steaming
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