Best Chinese Steamed Bun Recipe to make Wonderfully White and Soft Red Bean Steamed Buns / Dou Sha Bao 豆沙包

Remember that Google image search has convinced my husband to convince me to steam white fluffy red bean buns using the bao recipe from Happy Home Baking.

Thanks to Google image search, my husband (the Google King) and Happy Home Baking! It is true that this bao recipe from Happy Home Baking is really really really good! It is actually a basic bao recipe containing basic ingredients like bleached flour, water and minimal amount of baking powder, yeast and oil and yet it can produce wonderfully, white, soft and fluffy professional kind of steamed buns.

In short, I would highly recommend this recipe!!! I reckon this is one of the best steamed bun recipe that I have found!!! If you like to make your own steamed buns, you must try this recipe!!!

Red bean steamed Buns 豆沙包 made with my healthiest homemade red bean paste

To the health freak me, these steamed buns with healthiest kind of red bean filling is my kind of 豆沙包 but my son reckon that the red bean filling is not sweet or flowy enough for him... Whether you are using red bean filling that is sweet or flowy or not, I can't stop saying that this bao recipe is the kind of steamed buns that you won't want to miss!!!

These are bao making absolute essentials - Hong Kong flour and canola oil

This is the healthiest red bean paste that I have made at here.

Divide paste to 20g each and dough to 40g each

Wrap, shape and steam them...

15 minutes of steaming and the buns are ready!

I'm loving every single bit of our very-homemade red bean buns.

Here is the wonderfully white steamed buns recipe that is mostly adapted from Happy Home Baking which is quite similar to another great red bean steamed buns by Chin's Baking Diary

Intentionally, everything is 3 in the original recipe but I have scaled it up to use 500g of flour to use up the whole packet of Hong Kong flour and make extra buns. This recipe with 500g of flour yields 19-20 buns. 20 buns!!! That's heaps to feed a small family. Yes that I did this intentionally so that I can keep the extra in the freezer and steam them whenever I want just like what we always do with the commercial frozen kinds.

Makes 20 buns

500g Hong Kong flour (1 pack) or any low protein (7-9%) bleached flour 

1 1/4 tsp baking powder, preferably double acting baking powder
1 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup (50g) caster sugar
265ml (1 cup + 1 tbsp) water
25ml vegetable oil, preferably something light like canola oil

400g red bean paste

Place water, oil, sugar, flour, baking powder and yeast according to this order into a breadmaker and use "dough” setting to knead and prove the dough for 1 hr.

If breadmaker is not available, kneading by hand is possible. Combine flour, baking powder, yeast, sugar in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour mixture, add water 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 20 mins) and then let it rise for 1 hr. Please note that HHB has mentioned 15 mins of proving is sufficient for her but I left my dough to rise for at least an hour.

When the dough is ready, divide into 20 portions. Flatten each dough pieces with your hands or roll it slightly with a rolling pin. Place about 20g of red bean paste. Wrap and seal the sides of the dough to completely enclose the filling. Place each bun on each paper cup liner or a small piece of baking paper with its seam sides down. Rest the bun in warm mist for 20 mins.

While waiting, if you are using the stove for steaming, set water to boil for the steaming later. Steam bun for about 12-20 mins until done. The steam timing varies if you have multiple layers of baos 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.

Leftovers can be kept in fridge or freezer with cling wrap and cover. To freeze, allow buns to cool completely at room temperature. Wrap each bun in each small freezing bag and place them in the freezer. To consume, no thawing of frozen buns is required. Just re-steam the kept buns until hot before serve.

Happy Steaming

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Before going, I like to emphasize again that I'm loving this steamed buns recipe!!! Here, I like to mention that this recipe works well to make Liu Sha Bao too. See this if you wish to know how to make Liu Sha Bao filling.

If you are using this steamed bun recipe to make Liu Sha Bao, please DO NOT steam your buns for more than 14 minutes!!! Otherwise, the custard filling will explode out of the bao.

Liu Sha Bao made with this steamed bun recipe - Yum!!!

Although these steamed buns are not exactly a Chinese New Year delicacy, we are enjoying these buns to its fullest on Chinese New Year too.