The Best Black Sesame Steamed Buns 最好的黑芝麻包

Call me a crazy woman!

I have been staring a few Chinese steamed buns recipes... And finally, I have found the best black sesame steamed bun recipe!!!

Why and how???

Remember in my previous post, I have made fluffy black sesame steamed buns with a high amount of baking powder but they have traces of bitter aftertaste. Next at this post, I have made black sesame flower steamed buns with the right amount of baking powder but slightly too much of ground sesame and they turned out to be spongy with cake-like and nutty texture. Henceforth, I have learnt to use the right amount of baking powder and ground sesame to use in order to yield fluffy and tasty black sesame steamed buns.

Now, staring at my personal favourite steamed bun recipe, I have realised that it is exactly the same as the soft and flossy milky flower steamed buns recipe at here!!! Is this an coincident or what??? The only only only difference is that my favourite recipe uses just water and the milky flower steamed buns recipe uses milk.

I wonder if the use of water or milk in my favourite steamed bun recipe will make any difference to make the best black sesame steamed buns and found an interesting conclusion!

I found it!!! This is the best black sesame steamed buns!

To investigate, I have made two kinds of dough. One with water and other with milk.

Next, I wrapped the flatten dough with homemade black sesame paste (Recipe at here).

... and shaped them accordingly.
Noticed that I have placed the water buns on square papers and the milk ones on round papers

I can see the slight difference now and can't wait to taste the difference.

I thought that I would see some difference but strangely, both look the same after steaming...

However, I can see and taste the difference after I sliced them.
And, I found that the water buns are fluffier!!!

Look closer... This milky bun is delicious with milky taste and chewy texture but slightly denser ...

... than this very fluffy and bouncy water bun.

Seeing these photos of mouth watering fluffy steamed buns, I hope that you are fully convinced that I have found the best black sesame streamed buns recipe. If you have seen a better recipe than this, I won't mind if you tell me but I must say that this is definitely my personal best that I have tried so far.

This is the combined recipe that is adapted from here, here and here

To make smooth and velvety black sesame seed paste:

Makes about 2 cups or 30-35 small steamed bun portions
160g (1 cup) black sesame seeds
150g caster sugar
1 cup boiling hot water
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Place sesame seeds in a saucepan. Using medium heat, toast sesame seeds with occasion stirring for about 5 mins or until the seeds are fragrant and start to have a few popping sound. Be careful not to over-toast the seeds as they can be bitter if they are burnt. Allow it to cool completely in the room temperature.

Transfer the cooled sesame seeds into a processor or a container of a hand held processor. Add water and process into a smooth paste as much as possible. You may add more water to process mixture into smoother texture but adding more water means that you will need a longer time to cook it off later.

For a smoother texture, ground processed mixture in batches into smoother paste using a mortar and pestle and transfer the ground paste into a clean saucepan.

Add oil into the ground paste and cook with medium heat and stirring until mixture is pasty and fragrant. Then, add sugar. You will notice that the mixture will become wet and darker after the addition of sugar. Continue to cook with medium heat with constant stirring until the liquid dry up to form a firm paste.

To make either the milk or water black sesame steamed buns:

Makes 12 small buns

250g Hong Kong flour or any low protein (7-9%) bleached flour
1/2 tsp baking powder, preferably double acting baking powder
2/3 tsp instant yeast
25g caster sugar (you can use 50g if you like sweeter buns but this amount works very well for me)
140ml water or milk (I have found that water makes the buns fluffier)*
1 tbsp (15ml) vegetable oil, preferably something light like canola oil** or softened butter (but I have found oil works the best for this recipe!)
10g black sesame seeds, lightly roasted and finely ground by mortar and pestle

*I have noticed that the dough made with milk is slightly stickier than the dough made with water but both are equally easy to handle. Due to the difference, the buns made with water are puffier than the buns made with milk after resting in the warm mist.

**Due its lightness, canola oil or corn oil is most appropriate to use to make steamed bun dough.

Place water (or milk), oil (or butter), 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.

When the dough is ready, divide into 12 portions. Roll 12 tablespoonful of black sesame paste into 12 balls of paste. Flatten each dough pieces with your hands or roll it slightly with a rolling pin. Place a portion of the sesame filling in the middle of each flatten dough. Wrap and seal the sides to completely enclose the filling. Place each bun on 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
Please support me and like me at Facebook...