Are you tired of making bread? I was. Do you want to expand your bread baking horizons? Look no further, welcome to the wonderful world of steamed buns.

Sun’s out, buns out!

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Ingredients

You only need 4 ingredients:

  • yeast
  • all purpose flour
  • sugar
  • milk

Equipment

As for equipment, we used our rice cooker which comes with a steamer basket attachment. There are steamer basket attachments sold online or in stores that just sit inside an ordinary stockpot. I also know of the method where you use foil balls to lift a plate inside a pot — if any brave soul tries this, let us know!

The instant pot can also steam these if you don’t have a rice cooker with a steamer option. Here’s the instant pot on amazon. Buy the steamer basket separately here.

Steamed Bread vs. Baked Bread

I baked bread before and I love the fluffy texture and crusty exterior, but these Chinese Steamed buns are also similar except for a couple things: it’s slightly sweet and super smooth.

smooth ball of steam bun
Ooo, buns so smooth.

Steamed buns can be eaten with honey, bbq pork, butter, salted pork (aka rou song). They can also be fried and dipped in condensed milk! Sweet tooth, rejoice!

Steamed buns are super versatile. They can be eaten for breakfast (I basically grew up eating these — but immediately always grew hungry afterwards because I need bacon in my breakfast!), lunch, or dinner.

The texture is even softer than my mini chocolate chip pumpkin muffins. I don’t think the steamed buns are as cute, but both are very good for breakfast or dessert 🙂

Impress your friends and relatives! Why not give these steamed buns a try?

smooth ball of steam bun
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The Best Steamed Buns Recipe

Superbly easy recipe for steamed buns AKA "mantou." Fluffy, cloud-like bread for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert. The Best Buns.

Cuisine asian, Chinese
Keyword bread, buns, steamed
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 8 buns

Ingredients

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast
  • 2.5 tbsp sugar
  • 350 g all-purpose flour or approximately 2.5 cups

Instructions

  1. Measure 1 cup of milk in a measuring cup, then add 1 tsp yeast and 2.5 tbsp sugar. Stir well.

    yeast mixture in measuring cup on marble

  2. Add the yeast mixture to 350g (or ~2.5 cups) flour in a large bowl.

  3. Knead until the mixture becomes a smooth ball. If the mixture is too sticky, you can add a spoonful of flour at a time until it doesn't stick to the bowl and can be formed into a ball!

    ball of bun

  4. Take the dough out and cover it with plastic wrap and let rest for 5 minutes.

  5. Knead the ball for 15 minutes by hand (or use the bread hook attachment on a stand mixer for half the time on the lowest speed setting).

    hand kneading ball of dough

  6. On a slightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle that's about 9" x 14"

    rolled out dough

  7. Tightly roll it into a log, from left to right. Roll the log for another 30 seconds.

    dough in a log

  8. Cut the dough into equal-sized pieces using a sharp knife. You can smooth out each piece into a ball if desired.

  9. Space out your dough pieces (don't let them touch each other as they will expand a quarter inch or so) cover it.

    buns before rise

  10. Let rise for 60 minutes, or until the dough balls expand in size (see image).

    bun after rise

  11. Add water to the bottom of the steamer. Optional: add 1 tbsp of vinegar to the water. Place buns into the steamer on wax paper (so it doesn't stick!)

    buns in steamer on plate of wax paper

  12. Steam for about 15 minutes or until the dough expands to soft, puffy and fluffy steamed buns (or when you see steam coming out of the rice cooker). You're finished!

We only steam two at a time. Since they can be stored in the fridge for a few days, we take them out to eat during mealtimes. It only takes 15 minutes to steam and your bread/steamed buns are ready. Then we cut the buns in half like a sandwich and piled some meat (some leftover bulgogi/pork belly in the fridge worked) and fresh cilantro inside.

For some added flavor, we slathered some gochujang (red pepper paste — it’s really good, can be found in asian grocery stores or even the specialty foods section of the regular grocery stores). It was a delicious bun-which!

Can I just say how fun it was to make and eat this?! I always ate these buns from frozen packages. My parents would take them out of the freezer and steam them. The resulting steamed buns were super dense, but I never knew freshly made steamed buns were soooooo good!

Got steamed buns?

Share your comments/suggestions below! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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