January 2012 archive

Since my last post on how to make Chinese Buns, my cousin enlightened me giving me a recipe using ‘old dough’. The texture of these buns using ‘old dough’ as a starter is different compared to those made with the recipe from my last post. These buns are slightly softer with a tint of elastic texture. Quite enjoyable. Thank you Polly for sharing. As the recipe is to make Man Tou it makes smooth buns and not the ‘explosive top bao’. Very good for making ‘Silver Thread or Flower Rool Man Tous’.

Ingredients for Old Dough
50g plain flour (I find using normal plain flour gives better texture than superfine flour or Pao flour)
150g self raising flour
110 ml water
1/2 tsp instant yeast

Ingredients for Man Tou
160 ml fresh milk
100g plain flour (normal, not superfine flour will do)
200g self raising flour
30g sugar (for savory buns or 70g sugar for sweet buns)
1 tbsp oil
70g’old dough’ (1/4 of the portion made earlier)
5g yeast

Method
To make Old Dough: Add the dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl, make a well and pour the liquid slowly into the well in 2 portions. Mix with a spoon until a dough is form and knead with hands. Divide the Old Dough into 4 portions and freeze until required. Can be forzen for a couple of months.

To make Man Tou

1.  Add the dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl, make a well andplace the old dough in the centre (make sure the old dough is fully defrosted if kept in the freezer). Press the old dough down.
2. Pour the milk slowly into the well in 4 portions.
3. Mix with a spoon until a dough is form and knead with hands.
4. Cover with a wet cloth and leave to proof for 30 min to 45 mins (until dough double in size).
5. Divide the dough and shape. Cover with wet cloth and proof again for 30 minutes and steam.
6. Steamed and cooled buns can be frozen.
7. To reheat, steam for about 20 minutes from frozen. Ensure buns are piping hot and enjoy!

Variations:
You can put fillings into the Man Tou (pork, beef, duck, Nutella, peanut butter, lemon curd, custard, aduki bean paste, kaya etc)
Substitute white sugar with brown or demerera sugar

We have finally arrived in Malaysia, staying with mum and dad. After a few nights of rest (or rather few days of rest as we sleep in the day and are wide awake in the night due to jet-lag), I have been summond to make bread, after all the hoo haas and pictures posted on facebook and on this website (mum and dad have been following my posts…..bless), mum and dad are eager to try my bready experiments.
As kaya is one of my all time favourite especially on toast with butter, I have decided to make kaya buns.
My eldest syster in law (PP) brought her new gadget so we can make kaya and bread (the bread maker I bought for mum will be transported by hubs in 2 weeks time,….yes all the way from UK).
The kaya and buns from this post are made using sister in law’s Thermomix (I will provide a review on Thermomix later).

This recipe is quoted by dad, from my late uncle who was a Hainanese. My late uncle’s family used to own a cofee shop that sells amazing Homemade kaya toast.

Ingredients for Kaya (aka coconut egg jam or coconut egg custard)
1 cup eggs (or 4 medium eggs)*
1 cup caster sugar (or 200 g)
1 cup coconut milk (or 200 g)
3 pandan leaves (or use 1/4 tsp pandan paste)

*substituting one of the chicken egg with duck or goose egg will make your kaya smoother.

Method for making Kaya

1. Take and keep a table spoon of sugar for later. Cream the rest of the sugar with the eggs until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Place the mixture on a double boiler stirring continously.
3. When the mixture is hot, pour the mixture through a sieve (optional but this will make the kaya smoother) and return to the stove on the double boiler.
4. Add coconut milk whilst beating the sugar and egg mixture.
5. Knot the pandan leaves and place into the kaya.
6. Cook the mixture on low fire using a double boiler with continous stirring….this is the labourious step, the more you stir, the smoother is your kaya….at this stage stiring and cooking can take 1 to 2 hours. The longer you cook, the longer you can store the kaya.
7. Caramelise  the table spoon of sugar (set aside from Step 1) in a saucepan about 30 minutes before the kaya is cooked and pour the caramelised sugar into the kaya mixture stirring quickly and evenly. The caramelised sugar will provide a rich brown colour and depth in flavour. It also adds fragrants.

To make the buns please refer to previous post on Making Hong Kong Sweet Buns (Pai Bao).