Banh Bao

I’m fed up with bad recipes. There’s too much inconsistency and variations, which result in large room for error. Baking is a science and 2 tsp vs. 1 tbsp of baking powder is not close enough to be “within error” when baking:

• It may be be under-inflated, resulting in a dense bake (possibly greasy)
• Or it maybe be over-inflated and collapse in absence of supporting structure, resulting in a dense bake

I haven’t been able to find a consensus on the One True Bao recipe. Every recipe has slightly differing ratios and techniques and my success rate has been abysmal. When I lack confidence in a particular recipe, I cross-compare it against multiple other recipes. It’s a sanity check that the ratios and directions are reasonably inline other recipes.

It’s been very difficult with bao. These are the different variations I’ve observed that I think are directly affecting my bake success:

• Using other starches, beyond cake flour. Tapioca or corn starch substitutions are common
• Steaming in gentle or raging steam
• Cooling inside steaming container
• Steaming with towel or wiping the interior
• Steaming vessel (bamboo)

I ended up choosing this one from allrecipes. Unfortunately, due to all the variance among recipes and converting volume to mass measurements, I overlooked the baker’s ratios. This recipe requires an additional 40-60% more flour, to be more aligned with other recipes. Unless their cup of flour was packed such that a cup == 170 g.

Since it’s inevitable that I’m going to mess this up again, let’s document what I’ve learned. Maybe I can iterate on this and actually nail down this recipe.

Ratio

Chinese steamed buns are basically the same dough as white bread. You can choose to add more sugar for sweetness, much like how you would make a sweet bun.

The baker’s percentages are:

Ingredient	Baker’s %
Flour	100% (by definition, just adding for completeness)
Water	55%
Sugar	15%
Oil	5%
Yeast	2%
Salt	1.5 %

I’ve decided to use recipes with little sugar (for yeast). Using a substantial amount of sugar may affect the final product. I would imagine more sugar in the dough might encourage an even quicker rise and sweeter taste. The final bake might have more moisture (due to sugar’s hygroscopic qualities).

Proofing

For bao, you want to underproof the dough, to keep the dough tight and limit the amount of rise. Steaming doesn’t form a rigid crust and structure, unlike baking. Allowing too much rise will result in collapse upon cooling.

Steaming

I’m unsure whether steaming should be aggressive or gentle boil. This will need more experimentation to see if it makes a difference.

What needs to be accounted for is condensation dripping back onto the bao. You can use bamboo steamer, which doesn’t readily condense and allows steam to escape. You can wipe the lid dry a few times during steaming. Or you can wrap the lid in a towel, this seems to work quite well.

The other thing to try is to let the bao cool slowly in a turned off steamer.The idea being that a sudden temperature and humidity change can cause the bao to wrinkle and contract, while it’s still pliable.