Steamed Chinese Sausage Buns
Juicy, succulent, sweet, and savory Chinese sausages wrapped in a light and fluffy Chinese steamed bun. These steamed Chinese sausage buns are the ultimate comfort food!
Equipment
- 1 Steamer or Wok
- 1 Saucepan
Ingredients
Dough
- 156 g Cake flour
- 88 ml Milk 1%, 2%, whole
- 14 g Egg whites
- 4 g Instant yeast
- 7 g Baking powder
- 40 g White granulated sugar
- 10 g Lard
Filling and Sauce
- 5 Pieces Chinese Sausages
- 1 Tablespoon Oyster sauce
- 1 Tablespoon White granulated sugar
- 80 ml Water
- 1 teaspoon Dark soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Chinese rose cooking wine
- 4 g Gelatine
Cornstarch slurry
- 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
- 2 Tablespoons Water
Instructions
Making the Sauce
- In a small saucepan, add in your oyster sauce, sugar, water, gelatine powder, and dark soy sauce. Mix everything well together.
- Heat up the pot over a stovetop on medium heat until the sugar has fully melted and the sauce comes to a simmer.
- Now, create a cornstarch slurry by combining the cornstarch with two tablespoons of water. Mix everything well together.
- Now reduce the heat on the stovetop to low, and while stirring the sauce, slowly pour in the cornstarch slurry. Mix everything well together.
- Now turn the heat up to medium-high heat while constantly stirring the sauce.
- Once the sauce thickens up and you start to see it boil with bubbles. Turn off the stove and remove the saucepan from the stove.
- Transfer the sauce to a small bowl, set it aside to let it cool down. Once the sauce has cooled down, cover it with some plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to let the sauce solidify. You can also make the sauce the night before and leave it in the fridge so that it’s ready to use the next day.
Making the Dough
- In a stand mixer mixing bowl, add in your flour, sugar, instant yeast, egg white, lard, and baking powder. Give the mixing bowl a quick mix with the stand mixer, and then slowly add in your warm milk while mixing the dough.
- Knead the dough on low speed for 11 minutes and then transfer it to your countertop.
- Now, sprinkle some flour onto your countertop and remove the dough from the stand mixer.
- Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and knead the dough for another 30 seconds to a minute by folding the dough inwards toward the center and kneading the dough with your palms. If you find the dough very sticky and difficult to work with, sprinkle a little more flour onto the dough, but don’t add too much! Also, using a dough scraper makes it easier to knead the dough.
- After kneading the dough, shape the dough into a rectangular shape and then cover it with some plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
Making the Filling
- Once your sauce has chilled and solidified, remove it from the fridge.
- Now, take your Chinese sausages and cut them in half.
- In a bowl, scoop out about 1.5-2 tablespoons of the sauce and then mash the sauce so that it is evenly spread out in the bowl. Now add in your Chinese sausages. Mix everything well together so that the Chinese sausages are coated with the sauce.
- Cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and then place everything in the fridge again until you’re ready to add the filling to the buns.
Making the Buns
- After 10 minutes have passed, remove the dough from the plastic wrap and weigh out the dough. Now divide the dough into 10 pieces, and sprinkle a little flour on top and cover the dough.
- Sprinkle a little bit of flour on your countertop and then grab each piece of the dough and roll it out slightly. Cover the dough and set them aside.
- Now take 1 piece of the dough and roll it out into a long strip about 3-3.5 times the size of the cut Chinese sausage. Repeat this for the rest of the pieces.
- Then take out your Chinese sausage filling. Grab 1 strip of the dough and place the top of the strip of dough behind the Chinese sausage, and using your opposite hand, press down and hold the piece of dough using your index finger. Now, loosely wrap the dough around the Chinese sausage, starting with the spot where your index finger is pressing down into the dough.
- Continue wrapping the dough around the Chinese sausage until you get between 4-5 circles around the Chinese sausage.
- Once you get to the end, tuck the dough underneath the circle. If the strip is too long, then you can use some scissors to cut it shorter.
- Place the buns onto a piece of parchment paper. If you get any sauce onto your buns, then I recommend putting that side facing down to cover the sauce. It also makes it easier to stick to the parchment paper.
- Repeat these steps for the rest of the dough.
- Once done, place all of the buns onto a steaming rack and cover them with some plastic wrap or a towel.
- Now take all of the buns and place them in a warm environment and let the buns proof for about 30 minutes.
- While your buns are proofing, get a steamer or wok ready with some water and heat up the water about 10 minutes before your buns are done proofing.
- At the end of 30 minutes, press down slightly onto the buns with your finger and see if there is an indentation on the buns. The spot where you pressed down on the buns should stay there and not bounce back or do so very slowly. If there is an indentation, then you’re ready to steam your buns. The buns should not double in size. If it proofs for too long, then you’re sausages will not be visible after steaming!
- Once your water is boiling and you can see a lot of steam coming out from your steamer or wok, place the buns into the steamer or wok, cover the buns with a lid, and steam the buns on high heat for about 10 minutes.
- Once the buns are done steaming, turn off the stove and slightly open the lid so that the edges are exposed, and leave the buns in the steamer or wok for an additional 5 minutes. Make sure that you do not fully open the lid immediately after the buns are done steaming, otherwise they may start to deflate and shrink!
- Once 5 minutes have passed, remove the buns from the steamer and serve the buns while still hot.