Table of Contents
Steamed Pork Buns {Huai Yang Style Rou Bao Zi 肉包子} is such classic traditional food in China. It features a soft fluffy bun wrapper filled with juicy and savory pork fillings. People especially enjoy having them for breakfast, perfect to pair with a bowl of Eight Treasure Porridge {Bao Bao Zhou 八宝粥} for a healthy and satisfying breakfast.
How to make Steamed Pork Buns from scratch at home easy, yummy, and healthy?
The First is to make a fluffy yeast dough for steamed pork buns
It is super easy to make a tasty soft yeast dough using organic all-purpose flour, active dry yeast, a pinch of sugar, and Himalayan pink salt, as long as you learn a few tips. Read here for a detailed step-by-step guided recipe.
Make a Smooth Dough Yeast Dough After Proofing
The Second is to make a juicy and tasty pork filling
Home ground pork is the best for a delicious pork filling. Read here to learn all the basics to make a yummy pork filling.
The Third is to Make Bun Wrappers
You can make wrappers at home in two ways either by hand using a rolling pin or use a Stand Mixer (pasta machine).
This yeast dough recipe makes about 20 buns {Bao zi}. When use a rolling pin to make bun wrappers, divide the dough into 20 equal portions, and then work on one portion at a time. Read here for a detailed step-by-step guided tutorial.
If you own a Stand Mixer with pasta making attachment or Manual Pasta Machine, use them to roll the dough into a sheet and then cut into 4.5 inch rounds. Read here for more details.
The fourth is to Wrap Buns
This is the same method as wrapping Shanghai Soup Dumplings or Red Bean Paste Buns. See here for a detailed step-by-step tutorial.
The last is to steam pork buns
I prefer using dried bamboo leaves as a coaster for freshly wrapped buns to rest on before adding them to the steaming set.
For the steaming set, you can either use a steamer pot, a stockpot with a steamer basket, or a Wok with a tiered 12-inch bamboo steamer.
Remember to add ample water to the pot or wok, about 6 cups of water. Turn the heat to high, and bring it to a boil first. Then add the steamer with the buns, cover the lid, and steam for 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat, wait for about 1 minute and then remove steamer from the pot.
Steamed Pork Buns Recipe {Rou Bao Zi}
Steamed Pork Buns {Huai Yang Style Rou Bao Zi 肉包子} is such classic traditional food in China. It features a soft fluffy bun wrapper filled with juicy and savory pork fillings.
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 660 g all-purpose flour, unbleached organic, see notes
- 4 tsp active dry yeast
- 25 g avocado oil
- 15 g cane sugar, organic
- 1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt
- 330 g water, see notes
For the Pork Filling:
- 1 lb. ground pork, home ground preferred
- 2 tbsp. Shaoxing wine
- 1 tbsp. natural soy sauce, or dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp. Zhenjiang vinegar
- 1 egg, organic or cage-free
- 1 tbsp. arrowroot flour
- 1/2 tsp cane sugar, organic
- 1 tbsp. sweet fermented bean paste {Tian Mian Jiang}
- 1/2 tsp star anise powder
- 1/2 tsp coriander seeds powder, freshly ground
- 1/2 tsp ginger powder
- 2 stalks of green onions, finely chopped
For Steaming
- 6 cups of water, plus additional water to add into the pot when steaming the 2nd batch, if needed
Instructions
The First is to make a Fluffy Yeast Dough for steamed pork buns:
- Read here for a detailed step-by-step guided recipe to make a super fluffy yeast dough for buns.
The Second is to make a juicy and tasty Pork Filling:
- Read here for a step-by-step guide to make a yummy pork filling. Add sweet fermented bean paste in the last step, fold into the pork filling and mix well.
The Third is to Make Bun Wrappers:
- This recipe makes about 20 buns. Divide the dough into 20 equal portions, with each portion of dough weighing about 50 g. Use a kitchen scale to help with this step. See the detailed step-by-step tutorial in this Red Bean Bun Recipe.
- If you own a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer, you can potentially use a similar method of making dumpling wrappers to produce bun wrappers. See here for a detailed step-by-step tutorial. See notes for things to watch out for when using yeast dough to make buns vs. regular dough to make dumplings.
The Fourth is to Warp Buns:
- This is the same method as wrapping Shanghai Soup Dumplings or Red Bean Paste Buns. See here for a detailed step-by-step tutorial.
The Last is to Steam Pork Buns:
- I prefer using dried bamboo leaves as a coaster for freshly wrapped buns to rest on before adding them to the steaming set. Wax paper or cabbage leaves are alternative popular ways.
- For the steaming set, you can either use a steamer pot, a stockpot with a steamer basket, or a Wok with a 12-inch bamboo steamer combination.
- Add ample water to the pot or wok, about 6 cups of water. Turn the heat to high, and bring it to a boil first. Then add the steamer with the buns, cover the lid, and steam for 20 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, wait for about 1 minute and then remove the steamer from the pot.
- Enjoy a freshly steamed super soft with juicy savory pork filling bun.
Notes
- For easier measurement purposes, I use Gram as a unit for the dough, which you can use a kitchen scale to manage. Most kitchen scale has "TARE" function which allows you to read the incremental or "net" weight. A very helpful function.
- Start the bun-making process after the yeast dough has been proofed for about 1.5 hours. The dough will keep rising as the processes go on.
Key takeaways for making a bun wrapper using a Stand Mixer:
- Use a rolling pin to roll over the dough slab once first.
- Apply to set 1 on the roller to get the thickest level
- Use a 4.5-inch diameter cookie cutter of a small bowl to make a round wrapper that is the about 4.5-inch diameter.
- When using the Stand Mixer roller for the wrapper, collect the dough that is trimmed off from cutting the dough sheet into rounds, and knead it into a dough slab to reuse them.
The silicone mini spatula is very handy to scrape the pork fillings off the mixing bowl.
The bamboo spatula is useful to stir the pork filling to let all ingredients bind.
This recipe makes about 20 buns, given the dough and pork filling.
For a 12-inch steamer, you can steam about 10 buns maximum at a time. For the bamboo steamer that comes with a double-deck with 2 steamers, it is perfect to steam in one sitting. If you don't like the buns touching each other, then you may need to steam the last 4 buns in a 2nd steaming process.
Recommended Products
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-
粽叶 Natural Wild Dried Bamboo Leaves - 12 inch Bamboo Steamer Basket, 2 Tier
- Pasta Maker Attachments Set for all KitchenAid Stand Mixer, including Pasta Sheet Roller, Spaghetti Cutter, Fettuccine Cutter by Nevku
- KitchenAid KSM8990DP 8-Quart Commercial Countertop Mixer, 10-Speed, Gear-Driven, Dark Pewter
- Small Silicone Spatulas
- Bamboo Spoons & Spatula
- Glass Mixing Bowls
- Coffee/Spice Grinder
- Organic Ground Ginger
- Organic Coriander Seeds
- Organic Anise Seed 1 lb from StarWest Botanicals
- Shinho Sweet Bean Paste / Tian Mian Jiang (6.3oz)
- Arrowroot Flour
- Zhenjiang Vinegar
- Light Soy Sauce
- Wan Ja Shan Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce (2 Pack, Total of 33.8fl.oz)
- Shaoxing Wine
- Avocado Oil
- Organic Himalayan Pink Salt
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Red Star Active Dry Yeast 16 oz (1 pound) size
- Great River Milling Organic Lily White All purpose Flour, 80 OZ
- Organic All-Purpose Flour
- Large Round Cookie Cutter Set – 4.5”,3.5”,2.5” - 3 Piece - Stainless Steel
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 servings Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 529Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 77mgSodium: 582mgCarbohydrates: 70gFiber: 3gSugar: 4gProtein: 25g
Nutrition calculation is provided by Nutritionix to the best knowledge per ingredients description and isn't always accurate.
