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Sheng Jian Mantou {生煎馒头} or short for Sheng Jian, also known as pan-fried pork buns, is a traditional Huai Yang style food native to China’s Yangtze River Delta area. It features dumpling size round buns filled with tasty pork fillings. Learn to wrap Sheng Jian Mantou in Huai Yang authentic style but an easy and simplified way.
Read here on how to make Sheng Jian Wrapper from scratch.
The dough is semi-leavened made of organic all-purpose flour, avocado oil, a pinch of Himalayan pink salt, a little organic cane sugar, active dry yeast, and water.
Use a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer pasta maker attachment (or manual pasta machine) to roll the dough into a flat sheet and then cut into rounds using a 3.5-inch cookie cutter.
Wrap Sheng Jian Mantou Step One – Position the wrapper in one hand and add the filling
Open left-hand palm, or the less dominant hand, with four adjacent fingers to form a flat platform and place one wrapper onto the platform. Add about two teaspoonfuls of filling to the center of the wrapper.
Step Two – Fold one side both ends toward the middle
Start with one side, fold both ends toward the middle and slightly overlapping, and then press gently to seal.
Adjust the left-hand holding position so that it sits comfortably in the middle of the left hand’s finger platform.
Sheng Jian Mantou Wrap Step Three: Fold the other side both ends toward the middle
Repeat this for the other side of the wrapper. Fold both ends toward the middle until they are slightly overlapping, and press gently to seal.
Step Four: Check and Seal the Base
Wrap Sheng Jian Step Four 
Wrap Sheng Jian Step Four
This step is to seal the base. Look for gap areas, the corners, for instance, press to seal. The good news is the dough is very pliable, you can even stretch out the dough if you need to in order to seal.
Step Five: Flip the Sheng Jian and organize to make it look round and tall
Flip the Sheng Jian upside down, while the left hand loosely holding Sheng Jian, use the right-hand thumb and index finger curved area to squeeze gently while turning at the same time.
Place Sheng Jian in the palms, use both hands’ fingers to squeeze gently while turning it to make it tall and round.
Congratulations! You just learned how to wrap Sheng Jian Mantou in an authentic style.
Now go head finishing up wrapping and let’s cook some super yummy Sheng Jian Mantou! Read here for a detailed guided recipe.
How to Wrap Sheng Jian Mantou, Shanghai Pan Fried Pork Buns Easy Authentic Way?
Sheng Jian Mantou {生煎馒头} or short for Sheng Jian, also known as pan-fried pork buns, is a traditional Huai Yang style food native to China’s Yangtze River Delta area. It features dumpling size round buns filled with tasty pork fillings. Learn to wrap Sheng Jian Mantou in Huai Yang authentic style but an easy and simplified way.
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 660 g organic all-purpose flour
- 360 g water, see notes
- 8 g dry active yeast
- 14 g organic cane sugar
- 2 g Himalayan pink salt
- 24 g avocado oil
For the Pork Filling:
- 2 lb ground pork, home ground preferred
- 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine
- 1/4 cup natural soy sauce, or dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Zhenjiang vinegar
- 2 cage-free eggs
- 2 tbsp arrowroot flour
- 4 tsp organic cane sugar
- 2 tbsp sweet fermented bean paste {Tian Mian Jiang}
- 1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
- 4 stalks of green onions
- 24 thin slices of ginger
Instructions
Make the Doug:
Read here for a detailed step-by-step on how to make a smooth dough.
Sheng Jian Mantou uses semi-leavened dough, therefore use a little less dry active yeast for this dough compared to regular fluffy buns.
Cover the mixing bowl with a damp kitchen towel while you prepare pork filling.
Prep Pork Filling:
Read here for a detailed guided recipe on how to make tasty pork filling.
Compared to the original pork filling recipe, we use maximum sugar level and add an extra 2 tbsp sweet fermented bean paste.
Make the Wrappers:
Read here for a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to use a pasta machine along with a cookie cutter to make dumplings and bun wrappers.
Compared to Jiao Zi or dumpling wrappers, we use a thicker level, setting 2 for the KitchenAid Stand Mixer.
For the corners and patches left behind after you cut the rounds, you can re-knead them together and re-use them and turn them into a dough sheet. 
Wrap Sheng Jian Mantou:
- Open left-hand palm (the less dominant hand) with four adjacent fingers to form a flat platform and place one wrapper onto the platform. Add about two teaspoonfuls of filling to the center of the wrapper.
- Start with one side, fold both ends toward the middle and slightly overlapping, and then press gently to seal. Adjust the left-hand holding position so that it sits comfortably in the middle of the left hand's finger platform.
- Repeat this for the other side of the wrapper. Fold both ends toward the middle until they are slightly overlapping, and press gently to seal.
- Look for gap areas, the corners, for instance, press to seal. The good news is the dough is very pliable, you can even stretch out the dough if you need to in order to seal.
- Flip the Sheng Jian upside down, while the left hand loosely holding Sheng Jian, use the right-hand thumb and index finger curved area to squeeze gently while turning at the same time.
Place Sheng Jian in the palms, use both hands' fingers to squeeze gently while turning it to make it look tall and round.
- Congratulations! You just learned how to wrap Sheng Jian Mantou. Now go ahead finishing up wrapping and let's cook some super delicious pork buns. Read here for more.
Nutrition Information
Yield 10 servings Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 681Total Fat 24gSaturated Fat 8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 13gCholesterol 122mgSodium 840mgCarbohydrates 79gFiber 5gSugar 7gProtein 35g
Nutrition calculation is provided by Nutritionix to the best knowledge per ingredients description and isn't always accurate.