Steamed bread (bun)

Today, I made some steamed bread.

Steamed bread has similar texture as baked bread. The main differences between these two kinds of bread are (1) traditional steamed bread contains neither vegetable oil nor fat; (2) a steamer is required in preparing steamed bread. In my eyes, steamed bread is healthier than baked bread due to its fat-free and low-sugar.

Usually, I made three types of steamed bread, without filling, with red-bean paste filling and with pork/beef mince filling. All of them are prepared based on the same dough recipe.

As baked bread, different flour or flour mixtures can be used to make the dough. My favourites are all purpose flour, mixture of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, mixture of all purpose flour and dry soy residue.

Here are the directions:

(1) Dough

In warm water, sprinkle yeast and let sit until foamy;

In a mixing bowl, blend flour or flour mixture, sugar, soy flour, baking powder (see table above);

Blend in yeast solution and then add water;

Knead until dough is elastic and smooth;

Slightly grease a stainless-steel 2 qt. bowl, place dough in the bowl, and air-tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap;

Let the dough rise at room temperature or in the fridge until double in bulk (1 hour for warm rise, 6 hour for cool rise);

Knead to release carbon dioxide and form dough into a round smooth ball;

Divide dough into four portions and form each portion into neat round ball;

As making rolls of loaf, roll each ball into rectangle, fold into third, overlap to the centre. Roll firmly into a long strip. Start from the short end, roll up the strip lightly, and pinch together along the crease. Cut into two widthwise. Place them in a floured pan, and cover with damp cloth.

If you prefer very simple round dough, forget the directions marked in blue color. Just divide dough into eight portions and form each portion into neat round ball. That's it.

Let them proof at room temperature for 2o minutes.

(2) Steam

As setting double boiler, the lower pot should fit the size of upper bamboo steamer.

Put cold water in lower pot (about 1/3) and place a wooden chopstick or wooden spoon in the water to prevent from superheating;

Line bamboo steamer with single-layer cheesecloth, wet cheesecloth with tap water thoroughly, so that steamed bread will not stick on the cloth;

Place dough in steamer, leaving enough space among them, so that they won't stick together after final rising;

Sit steamer on lower pot, cover bamboo steamer with its bamboo cover;

Heat with high power and bring water to boil, after steam rise through bamboo cover which means the whole steamer is filled with steam, cook for 15 minutes;

Shut down power, don't open the cover, let the whole system sit for another 3 minutes;

Okay, now, remove cover, cool steamed bread on wire rack.

(3) Preserve and serve

Steamed bread can be stored in the fridge for many days.

It is recommended to serve warm steamed bread.

In microwave, place chilled steamed bread in a container (with cover), sprinkle some water on steamed bread, heat 1 minute under high power; if not warm enough, heat another 30 seconds. Overheating steamed bread will dehydrate bread and turn bread as hard as stone.

Chilled steamed bread can be cut in half with a serrated knife, sprinkled with some water and baked in a toaster.

Sliced steamed bread can even be deep-fried as well.

Bake with soybean residue -- Bread

Besides using soybean residue in my recipe of "Bake with soybean residue -- Muffin", I like to add it in bread or steamed bread to enhance the fibre content and give my family more healthy breakfast.

For soybean residue, please read my "Soy milk", you will find where soybean residue comes from.

In my recipe, I use dry soybean residue. You can dry wet residue with microwave oven (high, 10-15 minutes) or oven (400F, 30 minutes, followed by 350F, 30 minutes). The dry residue can be stored in a container and frozen in the fridge for quite a long time and above all, it is easy to use.

Okay, let's make our wonderful bread:

1. Make a water roux starter:

Add some water in the lower pot of double boiler, heat in medium power; in the upper pot, add 4 tbsp and 1/2 tsp water, together with 2 tbsp all purpose flour. Keep on whisking, until the temperature of water roux reaches 65 C (See Picture 1) and becomes thick, stir well and cover the starter. Let it cool to room temperature.

2. Add 1 tsp active dry yeast into 6 tbsp warm milk and let it stand until foamy.

3. Combine 2 1/3 cup all purpose flour (I use unbleached flour, a in Picture 2), 1/3 cup sugar (b in Picture 2), 1/2 cup soybean residue (c in Picture 2) and a pinch of salt. Add water roux starter, yeast solution and 1/2 cup milk, knead the mixture into a elastic dough. Knead into 3 tbsp trans-fat free margarine (or butter). Stretch the dough, if you can see a thin membrane or the broken hole of the membrane shows zigzag edge, the dough is well developed (See Picture 3 and 4).

4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge, fermenting the dough in low temperature until double in bulk (See Picture 5, about 6 hours). Pink into the dough with floured pointer and take the finger out, the hole does not rebound (See Picture 6).

5. Gently knead the dough to press out carbon dioxide, divide it into four portions. Round each portion and cover them with plastic wrap. Let them stand for 20 minutes.

6. Press each portion, roll into a rectangle. Fold rectangle into third, overlap to the centre. Roll firmly into a long strip, start from the short end, roll up the dough lightly, and pinch together along the crease. Roll the dough back and forth to make it cylindrical, and pinch the ends together.

7. Place the four rolls into a greased loaf pan (See Picture 7), cover with plastic wrap. Ferment the dough until the loaf pan is 90% full.

8. Preheat oven to 375F. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and hollow sound can be heard when you tap the bread with a wooden spoon.

9. Unmold immediately and brush the bread with milk (See Picture 8).

See, how fantastic the bread is!

Bake with soybean residue -- Muffin

While I was drinking soy milk, one question raised -- what could I do with the soybean residue?

Soybean residue is low in fat, high in fiber, and also contains protein, calcium, iron, and riboflavin. It contains 76 to 80% moisture, 20 to 24% solids and 3.5 to 4.0% protein. On a dry weight basis residue contains 24% protein, 8 to 15% fats, and 12 to 14.5% crude fiber. It contains 17% of the protein from the original soybeans. So...throw it in garbage bin? No way.

I know vegetarian use soybean residue (also named as Okara) as granulated meat substituent. But I am pretty sure that I can't live without meat. How about making muffin as breakfast?

Here we go:

1. Sift the mixture of 1 cup corn meal, 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 cup dry soy residue (wet residue dried with microwave oven or other oven; the dry residue can be frozen in the fridge for quite a long time and easy to use), 2 tbsp sugar, 4 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt; and keep the flake remaining in the sieve aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, fully whisk 1 cup skim milk or soy milk, 1 whole egg and 11 1/2 tbsp (about 6 oz) plain yogurt, and combine the mixture with sifted flour mixture.

3. Preheat oven to 425F.

4. Fill muffin cup 2/3 full with batter and sprinkle the top with flake obtained in step 1.

5. Bake for 30 minutes or until muffins are light golden brown. The muffin top should spring back when gently pressed with the finger and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.

See, how soft they are:

Soy milk

I found dry soybeans in Bulk Barn, happily, I carried one bag home and it is time to enjoy soy milk.

Before developing soy milk, dry beans need to be soaked fully overnight. To make 4 L soy milk, 320 cc dry soybean is required.

Put half of the soaked beans into a blender, add 1 cup water and "grind" for 5 seconds. The mixture becomes very sticky. Add 1/2 cup water to dilute the mixture and "grind" for another two 5 seconds. Add 1/2 cup water, "sauce" for three 5 seconds. Stand jelly strainer bag in the sieve, and pour the puree into the bag, filter, the filtrate is the raw soy milk. Wash the residue with four 1 cup water, and combine all the filtrate. Squash the bag with residue inside to make the residue as dry as possible.

Work on another half of soaked beans.

Heat the raw soy milk to 100 C and keep boiling for at least ten minutes. (For all raw soybean protein products heat is necessary to destroy the activity of the protease inhibitors naturally present in the soybean. The pancreas naturally secretes proteases to digest a protein meal. Eating raw soybeans on a regular basis causes the pancreas to hypersecrete, leading to benign tumors of the pancreas.)

After cooling down the boiled soy milk, soybean sheet forms on the surface of the milk. This sheet can be eaten directly or dry the sheet and wrap it with granulated pork/beef to make some special Asian style dish.

Store soy milk in refrigerator and enjoy!