Steamed Buns two ways – Custard & Char Sui Chicken

We love ordering these light & fluffy buns when ever we go for Yum Cha, but now that we live in an area that has no Yum Cha Restaurants 😦 we have been forced to make our own & boy are we glad about that.

These steamed buns are super easy to make, are super yummy & so versatile, you can fill them with what ever takes your fancy or what ever you have left over in the fridge – last nights bolognaise sauce or left over stir fry. They are great for using up all those odds & ends of left over meals you have languishing in the back of your fridge – thus creating a zero waste kitchen!!

But for something special we recommend trying our Char Sui Chicken filling -the slightly salty asian flavourings work perfectly with the sweet fluffy dough to create a taste sensation for your mouth. We often make a double batch of the Char Sui mix as it makes a great filling for lettuce cups or wraps for quick meals through out the week.

Best of all once steamed, these buns can be cooled, wrapped & frozen to use at a later date. Simply defrost them &  re-steam for another five minutes or even fry them up in a fry pan so that they get all crispy on the outside. These are our new favourite go to snack.

For all of you sweet tooths (my people!) I have included our custard filling recipe too, these make the yummiest sweet buns.

Don’t be put off by the multiple steps to this recipe – these buns are really super easy to make – I make them after all!! I find it best to start the dough & while its rising I then get to work on making the fillings, so that they can be cool & ready to be used when the dough has finished rising.

Custard Mix for Steam Buns a’la Mama Going Natural

• 300ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 2 T coconut sugar
• 2 T arrowroot powder

Heat the milk, vanilla & sugar over a low heat, beat the eggs & arrowroot powder together & slowly add to the milk mix whisking the entire time. Let your custard slowly come to the boil to thicken, whisking the entire time. This will make a thick custard that you can set aside to cool & thicken further, it is going to be very thick & pasty but don’t worry that is how it needs to be so it doesn’t make your dough soggy.

 

Char Sui Chicken Mix for Steam Buns a’al Mama Going Natural

• 2 carrots peeled & finely diced
• 2 sticks celery finely diced
• 1/2 bunch shallots sliced
• 2 large chicken breasts finely diced
• 2 T olive oil
• 3 T Char Sui Sauce
• 2 T Tamari
• 1 t himalayan salt
• 2 T water
• 1 T arrowroot powder
• Cracked pepper to season

Place olive oil in a fry pan to heat up over a medium heat, add himalayan salt, cracked pepper & chicken & stir fry for a few minutes, add all vegetables & fry off for five minutes. Then add Char Sui sauce, & Tamari & let cook for another five minutes to ensure vegetables are cooked. Mix water & arrowroot together & add this to your mix, stirring constantly to thicken the sauce. Set aside to cool.

Steamed Buns Dough a’la Mama Going Natural

• 1 1/2 T Coconut sugar
• 1 c lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 t dried yeast
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 400gm White Spelt flour

I used my thermomix to make this dough as it makes the entire process super easy – but you can make it exactly the same way just by hand in a bowl. Place sugar & water in your thermomix with the butterfly attachment in place, turn thermomix onto 4 for one minute to dissolve the sugar. Add the yeast & leave to go frothy & bubbly for ten minutes.

Add the oil, baking powder & spelt flour & set your thermomix to 5 for 2 minutes till your dough comes together, leave your thermomix with the lid on & set aside for an hour or so until the dough has doubled in size. If you are doing this in a bowl, set your dough aside somewhere warm & cover with a damp tea towel.

Once your dough has rested & doubled in size, take it out of your thermomix & set it on a lightly floured bench & knead it gently for a few minutes.

The exciting Part – How to Make your Steamed Buns.

Take your dough & section it into 18 even balls, flatten the balls into even circles that are approximately 1/2 to 1 cm thick. Hold your dough disc flat on your hand & add a Tablespoon of filling in the middle, using your other hand pinch up all the edges till they meet in the middle & twist the top section where your dough joins to seal in the filling.

Cut out little squares of parchment paper & place under each steamed bun. Set buns a distance away from each other as they will double in size during cooking. Turn your Thermomix to the Steam function & place your buns in the steamer, set timer for 12 minutes per batch.

These buns are best eaten straight from the steamer!!

Enjoy

Gluten and Sugar Free Banana Bread

Now that its coming into winter in our part of the world – its time to get baking!

Time to crank up the oven & start enjoying the comfort foods of winter.

There is nothing better than Banana Bread warm straight from the oven smeared with homemade butter & a little chia & raspberry jam – its worth braving the cold just to be able to enjoy this yummy bread.

The Bread is dense & super moist, it has the texture of a heavy banana cake, but isn’t too sweet – try it you will like it 🙂

This Banana bread recipe is super easy & can easily be Vegan adapted by swapping the honey for 2 t stevia or 3 T coconut sugar & the eggs for an additional 3T ground chia seeds & 9T of water.

This recipe can be used as your basis for all sorts of sweet bread experiments, we have added chocolate chips & raspberries to ours, made a blue berry version & made a vegan version using pineapple juice instead of water for our egg replacement for a tropical bread. The sky is the limit so get experimenting & have some fun in the kitchen!

Gluten & Sugar Free Banana Bread a’la Mama Going Natural

• 4 ripe banana’s
• 3 eggs
• 2 T honey
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 c coconut oil
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1 T kefir or 1/2 t lemon juice for vegan version
• 2 1/2 c ground almonds
• 1/4 c ground chia seeds
• 1/4 c desiccated coconut
• 1/8 c sultana’s
• 1/2 c walnuts roughly chopped

This is super easy to make!

Place your Banana’s, eggs, honey, vanilla, coconut oil, cinnamon & kefir or lemon juice in a blender or food processor & mix till smooth. Pour out your smooth banana mix & stir in the rest of the ingredients until well combined.

Pour into a well greased or baking paper lined loaf tin & bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 160 degrees celsius.

VEGAN VERSION

To make your chia seed egg replacement, mix the 3T Chia seeds & 9T of water & set aside for 5 minutes to become goopy.

Add your Chia seed egg replacement goop to your banana mix & replace the honey for 3T coconut sugar & the kefir for 1/2 t of lemon juice & continue to make as outlined above.

So go rescue those over-ripe banana’s from your kitchen counter & get baking!

Enjoy