Bao Zi, Fluffy Steamed Pork Buns (发面包子)
So today we wanted to show you how to make Baozi, a.k.a. 'Bao Buns' or stuffed steamed buns. Now there's a lot of different varieties of Baozi dough - we wanted to show you how to make fully risen Baozi, i.e. the sort that you'd often find at breakfast street food joints in China.
So know that this recipe isn't even close to exhaustive. We only chose one filling - pork. There's also vegetable, pork and vegetable, beef, chicken... really whatever. We actually cut out a veg Baozi recipe from the video for time reasons, so check out the Reddit post for a recipe for that as well.
As always, the full, detailed recipe is over here on /r/cooking:
/ recipe_baozi_steamed_b...
And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!
/ chinesecookingdemystified
Outro Music: "Add And" by Broke For Free
/ broke-for-free
ABOUT US
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Learn how to cook real deal, authentic Chinese food! We post recipes every Tuesday (unless we happen to be travelling) :)
We're Steph and Chris - a food-obsessed couple that lives in Shenzhen, China. Steph is from Guangzhou and loves cooking food from throughout China - you'll usually be watching her behind the wok. Chris is a long-term expat from America that's been living in China and loving it for the last eleven years - you'll be listening to his explanations and recipe details, and doing some cooking at times as well.
This channel is all about learning how to cook the same taste that you'd get in China. Our goal for each video is to give you a recipe that would at least get you close to what's made by some of our favorite restaurants here. Because of that, our recipes are no-holds-barred Chinese when it comes to style and ingredients - but feel free to ask for tips about adaptations and sourcing too!
Hey guys, a few notes: 1. Something I totally forgot to say in the narration, chill your filling before you wrap. Tossing it in the freezer for 30-60 minutes before wrapping will make your job a lot easier. 2. To expand on the hydration bit, what we'd suggest is first mixing the sugar/yeast with 100 grams of water, then slowly adding more water in from there. We used two different flours when testing - one needed an additional 40 grams, while one (this one) needed 25 grams. This flour was fresher, and many other Baozi recipes are also 50% hydration, so that's what we went with in the narration. 3. Some Baozi doughs can get up to 55% or 60% hydration. The tradeoff is this: lower hydration Baozi are more difficult to wrap, but higher hydration doughs have a more difficult time holding their shape. 4. Steph shapes the Baozi into a ball before wrapping, which is a less common technique. The advantage of shaping before rolling is to more easily get the wrapper into a nice round shape. 5. Depending on what you want the final result of your Baozi to be, feel free to adjust the final proofing time. We were flirting with the upper limit there in order to get real fluffy Baozi. If you want a smaller, denser Baozi... proof for 15-20 minutes instead. 6. There are also Baozi that use laomian - i.e. a sourdough starter - in place of yeast. We were having issues with the ratios when testing, and decided to use a yeast dough here. When we do a ban famian Baozi (half risen Baozi), we'll show you how to do the sourdough technique. 7. We also really wanted to show how to make a vegetable filling - even filmed it and everything. Ended up hitting the cutting floor because otherwise it might've knocked the video over 10 minutes. Full recipe for that will be in the Reddit post. 8. Apologies for writing "Bao Zi" in the title - looks weird to me, too. The SEO was just *way* better than "Baozi", and we were already choosing to forgo the heavily searched for 'bao buns' lol
I always love your videos bro! While on the subject of bao, have you considered doing variations like pan fried bao? The dumpling houses always have a juicy pan fried pork bao next to the pork & chives fried dumplings.
Which style? The Cantonese ones, i.e. these: i1.kknews.cc/SIG=318dgq7/ctp-vzntr/1524498940523832r8s1qr4.jpg They're also a leavened Baozi, just a little smaller than the ones we did here and (IIRC, could be wrong) sans the final proof, steamed, then quickly fried on both sides. Or then the Jiangnan sort, which're a semi-leavened Baozi and contain soup. Very different... probably one of my top-5 favorite dishes in the world img.rika.tw/uploads/20171119230901_67.jpg We'll definitely try to find time to do the latter one this year.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Yes! The 3rd one, it's like steam fried soup dumplings! Very popular in Yokohama-Japan. I look forward to seeing it!
Thank you for your great content and love from Istanbul. What happens when the video exceeds 10 minutes?
...we get double the ad revenue lol. But because I'm probably partially insane, that's not so important to me. I just think that 4-8 minutes is a good length for a cooking video.
Your channel is great! Using western language to translate some of the techniques of Chinese traditional dishes. This is very rare because most of the Chinese cooking tutorials are made by Chinese, which may have a cultural gap between the western viewers. And your video is very useful for a Chinese living in US.
"Western language" 😂😂😂
If you're Chinese and speak English rather than Chinese why don't you just say "English" instead of "Western Language" are you ashamed that you speak English and no Chinese?
@@monnke Oh I am sorry. I mean English. Sorry for hurting your feelings.
Oof
1 pork bun dissappeared when the steaming finished.
You noticed, lol. We were so hungry that we ate one...
lol
Hahaha
That's the chef's bun. It takes one for the team.
Oh, I thought it was the one that got away, and then brought home a girlfriend :P
Oh my goodness this video is amazing. I cannot believe how detailed and precise this channel is without every being patronizing or boring. These look delicious and I cant wait to make them
WELCOME TO FOOOOOD WISHES. STFU AND LISTEN TO MY BORING VOICE!
This channel is great for translating Chinese cooking concepts for English speaking viewers without (as far as I can tell) watering down or radically altering recipes and techniques.
Shockingly tasty good I have to say.
small note for anyone in the comments who may be not super familiar with making dough: you dont need to use the active dry yeast if you have instant yeast, active dry just needs to bloom in your liquids for the dough, instant can be mixed into your dry ingredients. theyre pretty much interchangable. dont know who this would specifically help besides maybe a kid interested in cooking and trying to make something with whatevers in their family's pantry, but it doesnt hurt to mention it
Canadian here, just wanted to thank you! I managed to pleat my first bao zi to perfection after watching your video, they were delicious! I even made some dessert bao zi by adding sugar to the dough and filling it with sweetened red bean paste.
Best channel for explination for cooking. Even though i havent been familiar with this style of cooking, i try twice and basically have it. Love you both. Thanks again.
Wow, so happy to have found your channel! TY for pinning your commentary to the top of the comment section, all the extra info appreciated!
This was great. Never realized how much effort was involved.
I’m so glad to find your cooking channel. Thank you very much.
You r simply professional beyond words - go in-depth, open book and truthful. Every recipe is a thesis which explains theory behind the video. I don’t take other cooking videos seriously as they tend to oversimplify n glamorize the cooking process, important ingredients are omitted or wishy washy. Results are never the same. Thank you for educating me. Wish both of u success in your endeavors.
I just made these and my first two weren’t pretty but my last ones look amazing and taste even better! I’m so happy! I live an hour away from any semblance of good Chinese food and this video was so easy to follow.
This recipe is super easy to follow! I'm literally cooking these baozi now. Some cooking videos aren't clear and you need to prepare everything ahead, but in your video every step is super clear. Now I am waiting for my dough to rise and I have just finished mixing my meat. I didn't have to google anything additionally, I just paused your video as I cooked :) Super awesome, I love your channel! I have already done the spicy mala noodles, dan dan noodles, chilli oil and your wonderful mapo tofu! Amazing channel, one of my top 3. Thank you!
Wooo, 包子 have been on my to-do list for a loooong time! So good, so happy! I made the vegetarian styles with some other additional filling (e.g. leafy greens and wood ear mushroom), and they ended up being SO GOOD! The five-spice addition was quite a good idea, thanks for that. The buns came out perfectly fluffy, they weren't underproofed/overproofed which I was wondering how it'd go with my house's temperature and the active dry yeast. It went well! The shaping and wrapping of the dough were all easier than I expected, thank you for the detailed segment on the technique, it was really appreciated! Thanks a lot!
I've made these twice now first with supermarket mince. Today chopped to a paste with my chef's knife. What a difference. So much more tender. My rolling and wrapping has gotten better too. Thanks Stef and Chris. I am going to try Lion's head meatballs this week with the extra pork I have.
I love those! I grew up eating really good Chinese food - my parents found a wonderful, family owned Chinese grocer in the middle of NC that made all their own stuff. I've always wondered how these were made, so thank you very much!
NY city was the first place I ever tried steamed buns, but they are pretty hard to find in other places. They are sooo good. Esp the bbq pork ones.
I really miss this from my trips to china, bao zi were always a food I would buy anywhere and will never disappoint.
I'm so excited I found this channel! Thank you for existing :)
For this video and all of your videos, nothing short of Wow! and Thank you!!
Thanks for the demo on how to roll out the dough and how to wrap the dough around the filling! I'm gonna keep practicing until I get the technique down.
This video is fantastic and the recipe is simple and ridiculously good! This was my first time making bao and I made both the pork and vegetarian bao exactly according to the recipes you provided. They turned out perfectly (which never happens on a first try)! I'll definitely be making these again.
Awesome, glad to hear. Once you get the hang of it, then you can start playing around with other fillings.
Oh my god, you have no idea how happy I am to have found this channel!!! You make it look like I can actually do this, too! And there’re a variety of Chinese cooking styles! I’m totally subscribing!! 多 謝 晒 😭🙏🏼
唔使客氣呀，你中意就好啦～
You guys are insanely good at making videos, holy cow! Great work!
As a former tourist in China, I saw your Baozi reel it made me miss Tianjin sooo much. Many thanks for this show, recipe and reminding me of what i am missing. I hope to go back soon and see all my friends.
Thank you for this clear, delicious recipe!! Appreciate your work. :)
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe ..
I make this recipe every weekend and have them for breakfast during the week. I always search up the reddit post for the recipe and made some of the vegetable buns. Makes my flat feel like a home.
Thanks for the great recipe! (Nicely presented too).
Good explanation indeed. !!!! Keep up the good explanation for other tasty recipes ...thank you yaaa
Perfect timing as I have been craving these!
Your videos are perfect! Thank you!
Those look amazing! Love your videos, they're always so informative and fun to watch :)
Definitely worth a try 👍👍. You are awesome. 👌
I have eaten some in Taiwan 6 years ago and I still dream about them. I shoud try to make some one day. Thank you for this great reccipe!
Oh man I was just talking about making these with some friends today. Perfect timing!
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Did it Ever Happen?!...Also What did You think of the Virus the Chinese Sent across the World?!
i tried this today...followed everything in this tutorial and the result is perfect!!! for those who will try this recipe just follow all the tips and instructions...thank you for this channel! :) i will do this again and will try adding egg in the filling because that's what we are used to here in the phils. and we call it siopao. :)
Beautiful great video extremely informative you've got a new subscriber thank you
just started watching your channel, and im addicted!
Great video. Makes me miss all my favorite Beijing street food treats.
Can't wait to try these! Also super interested in a video on xiao long bao
A man who never eats pork buns is never a whole man.
Good reference my man 😎
Wise words!
Jews and muslims?
@@js5072 i suppose even a vegetarian pork bun would suffice on a spiritual level
@@js5072 They ain't whole unless they eat that piggy
I made them like you said and it its amazing~~~
Thanks for using the metric system. If I could I would subscribe twice.
Haha just overlook my periodic use of Imperial. I like stuff like inches for approximate measurements sometimes (an inch of ginger), and opt for metric when I want specificity (e.g. weight). Just the weirdness of being an American that's lived their adult life abroad ;)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thanks so much for using metric, is hard to understand recipes in other languages (took me a time to discover what was all-purpose flour) and imperial just turn worse. Brazilian fan here :)
@Cerberus21 If you ever need any help with the language, feel free to ask! We would be happy to explain :)
but why is the water measured in weight but not in volume?
ml = g for water
The first time I tried these, in Ontario, I was quite shocked. I wasn't prepared for such a level of delicious.
Yum! My favorite, I’ll try it!
Hey, I love your stuff. I love my BBQ pork baos with a growing passion. It's always good to see a cleaver doing it's thing to the pork mixture.
Fancy buns.
Thanks!! Will be making thes soon.😊😎
OMG i love this channel.
They look so sweet, fluffy and yummy ❤❤❤❤❤
Very nicely done video.! Lots of information and Please do keep making great content like this! Compliments from #CHEFASHI Australia!!!
thank you for the recipe . It took nearly 1 hour to puff my dough .
Yet another time where you upload a video for something I'm considering making soon! Excellent. I'll have to try a sourdough version one day, as I certainly have enough starter! I think the hydration explains why I sometimes find them fiddly to wrap; as a sourdough baker, I'm used to 65-70% hydration (even up to 80% if I'm making something like focaccia). I've seen a version of these filled with chilli oil and aubergine too. Though it would take some practice to get the filling consistency right (not a lot of protein there...) the combination tastes great for anyone who is interested.
Maybe you can answer the question raised by the commenter "Procrustes22" about the eggplant filling?
@@thisissteph9834 Done, but I cannot be sure I'll be particularly helpful as it was a complete guess from me!
Best Bao zi video
2 videos in and I’m hooked!!!!!!!!
Awesome video. I never dared to do them, I thought it was too complicated but now I can.
Haha, this kind of baozi is very easy and fun to make~ give it a go and you'll like it~
This is one of the BEST shows about Chinese cooking techniques.
Thanks! Can't wait to try it. 🤫
1:30 filling and sauce 3:24 measuring and pleating each dough piece
Not Chinese food, but I really must recommend Pigodi (пигоди), the Russian-Korean version of the Baozi. It's a very similar recipe. The filling consists of pork, yellow onions, white cabbage, cilantro, dill, coriander seeds and garlic. It's served with a spicy soy-vinegar sauce and the very delicious "Korean" carrot salad (morkov po korejski) with garlic, chili and coriander seeds. Its a very interesting and delicious type of cuisine, developed by the Koryo Saram, a Korean minority that is found in most Post-Soviet states. A sort of interesting mix between Russian and East Asian.
We heard about that from our Russian friend, sounds very interesting. Apparently they also have something like dumplings too~
@@thisissteph9834 And then there is Turkish Mantı, which are similar but in mini-size :) Filling dough with meat, then you cook it in water.
Love baozi! Was my favourite food living in China!
Visited my parents and they made some steamed buns with pork, chinese sausage and quail egg... such a comforting food. I wish there were shops that sold fresh ones where I live.
Mad skillz. If mine come out half as nice I'll be satisfied. Thank you.
Thank you I miss eating these no one in my town make them
Those look so good!
Always enjoy your videos.
These are sooooo good!!! 😩😍🤤
Thank for sharing cooking food... New frend
Your voice is so calming 🙂
this is my moms favorite food so i have to learn how to make it, i really hope ill be able to pleat correctly !!
Finally a baozi recipe with the amounts in grams not in cups and spoons... volume changes a lot with atmospheric conditions!
Do you eat these with some kind of a dipping sauce? Thanks a lot for the video, looking forward to trying these. They look great
in Panama there are many people of chinese descent because many chinese workers were brought to work in the canal. as a result, here one of the most coomon breakfasts is called "desayuno chino", literally meaning chinese breakfast. It consists of a char siu bao bun (in Panama its called Ham Pao because we couldn't pronounce it correctly and it got corrupted into that word), some siu mai, and some hakao. i really love that you did this recipe, and I'm looking forward to learning how to do char su bao when you upload the tutorial. thank you
We have all of those recipes :) Har Gow: kzhead.info/sun/iJWgl5eCfIlndok/bejne.html Siu Mai: kzhead.info/sun/o7x6Yqxuo1-tnHk/bejne.html Char Siu Bao: kzhead.info/sun/n85ud66IlptraKc/bejne.html
Love it 🤗
Have you done Shengjian Mantou (Shanghainese pan fried buns)? I love them
Your table seems wobbly.. Anyway, I love bao, great for breakfast and afternoon snack
It was the chopping board... I was literally saying that we need a new chopping board when I was chopping the meat.
@@thisissteph9834 Try putting a spread cloth underneath, it'll lessen the wobbliness.
@@Miyanlovee yeah, I do that sometimes but it makes the chopping boarding looks very uneven in the shot, so sometimes we give that up. But a new chopping boarding is definitely needed.
Thank you
Amazing!!!! Now i know where i went wrong. Thanks!!!
We love baozi!
Awesome!
Dammit! I was hoping for char siu filling =/ Absolutely LOVE your channel! Please, never stop.
We already did a char siu bao video if that's what you're looking for: kzhead.info/sun/n85ud66IlptraKc/bejne.html
Hi! I'm your new subscriber , exact measurement pls, thanks for sharing your delicious food! Thank you and God bless!
Love the the fact that this isn't mimicking the super sickly sweet artificially white dough of the North American Asian supermarket Bao. Going to try this recipe out with my son. The filling looks great and very different to all the Bao recipes cropping up these days. Thanks again for this channel!
I know this is an old video but this has made so SO excited to make I can not wait at all hihigihihihihi
Always love your videos - would you please consider making a playlist of Shanghai style food to compliment your other regional playlists? My wife and in-laws are from Shanghai, Bao Zi are very popular with them. I would love to have a way to find all sorts of your recipes of popular Shanghai food. A point of order that dishes that might transcend a single region could rightfully go in more than one playlist as appropriate. I think some vegetable dishes might be fairly ubiquitous and fitting in many Chinese regions. I am guessing that a few of your viewers would find this inspirational and informative. It might also be helpful to make regional introductory videos to explain the differences and characteristics of different regions - such as the tendency of Shanghai food to feature seafood, and to often contain sugar or something sweet, even in savory dishes.
So here's the thing - I wait until we get five videos of classic dishes in a certain cuisine before we making a playlist, and uh... we only have three from Shanghai/Huaiyang food (Scallion Oil Noodles, Scallion Pancake, Lion's Head Meatballs). So please, suggestions for Shanghai/Huaiyang food are *greatly* appreciated :) I'm thinking that we'll eventually do Shengjianbao and Suzhou Pork Belly Soup Noodles, which will be able to close that playlist. The latter we've been iffy on because the most authentic versions make their stock with river eel, which I know isn't exactly an easy ask sourcing-wise for a lot of folks. I do know we focus a lot on Cantonese and Sichuanese food... it's generally just what we know best. But we're also closing in on being able to toss out a Teochew playlist and a Guizhou playlist haha, so keep an eye out for those too.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Very cool. Thanks for the reply. Xiaolong Bao and Fried Pork Buns would be great. Same for Shanghai fried noodles cumian.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Is there not enough for a Guizhou playlist? 🥺
Could you use a stand mixer with a dough hook?
You are good!
TOO MUCH GOOD STUFF! CAN'T WAIT TO TRY IT ALL. woops...capslock.
I have been threatening to make these for so long now. Just need to get a steamer. I have made boiled pork dumplings before. So easy and so delicious.
...threatening?
Thank you so much for this video, can't wait to try them! How would you recommend freezing the Bao Zi? Should they be frozen after being steamed? Or before?
I think you can try freezing after they are steamed, that's how many famous baozi shops from my area sell their baozi in bulks
The narrator sounds like a Salarian, and that makes this so much nicer to listen to for me.
I'm commander Shepard and this is my favorite comment
I was once told “A Man Without a Pork Bun is not a Whole Man”
How well do these freeze? Have you tried it? I'm thinking a standard baking curve maybe? (Around 140°f)
Nice
Who else is here after watching X amount of Chinese dramas with some delicious baozi that we see in almost all chinese drama that look delicious lol. My son wants to eat them for his birthday so I'm learning to do it the Chinese way. 🙂 "Put some ResPek on the culture!" Lol 謝謝你
As someone not very well versed in a lot of culinary science, and wary of pork fillings in general, is there a way to know for sure if they're done after steaming? I don't want to bite into raw pork, not my idea of a good time. A temperature to reach or something similar? Is there a reason behind only stirring the pork one way, or is that more tradition, like the pleat count?
semehizo agua la boca
Just wondering if u guys where based in leshan i lived there for a year with my family when i was 9 years old and had the best noodles i ever had the location of the shop is next to a chicken slaughter shop, near a school and near the river where u can see the Buddha carved in the mountain DAFO i still remember the name of the shop called zang sang mein dein dont know if i spelt that right its been 11 years dont know if that place is still there haha thats all i remember they made the best zha jiang mein i ever had not the Beijing ones where its is sweet this one was just savoury watching all your videos has just reminded me of my year there and my childhood took me down memory lane maybe after i finish college might go back and see whats up anyway does anyone know of the shop im talking about sorry for the limited info but thats really all i remember if you do a reply would be greatly appreciated
sheng jian bao next please! Most underrated dumpling in the US!
Just having a look back at this and I wondered - what s the key to stopping buns/dumplings etc immediately spraying boiling hot juice everywhere when they are torn/bitten? Is it something in the mixture or should they be left to stand to re-absorb the liquid? Or something else? I wondered after I burnt my hand making chicken momos today!
I appreciate you doing the recipe in weight and not in volume