Make the best soft fluffy whole wheat Chinese steamed buns (wholemeal) with this easy foolproof recipe. All the tips you need to get smooth steamed buns in 3 different ways: fold-over steamed buns, mantou, and round steamed buns.
My family loves it when I made my soft fluffy Chinese steamed buns. I really love that recipe too as it produces soft fluffy and very smooth steamed buns. I was never a fan of whole wheat flour (or known as wholemeal flour) as a kid, but now as an adult, especially for the past 5 years I’ve started making my own bread with whole wheat flour, I’ve really came to love whole wheat flour. I personally think whole wheat flour has that sweet nutty aroma that I really like. It tastes much better too. I know many people may not agree with this part. Thankfully, my two kiddos don’t really care whether I serve them whole wheat steamed buns or regular white steamed buns. They are accustomed to both!
WHY YOU WILL LIKE THIS WHOLE WHEAT STEAMED BUNS RECIPE
1. YOU CAN DO 100% WHOLE WHEAT STEAMED BUNS
Many whole wheat steamed buns recipes out there use a combination of all-purpose flour or Hongkong bao flour with whole wheat/wholemeal flour. This combination is to ensure that the whole wheat steamed buns won’t be too dense. Tell you what people, I managed to do 100% whole wheat steamed buns that are still soft and fluffy and really good too.
2. YOU CAN ALSO CHOOSE TO DO 50% WHOLE WHEAT STEAMED BUNS
I experimented by using 50% whole wheat flour and 50% cake flour. The result is a much lighter bun compared to 100% whole wheat steamed buns, BUT, when the family tasted both, they really think the 100% whole wheat steamed buns are very comparable in terms of softness and fluffiness compared to 50% whole wheat.
INGREDIENTS
1. WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR / WHOLEMEAL FLOUR
I used King Arthur whole wheat flour, which has about 14% gluten content. You can use whichever brand you like.
2. CAKE FLOUR OR ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR
If you are going to do 50-50 combination, you can use cake flour or a combination of all-purpose flour and cornstarch to make the cake flour
3. YEAST
You can use either instant or active-dry yeast
4. SUGAR
I use regular white sugar and the amount is really small. If you want to make it sweeter, you can increase the amount of sugar to your taste
5. COOKING OIL
Use any neutral-tasting cooking oil. I usually use grapeseeds oil. I’ve seen some recipe uses shortening. It’s up to you.
6. MILK OR WATER
I prefer to make steamed buns with milk, but you can absolutely use water to make it vegan-friendly. Make sure to start with cold milk or water or at least room temperature.
7. SALT
Just a small amount of salt is needed to enhance the overall taste of the steamed buns.
I wrote pretty detailed explanations on how to get smooth fluffy steamed buns in this soft fluffy Chinese steamed buns post, so you are welcome to check it out if you are interested. The same concept is applicable to whole wheat steamed buns too.
HOW TO MAKE SOFT AND FLUFFY WHOLE WHEAT CHINESE STEAMED BUNS
1. MAKE THE DOUGH
Mix flour, yeast, sugar, and oil in a mixing bowl.
Turn on the mixer on medium speed and gradually add the liquid, start with the lowest amount of liquid and then add as necessary until a dough is formed.
Don’t dump all the liquid all at once. Knead for about 5 minutes until you get a rough dough. Add the salt and knead again for another 10-12 minutes until the dough is very stretchy and smooth. Cover and rest the dough for 15 minutes. This is not to proof the dough. It shouldn’t double in size. This is to relax the gluten for easier shaping and rolling the dough
2. SHAPING
For fold-over steamed buns: Divide the dough into 8 equal portions. Keep them covered and work with one dough at a time. Roll into a round ball. Flatten with your palm.
Use a rolling pin to roll it into an oval shape.
You can place a piece of parchment paper (or you can skip this part) and fold the dough over and place on another parchment paper.
For round steamed buns: Divide the dough into 8 equal portions. Keeping the dough covered and work with one dough at a time. Pull and tuck the dough from top to bottom so the seams are at the bottom and the surface is relatively smooth.
Roll the dough into a smooth round ball in between the palm of your hand REALLY make sure the dough is smooth.
Cup the dough with both palms and move the dough in a circular motion to shape it taller.
For mantou shape: Roll the dough into a long log. (I used a slightly different method in the video, either way works)
Use a dough cutter (serrated knife) to cut into 8 equal portions. Look at how the dough is squished when I used a dough cutter. In the video, I used a serrated knife and the mantou shape was nice
3. PROOFING
Keep the shaped steamed buns covered with a towel and let them proof until about 50% bigger than the original size, it may take about 30 minutes to 1 hour, maybe a bit longer if it’s winter. Don’t go by the time, go by how the steamed buns look like. It should feel lighter and slightly puffy after proofing
4. STEAMING
Bring the water in your steamer to a boil. Wrap the lid of your steamer with a kitchen towel. LOWER THE HEAT TO MEDIUM. Place the buns in there, leaving about 1-inch space in between. Close the lid but leave about 1/4-inch gap to let some steam escape during steaming. After steaming do not rush to open the lid. Let them sit in there for 5 minutes and then transfer to the cooling rack. This helps to prevent the bottom from getting soggy.
100 % WHOLE WHEAT STEAMED BUNS AND 50-50 WHOLE WHEAT STEAMED BUNS COMPARISON
Can you tell which one of these are made with 100% whole wheat flour? 🙂
It’s not easy to spot unless you look closely at the color. Hint: The 100% whole wheat flour has a deeper brown color!
This was made with 50-50 whole wheat flour and cake flour. The color is lighter.
This was made with 100% whole wheat flour.
VERDICT: In terms of fluffyness, both actually turned out pretty close. If I want to be REALLY picky, I can say the 50-50 whole wheat steamed buns may be a bit, just a tiny bit fluffier. But overall, the 100 whole wheat flour steamed buns are actually very comparable to the 50-50 one. In fact, my husband really likes the 100% whole wheat flour steamed buns. He was surprised by how soft and fluffy it was.
My mom was pretty stoked that the 100% whole wheat steamed buns came out soft and fluffy, which means, she would start making 100% whole wheat steamed buns too 🙂 I’m very happy with the result too.
RECIPE REALLY GIVES SMOOTH STEAMED BUNS
Even though the whole wheat steamed buns will not be as silky smooth as baby bottom compared to the regular white steamed buns because of the whole grains, but you can expect really smooth steamed buns without any wrinkles or bumpy top with this recipe.
VARIATIONS
1. Filling
This is basic whole wheat bao without any filling, but you can use any savory or sweet filling
2. Add seeds and dried fruit
You can make it even heartier by adding seeds like pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, etc or dried fruit like raisins or cranberries when you mix all the dry ingredients. You may need a bit more liquid to form the dough
3. Make it vegan and dairy-free
Replace milk with non-dairy milk or water
DID YOU MAKE THIS SOFT AND FLUFFY CHINESE WHOLE WHEAT STEAMED BUNS RECIPE?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
CHECK OUT THIS SOFT AND FLUFFY STEAMED BUNS MADE WITH REGULAR WHEAT FLOUR
These Soft and Fluffy No-Yeast Chinese Steamed Buns are so good and super easy to make!
Soft Fluffy Whole Wheat / Wholemeal Steamed Buns (Mantou / Bao)
Ingredients
For 100% whole wheat steamed buns:
- 300 gr whole wheat flour or wholemeal flour
- 4 gr instant yeast
- 13 gr sugar more or less to your taste
- 1 ½ Tbsp cooking oil
- ¼ tsp salt
- 150 ml milk or water (start with this amount, you'll need more)
For 50-50 whole wheat steamed buns:
- 150 gr cake flour see notes
- 150 gr whole wheat flour
- 4 gr instant yeast
- 13 gr sugar more or less to your taste
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil
- ¼ tsp salt
- 150 ml milk or water (start with this amount, you'll need more) cold or room temperature
Instructions
Make the dough with a machine:
- Mix flour, yeast, sugar, and oil in a mixing bowl. If you use a machine, use a dough hook attachment. Turn on the mixer, start on speed 2 (on Kitchen Aid) and gradually add the liquid (it's important to start with room temperature or cold liquid), start with the lowest amount of liquid and then add as necessary until a dough is formed. Don't dump all the liquid all at once. Knead for about 5 minutes until you get a rough dough. Add the salt and knead again for another 10-12 minutes until the dough is very stretchy and smooth
Make the dough by hands:
- If you are kneading by hands, mix until you get a rough dough (it's not going to be smooth yet). Cover and rest it for 15 minutes. Then go back and knead it. You'll be surprised by how easier it is to knead it now. Knead until the dough is smooth and pliable, about 15-20 minutes. At any point during kneading, you can always stop and rest the dough if you find it hard to knead. This is to relax the gluten. Then go back to knead again and you'll be surprised by the difference it makes by just resting the dough before kneading again. It's easier for you too
Rest the dough:
- Cover and rest the dough for 15 minutes. This is not to proof the dough. It shouldn't double in size. This is to relax the gluten for easier shaping and rolling the dough
If doing fold-over steamed buns:
- Instead of dusting your work surface with flour, spray some cooking spray or use a bit of oil. The more flour you add to the dough, the drier and tougher it gets. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Keeping the dough covered and work with one dough at a time
- Roll into a round ball. Flatten with your palm and then use a rolling pin to roll it into an oval shape. Fold the dough over and place on a parchment paper. Repeat with the rest and proceed to proofing step
If doing round steamed buns:
- Instead of dusting your work surface with flour, spray some cooking spray or use a bit of oil. The more flour you add to the dough, the drier and tougher it gets. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Keeping the dough covered and work with one dough at a time
- Pull and tuck the dough from top to bottom so the seams are at the bottom and the surface is relatively smooth
- Roll the dough into a smooth round ball in between the palm of your hand REALLY make sure the dough is smooth.
- Cup the dough with both palms and move the dough in a circular motion to shape it taller. This part is important so your steamed buns come out tall instead of spreading to the side after steaming
- Place on a piece of parchment paper. Proceed to the proofing step below
If doing mantou shape:
- Instead of dusting your work surface with flour, spray some cooking spray or use a bit of oil. The more flour you add to the dough, the drier and tougher it gets
- Roll the dough out into rectangle, about 9 x 12 inch then roll it up like a Swiss roll. Use a sharp serrated knife to cut into 12 pieces. The two end pieces may be a bit smaller compared to others. Place on parchment paper and proceed to the proofing step below
Proofing the steamed buns:
- Keep the shaped steamed buns covered with a towel and let them proof until about 50% bigger than the original size, it may take about 30 minutes to 1 hour, maybe a bit longer if it's winter. Don't go by the time, go by how the steamed buns look like. It should feel lighter and slightly puffy after proofing. The dough should feel lighter when you lift it up. Proceed to steaming
Steaming:
- Most likely your steamer won't be able to accommodate steaming all buns at one go. You may need to steam in 2-3 batches, which means, the rest of the batches will sit longer and continue to proof while waiting for the steamer. If you think the buns are proofing way too fast (getting bigger too fast), here's what you can do: Make sure to cover them with plastic wrap and then place them in the refrigerator to slow down the yeast activity or halt it all together until they are ready to be steamed
- Bring the water in your steamer to a boil. Wrap the lid of your steamer with a kitchen towel to prevent moisture dripping back on the steamed buns as this will create "burn" spots
- LOWER THE HEAT TO MEDIUM. Place the buns in there, leaving about 1-inch space in between. Close the lid and leave about 1/4-inch gap to let some steam escape and steam like this for 8 minutes. Steaming them this way will give you a very smooth surface without any wrinkle
- After steaming, turn off the heat. DO NOT OPEN THE LID of the steamer. Let the buns sit there for 1 minute like this. The buns will not sink or wrinkle due to the sudden change in temperature
COOLING:
- Remove the buns to a wire rack to let them cool down. This is to ensure the bottom of the steamed buns will not be wet and soggy
STORING:
- If you make extra and plan to store them, let the already steamed buns cooled down completely and then place them on a baking sheet, not touching each other, and then put the entire tray inside the freezer for about 1 hour. They will harden, but not completely frozen yet. Transfer to a freezer bag and they will not stick to each other anymore. Try not to keep for more than 1 month
REHEATING:
- They can go straight from freezer to steamer when you ready to eat them. Steam on high heat for 5 minutes and they are as good as new
29 comments
Hello,
This is my kind of recipe. I can’t wait to try it. But first I’d appreciate a clarification. In HOW TO MAKE SOFT AND FLUFFY WHOLE WHEAT CHINESE STEAMED BUNS, machine instructions, you say “Knead for about 2 minutes until the dough is smooth. Add the salt and knead again for another 3 minutes until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Let it rest for 10 minutes before shaping.” I suppose you mean kneading with the knead attachment in the machine. But then, at the end of your posting, in the recipe itself, under “Make the dough with a machine” you say “Knead for about 5 minutes until you get a rough dough. Add the salt and knead again for another 10-12 minutes until the dough is very stretchy and smooth.” That seems to be in conflict with the earlier instructions. So, is it 2+3 minutes or 5+12 minutes with the machine? Thank you! And thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe.
Hi Lia, sorry for the confusion, it should be “Knead for about 5 minutes until you get a rough dough. Add the salt and knead again for another 10-12 minutes until the dough is very stretchy and smooth”. The 2-3 minutes was from the old recipe and I forgot to update it when I improved the recipe. I hope that helps to clarify. I have updated it! Thank you for catching that!
Thank you so much for getting back to me, Marvellina. Just so we’re clear, are we talking kneading with the knead attachment in the machine all 5 + 10-12 minutes? Or kneading by hand?
Hi Lia, yes, kneading with a dough hook attachment. I knead on speed 2 on Kitchen Aid. The timing is just a reference, you may not need that long depending on your mixer too. JUst knead until you get a nice smooth dough. If you knead by hands it will probably be 20 minutes or longer. I never tried kneading by hands! I’m bad at kneading LOL!
Love these buns! Thank you! I used 100% whole wheat flour, a squirt of honey instead of sugar, melted ghee instead of oil, and vanilla soy milk instead of milk. Delicious!
I’m glad you like! what a great idea with honey and ghee! whole wheat and honey just goes so well together!
Love your recipe. Thanks for sharing
You are welcome! I’m glad you like it 🙂
the dough is not as pliable as I had expected to make meat bao’s. Perhaps the recipe is ok as a mantou only, i.e. without fillings.
Maybe baking powder is required?
Hi Yew, you want to make sure you knead the dough until they are soft and you can stretch it thin without breaking and/or you may need a bit more water to get to that stage. I usually never used baking powder in my yeasted mantou or baozi recipe. I don’t feel like it’s the baking powder issue, most likely it’s not enough kneading and/or the dough wasn’t proofed enough.
I made the round steamed buns using 75% whole wheat and 25% regular cake flour. (I wasn’t quite ready to commit to 100% yet) They were incredible!
One question about the freezing; when do you freeze? After proofing?
Thanks
Hi Jen, you can freeze after you make the dough and before proofing, or you can make the dough, shape them and then freeze and let them proof later. I hope that helps.
Thank you
Made another batch yesterday and will definitely make again!
Hi Marv, really looking forward to trying this recipe for my family for the upcoming holidays! My mom really loves the taste of honey and I was wondering if it would be possible to replace the sugar you used here in this recipe with honey instead. Would that significantly alter the wet-dry ingredient ratio and might adding more flour be sufficient compensation? Thanks!
Hi Anna, you can replace the sugar with honey. It will alter the amount of liquid needed a bit, but it’s doable. Just add all the ingredients in, except for liquid. Are you using machine to knead? Then gradually add in water until you can form a dough and continue to knead as usual. The dough should be kneaded until smooth and no longer sticky.
Hi Marv, thanks for the tip! I will be kneading by hand since I unfortunately don’t own a machine at the moment. Very excited to try this!
I hope it turns out well for you 🙂
Hi Marv, greetings from Jakarta. I found your site through pinterest and I love it. You wrote detailed instructions and even gave notes for any problems might incur. I’m feeling happy now because you have whole wheat steamed buns! I will make them and tag you on IG. Thank you
Hi Novi, I’m glad you find them useful 🙂 I can’t wait to see the whole wheat steamed buns, I’ll be sure to check it out on IG then 😉
Hi… We are a vegan couple and we tried your Steamed Whole wheat Mantou recipe for dinner today. Kneaded it by hand too. It came out real well… We loved it…. We just toasted the buns on a pan, just for a crisp… We were longing for such an easy vegan bread recipe for so long. Thank you… Love from India… Sandhya and Sanjeev
Hello Sandhya and Sanjeev, I’m so happy to know that you enjoy the whole wheat steamed buns. It’s such a great idea to toast it on a pan too. This buns can be cooked on the pan too if no steamer available. Thank you for your feedbacks! 🙂
I made these today with soy milk and 50/50 wholemeal spelt/ self raising flour (no cornstarch in for the cake flour suggested) and they came out so lovely and fluffy
They are a little different than the usual white bao but delicious. Going to try 100% spelt next so I can enjoy them more often 😋 I was feeling a little lazy so added salt with the other dry ingredients and skipped the autolyse and seemed to work just fine so if you wanna make them even quicker it’s doable
Hi Rebecca, I’m glad the combination worked out for you. I want to try spelt flour too next time. Thank you for sharing what you did 🙂
Hi, if I want to make the round buns with filling inside, with pork for example, do I have to do something different?
Hi Cleo, no you don’t 🙂 The recipe works with just plain or if you want to fill it with any sweet or savory fillings. Hope it makes sense.
If i don’t use a machine, how long i should knead the dough? Thank you
If you knead by hands, knead until the dough comes into a mass. It may be still a rough dough. Cover and let it rest for 15 minutes and then come back and knead it again you will find it so much easier to knead now as the gluten has relaxed. Knead it into a smooth non-sticky dough, about 8-10 minutes. I hope this helps. I have updated the recipe accordingly!
Hi,
Thanks for this great simple recipe!
Would it be okay to substitute vegetable oil with coconut oil?
And I also thought of adding ingredients like ground flaxseed and chia seeds to make the buns healthier. Just a little bit. Do you think it will be okay?
Hi Jaymee,
Absolutely, you can use coconut oil and also adds some seeds to it. That will be totally okay!