Soft Fluffy Mung Bean Paste Steamed Buns

Soft fluffy steamed buns stuffed with homemade sweet mung bean paste in a fun Yin Yang presentation. 

I just purchased activated charcoal and ideas have been brewing inside the head. It’s a coconut activated charcoal to be exact. I have been wanting to do this yin yang steamed buns for a long time and so put the two together and we got ourselves some yin yang steamed buns. Yin yang is the Chinese symbol for light and dark, men and women, positive and negative, fire and water, and so on and so forth. You get the idea. The two seemingly opposite forces are believed to actually complement each other. Too much of one thing or the other will disrupt the “balance”. It’s definitely one of my favorite symbols and the kids love putting the “dots” on the buns 😉

I’ve talked at length about how to make a smooth and fluffy steamed buns in this post, so feel free to check it out.

You can also use my no-yeast soft and fluffy steamed buns recipe to make this mung bean paste steamed buns.

DID YOU MAKE THIS SOFT FLUFFY MUNG BEAN PASTE STEAMED BUNS?

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!

Soft Fluffy Steamed Buns with Mung Bean Paste

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 34 minutes mins

Prepare mung bean paste 6 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 34 minutes mins

Servings 16 buns

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Ingredients

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Dough:

• ▢ 180 gr all-purpose flour 1 cup + 5 Tbsp, plus more for dusting
• ▢ 180 gr cake flour 1 cup + 5 1/2 Tbsp
• ▢ 4 gr instant yeast about 1 1/4 tsp
• ▢ 60 gr sugar about 5 Tbsp
• ▢ 1 tbsp cooking oil
• ▢ 1 tsp Bamboo/coconut-activated charcoal powder
• ▢ 150 ml milk or water (cold or room temperature) about 2/3 cup, start with this amount and add more as needed

Filling (recommended to prepare one day before):

• ▢ 1 recipe mung bean paste you can use sweet or savory versions

Instructions

 

Preparing the dough with a machine:

• Place the flour, salt, instant yeast, sugar, and cooking oil in a mixing bowl. If you are using a stand mixer, use a dough hook attachment. Gradually add in milk or water. Add more teaspoon by teaspoon until the dough comes together and knead at speed 2 for 10-12 minutes until the dough is very smooth and stretchy
• Preparing the dough by hands:
• Place the flour, instant yeast, sugar, and cooking oil in a mixing bowl. 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

Divide the dough into 2:

• Divide the dough into two equal portion. Add charcoal powder to the other dough and knead until the color is evenly distributed, which is black

Rest the doughs:

• Cover and rest the doughs 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

Wrapping:

• Place both doughs on a lightly floured surface. Roll them into long logs and then divide equally into 16 pieces of yin and 16 pieces of yang. Reserve a tiny portion of yin and yang dough (for the dots)
• Work with two pieces at a time and cover the rest to prevent drying. Place both doughs next to each other and then flatten the dough with your palm and use a small rolling pin to roll into a circle about 4 inches in diameter. So half will be white and the other half will be black. 
• Divide the mung bean paste into 16 equal balls or you can use a cookie scoop to scoop the filling on the center of the wrapper and gather all the sides to the middle and pinch to seal. Place it on a parchment paper seam side down. Continue with the rest. Pinch a very tiny dots from the dough you reserved earlier and place one on a black portion and the other on the white portion.
• Place the steamed buns on a large tray cover with a large clean towel and let them proof until they rise to about 50% original size. Do not overproof the dough

Steaming:

• Bring the water in a steamer to a rolling boil. Wrap the lid with a cloth. This will prevent water dripping from the lid and too much steam will make the bao has burn spots
• LOWER THE HEAT TO MEDIUM. Place the buns in there, leaving about 1-inch space in between. Cover with a lid but leaving it about 1/4-inch gap for some steam to escape. Steam on medium heat for 15 minutes. This is especially important if you see that you have overproof the steamed buns (the steamed buns have doubled in size and they have widened to the side). As long as you steam them like this, the buns will not wrinkle and collapse later when you take them out from the steamer
• Turn off the heat and let the buns sit in the steamer for 1 minute and then remove from the steamer to let them cool down 

Storing:

• I usually made this in a big batch and store the rest by placing them in a freezer bag. They can be stored up to 1 month. Place them on a baking sheet, not touching each other. Let them freeze for about 1 hour and then transfer to zip lock bag. 
• They can be reheated on the steamer over medium-high for about 5 minutes and as good as new

RECOMMEDED TOOLS

Kitchen Aid Standmixer

Dough Hook Attachment

Food Steamer

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