Japanese cotton souffle recipe (improved)

I have tried making the Japanese cotton cheesecake so many times but it never succeeded. I realised it has less to do with the recipe than the oven! I decided to use my new-ish Breville air fryer oven because I have never used the bake function, and the blogger's oven looks like the older version of my oven.

Karen Ling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl4gg-0b7Zo

It is a 100% success! A lot has to be said about using digital ovens. I am never going back to my conventional analog oven for this cake.

Ingredients (fits 8 inch cake springform tin)I

250g cream cheese, softened

80 unsalted butter, softened

50g whipping cream

150g fresh milk

5 eggs, separated

35g corn starch

100g sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ acid eg lemon juice or white vinegar

Method

1. In a bain marie, melt the cream cheese and butter. Add the whipping cream and fresh milk and mix until smooth and no lumps remain. Turn off the heat and take the pot off the heat. 

2. Add the egg yolks and mix with a whisk until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and combine.

3. Sift in the corn starch and fold in. Set aside.

4. In a really clean bowl, add the egg whites and acid. Whip up the meringue until soft peaks (approx 5 minutes on KA speed 6) by separating and adding the sugar in three batches. 

5. Dollop ⅓ of the meringue into the cheese mixture and mix well, no need to be too careful with bursting the air bubbles. 

6. Add the next ⅓ of the meringue but this time, fold in gently with a whisk. 

7. Pour the entire cheese mixture into the remaining ⅓ meringue. Fold gently with a whisk, then change to the spatula and fold, enduring no more white streaks.

8. Pour into a 8 inch springform with the bottom lined with parchment. Line the outside of the pan with foil to prevent water seepage. I didn't because I clipped the parchment into the tin, and also put a rack in tray of water so the water level was below the parchment. Use the spatula to flatten the surface and draw strokes in the batter to dispel air bubbles. Lightly tap the tin on the counter top to burst big bubbles.

9. Preheat to 175 deg C. Fill the bottom tray with about ¼ inch water. Put in the tin.

10. Turn down and bake at 150 deg C for 30 minutes. Turn down to 130 deg C and bake for another 30 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let the pan sit inside the oven with the door closed for a further 30 minutes.

11. Unmold the cake and let it cool, then store in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Serve up.

The blogger also used a mirror pectin glaze, which I didn't bother with.

Recipe feedback

Recipe is perfection! Top was smooth (other than my failure to properly flatten the top of the batter). I might have been able to use the mirror pectin to hide the craters. No cracks on the top and nice golden top. No unexplained 'waist' on the sides. Inside was cooked through. The use of corn starch instead of cake flour meant very smooth mouth feel. It wasn't too sweet.

- Update: Kathrine Kwa suggests using room temp water about ¼ up side of round tin that has the cake in it. Bake 150deg C for 90 mins, then turn off oven. Crack open door and leave inside to rest for 30 mins before removing from oven and then tin. Nothing mentioned about dropping tin on counter.

Fried Bak Teow (Beancurd rolls)

I first tried to make this and air fry it but it was never successful because I had the wrong type of beancurd skin. Adapted the Spice and Pans recipe including the correct method of wrapping. 

(Turn on the sound!)

Ingredients

1 packet of beancurd skin, cut into rectangles

500g minced pork

300g prawns, cut into 4 to 6 pieces

2 tsp five spice powder

3 carrots, cubed

250g canned bamboo, cubed

250g canned water chestnut, cubed

½ red onion, chopped

2 eggs, beaten + 1 for brushing

Pepper to taste

Salt to taste

3 tbsp corn starch

Method

1. Other than the beancurd skin, mix minced pork and prawns with the beaten egg. Mix in one direction only until sticky. Add the cornstarch and mix well. Set aside to marinate for minimum 1 hour.

2. Prepare the vegetables. When ready to wrap, add to the meat mixture

3. Prepare the beancurd skin. Wipe down with a damp cloth or paper towel to make it more pliable.

4. Wrap according to the video. Use about 1.5 tbsp of mixture (depending on the size of the beancurd sheet that you've cut) and flatten. Then seal sides and wrap the edge of the skin over the mixture and pull it into a roll.

5. Seal with egg.

6. Deep fry or shallow pan fry at 180 deg C for 4 to 5 minutes until golden brown. 

7. Serve immediately.

IP Braised Chu Hou beef brisket

More autumn flavours. Minimal fuss, I didn't even bother to blanch first. Finally found the correct method for getting melt in the mouth brisket and without getting mushy veg!

Ingredients

1kg beef brisket

2 tbsp chu hou sauce

2 tsbp oyster sauce

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp white peppercorns, toasted and crushed (put in a tea bag)

2 to 3 tsp soya sauce (to taste)

2 slices ginger, thinly julienned

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 spring onions, chopped + 1 for garnishing

1 bell pepper, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 beef bullion cube, crushed

2 tbsp corn flour + 2 tbsp water to make a slurry

Method

1. Marinade the beef with the chu hou, soya sauce, and oyster sauce. Leave overnight.

2. In the Instant Pot, saute the aromatics. 

3. Add a trivet and pour in 1.5 C water (I pour the water into the marinating bowl to wash out the leftover marinade). Put beef brisket on top of the trivet. Cook using the Meat function for 50 minutes.

4. Remove the brisket and let it rest. Once rested, slice it up.

5. While waiting for the brisket to rest, make the sauce. Add the beef bullion cube and tomato paste. 

6. Add the tomatoes and bell peppers. Use the Saute function. and let the sauce reduce to about half. Do not cover.

7. Once the sauce has reduced and the vegs are cooked (no more than 5 minutes), add the corn starch slurry to thicken up the sauce.

8. Serve up and garnish with more spring onion. 

IP Pumpkin soup

My colleague gave me a quarter of a kent pumpkin from her mom's veg patch and I put it to good use. With the cool weather of autumn starting, it was a great time to detox with a good veg soup! The magic ingredient is galangal!

Ingredients

¼ pumpkin, skinned

4 medium carrots, sliced

2 medium potatoes, cubed

1 can butter beans, drained

¼ C barley

1 packet store bought chicken soup (or use veg soup to keep it vegetarian)

Water

2 slices of galangal

2 slices of ginger

4 cloves garlic

2 spring onions, sliced

2 tsp white pepper

200ml double cream

chives, chopped (for garnish)

Method

1. Prepare the vegetables. 

2. Toast the white peppercorns and then crush with pestle and mortar.

3. Saute the garlic, ginger, galangal, and spring onions. Add the chopped veg and briefly saute.

4. Pour in the stock, add the crushed white peppercorns (i use a disposable tea bag).

5. Set on soup for 20 minutes. Naturally depressurise.

6. Using the Saute function, pour on the cream and bring back to the boil. Reduce if required.

7. Run through either with an immersion blender or I just used a potato masher to leave it more rustic.

8. Garnish with chopped chives and serve immediate.

BBQ Bak kwa

I've tried bak kwa on several occasions (in 2012 and 2018) but it was never perfect. It never tasted correct as in it tasted like bbq meat and while that was nice in itself, it was not bak kwa. Ingredients from Burning Kitchen and method from Lazy Awesome Dad and adapted for the amount of meat we had. The bacon was my suggestion.

Ingredients

500g minced pork

200g maple smoked bacon

10 tbsp sugar

2 dashes of pepper

1½ tbsp Chinese rose cooking wine

¼ tsp five spice powder

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tbsp light soya sauce

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp sesame oil

Glaze

1 tbsp hot water

2 tbsp honey or maltose

Method

1. Chop up the bacon into little pieces. In a food processor, process the bacon until ground.

2. Mix the bacon and the minced pork. Add all the ingredients and mix very well. Use a chopstick and mix in one direction only until sticky.

3. Cover and refrigerate to allow it to marinade for at least 8 hours or overnight.

4. The next day, put parchment onto baking tray. This is very important otherwise clean up will be impossible.

5. Measure out the parchment of paper and double that. Fold in half and score the end. Open the parchment and put on ⅓ of the mixture. Close the parchment on top and using a combination of your hands and the rolling pin, roll it out to about 1 to 2mm thick (see Lazy Awesome Dad's video). Try to avoid rolling until the ends and leave a gap at each end. Once you're done, transfer onto the parchment and lift off one half of the parchment and cut it off. Repeat for the other 2 trays.

6. Bake at 175 deg C for 7 minutes. Use a pizza cutter and cut into slices, around 10 by 10 cm. Flip. 

7. Return to cook for another 10 minutes but swap the upper and lower trays going back into the oven. 

8. To really create that BBQ flavour, it has to be grilled on the BBQ. Brush with the diluted honey/maltose glaze and flip until nicely charred. Serve immediately.

Side by side comparison of glazed and bbq (below) vs non-glazed from oven

Air fried har cheong gai (prawn paste chicken)

I love prawn paste chicken but fried HCG isn't healthy. I've tried multiple recipes and methods including oven frying with different marinades, as well as different coatings i.e., baking soda coating and panko. All these recipes used a dry, usually flour, coating and then baking but nothing worked well. They also left dry bits of flour that was turned claggy. I haven't come across the best marinade that isn't too salty.

Based on these experiences, I decided to try my own recipe but this time, use a batter rather than dry coating. This involves mixing egg yolk and corn starch into the marinade rather than coating the chicken, as adapted from air fried curry chicken by Miki. She has several baked prawn paste chicken recipes but based on my past experiments, they're unlikely to be what I'm looking for.

I only managed to capture a picture of the drumlets as I had finished eating the mid wings before I remembered!

Ingredients

Marinade

1.2kg wings

½ tsp oyster sauce

1½ tbsp Lee Kum Kee prawn paste

2 tbsp shaoxing wine

2 tsp corn flour

dash of pepper

½ tsp sugar

Batter

2 -3 tbsp corn flour

2 egg yolks

Method

1. Cut up the wings into drumlets and mid wings. Discard the wing tips. I used to leave them with the mid wings but it made it hard to fit everything into the air fryer.

2. Mix marinade ingredients. Allow to marinade for at least 4 hours but up to 6 hours max.

3. Preheat the air fryer to 200 deg C. Line the air fryer tray with foil then top off with baking parchment. I have tried pure foil before and it just sticks even after oiling and doesn't help with the crispiness.

4. Place wings on a lined air fryer basket. Lightly spritz with oil. Place meat side up. Do not spritz. Cook the mid wings and drumlets separately - 10 to 12 minutes for mid wings and 12 -13 minutes for drumlets, remembering to turn halfway. When turning halfway, spritz BEFORE turning that side over so that the batter doesn't stick onto the parchment or foil. Do not spritz on the top side.

Recipe feedback

- The taste was correct! I cooked the wings and drumlets separately, which meant the drumlets were left to marinade overnight in the fridge. The drumlets became slightly too salty the next day. Next time, I cannot marinade more than 6 hours.

- The yolk and corn starch yielded a very crispy batter but unfortunately, kept sloughing off the chicken skin. It pooled on the baking parchment (see picture). I wonder about spritzing with oil, does this make the surface too wet and prevent the fat in the skin from rendering and thus turning crispy?

- Next time I will try: Remove from the marinade (the raw chicken releases a lot of liquid, no doubt due to the salt content of the prawn paste too!) and wipe off excess with kitchen paper. Dredge lightly in corn starch. In a separate bowl, mix egg yolk and corn starch into a batter. Coat the dredged chicken in the cornstarch. Place meat side up on a lined tray. Halfway through, spray the chicken BEFORE turning but do not spritz the topside with oil as that seems to prevent the skin and batter from drying out and turning crispy.

No-knead foccacia

This seems to be a thing with foccacia, it needs a lot of proofing time but no kneading is required and you have a very floppy dough.

Sources: 

Marion Grasby: uses semolina as a starter: I used bread flour because she said it can be substituted and I have leftover bread flour. Bakes at 230 deg C.

SBS: proofing over several nights. Bakes at 200 deg C. Shorter resting time on the day of 10 minutes after shaping the dough.

Ingredients

¼ C semolina (I used bread flour)

½ tsp instant dry yeast

80 ml water

3 C flour (plain or bread; I used 2C bread + 1C plain)

1 tsp salt

320ml water

2 tbsp virgin olive oil

Optional toppings e.g., sea salt, herbs, chopped olives, sun dread tomatoes

1 tbsp water + 1 tbsp oil

Method

1. Prepare the yeast starter. Add the ¼C flour to the yeast and 80ml warn mater. Mix, then cover and allow to proof for 1 hour.

2. In a big bowl, add the flour and salt, and make a well in the centre. Pour in the starter, water, oil. Using a spatula to mix. The dough will be very sticky and sloppy but not like a batter.

3. Drizzle with oil. Cover and leave to proof overnight. (Fridge is not mentioned)

4. Tuck in the edges of the dough.

5. Prepare a 20 by 30 cm tin. Line with oil and then parchment. Pour out the dough and push the dough to the edges of the tin with your lightly oiled fingers. 

6. Leave to proof for 1 hour, covered. Once in a while, push the dough to the edges of the tin.

7. After proofing, prepare 1 tbsp water and 1 tbsp oil and mix well. Drizzle on top. Use fingers to leave indentations in the dough. Top with whatever topping used.

8. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 230 deg C for 15 to 20 minutes until golden on top.

Recipe feedback:

I now understand why Marion wrote 1 tbsp olive oil + 1 tbsp water and to drizzle that on top before adding the topping. I was overly generous by drizzling on 2 tbsp of the sundried tomato oil, and that made it hard to bake becauese the dough couldn't rise and 'dry' up to bake. Instead of spending up to 20 minutes in a 230 deg C oven, I spent close to 30 minutes and the centre (where the oil pooled) was still a bit doughey even though the toppings of sun dried tomatoes had dried to a crisp and the olives had burnt!

Baked Cherry cheesecake

Preparing for a party, I thought about resurrecting my favourite Nigella's no bake blueberry cheesecake. It involves 2 packets of cream cheese, an 8" pan, and a bottle of Dalfour's blueberry jam. I came across RecipeTinEats' baked Strawberry Cheesecake which is very similar except that it's baked and uses sour cream rather than whipping cream. The most difficult part is probably making the berry sauce which is optional. I used a package of frozen cherries which I had in the freezer so presentation-wise, it'll be less pretty than using fresh fruit but the effect is the same.

Ingredients for base

200g sweet biscuits (I used malt biscuits which in a 220g packet; this includes enough crust to go up the side of the tin)

120g butter, melted (I used 150g because I had 220g biscuits)

Method for base

1. Prepare the 8" springform tin. Turn the base upside down so that there's no lip. Add the parchment and clip the base. Butter the sides of the tin and line with parchment.

2. Crush the biscuits in a food processor. Alternatively, use a ziplock and bash away.

3. Once there is a fine crumb, drizzle in the melted butter. It should resemble sand.

4. Pour into the prepared tin. Use a spatula to press down. Using a glass or measuring cup, press down firmly on the base and against the wall of the tin. The crumb mixture should go up ¾ of the wall of the tin.

5. Cover and leave the base in the fridge to harden slightly.

Ingredients for filling

500g cream cheese (2 packs of Philly), room temp

2 tbsp plain four

1 tsp vanilla extract

½C sour cream

1½C caster sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

Method for filling

1. Beat cream cheese until smooth, 20s on Speed 4. (Don't introduce air otherwise the surface will crack)

2. Add flour, beat for 5 seconds at Speed 4.

3. Add extract, sour cream, sugar, zest; 10s on Speed 5.

4. Add eggs one at a time, no more than 5s each on Speed 5. Beat until eggs are just blended.

5. Pour into prepared base. 

6. Bake in a pre-heated oven 150 deg C in fan forced (convection but no top and bottom grills) for 55 minutes until the top is just set. The sides will be set but the centre will have a slight wobble. 

7. Turn off the oven but leave it inside for another 10 minutes, then open the door 20 cm and let it cool down for 30 minutes in the oven with door ajar. Take it out to totally cool down.

8. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Method for berry sauce

500g of a berry (strawberries, blueberries, etc. I used cherries which are in season; fresh or frozen)

2 tbsp water or lemon juice (depending on the sweetness of the fruit)

½ C sugar (can reduce but a few tbsp depending on sweetness of the fruit)

2 tsbp water for slurry

1½ tsp corn starch for slurry

Method for sauce

1. Roughly cut up half the fruit and halve the other half of the fruit. If using frozen fruit, thaw them. It may be difficult to halve or cut the fruit without it falling apart so omit this step.

2. Pour the fruit and 2 tbsp of water into a saucepan. Pour in the sugar and mix.

3. Bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring to prevent the mixture burning at the bottom.

4. Make the slurry by mixing corn starch and water. Continue stirring the slurry. Stir the mixture and drizzle in the slurry. Once thickened, turn off the fire. Set aside to cool and the refrigerate. It will thicken up slightly once chilled in the fridge.

Assembly

Take out the chilled cheesecake. Pour the sauce on top. If the sauce is not of a pouring consistency, add just add a touch of water (½ tsp at a time) just to loosen it. It should dribble down the side but not drench it.

Feedback

- Turning the bottom upside down was fine except the butter melted and seeped out! Was not expecting that! Perhaps using digestives might have helped as they are more 'absorbent' than the malt biscuits I used.

- I found the sugar in the cherry sauce way too sweet! It was good for entertaining as people tend to like sweet desserts but not for home consumption. Might have to add, taste, then add more if needed next time.

HK Red Bean Bun

I have previously tried the tangzong red bean bun and also the an pan but neither were satisfactory. Both used a mix of bread and cake flour but felt really dense even though I used the dough hook on my food processor. This time I have my trusty KitchenAid and after my last dough disaster where the dough climbed up the hook, I decided I had to beat it!

This recipes uses full bread flour. Adapted from three different Christine's recipes because she writes things halfway and asks you to refer here and there. Making tangzong, ingredients from Matcha Green Bean Bun, and I adapted her method from Hokkaido Milk Toast Bread regarding proofing instructions and how to fold the bread.

Ingredients for tangzong (makes 240g tangzong which is enough for 2 loafs of 20.5*10.5cm loaf tin. However, I made the mistake of halving the proportions to get 120g tangzong as required but because a lot of the roux stuck to my non-stick pot, I got less than 120g roux in the end! Recommend to follow the full instructions and throw away the excess)

50g (⅓C) bread flour

250ml (½C) milk or water or 50-50

Tangzong method 

1. Add the milk to the flour slowly and use a wooden spoon to combine. Smooth out as many lumps as possible.

2. Put the mixture on the heat and bring slowly to a boil. The mixture will dry up. Continue cooking the roux until you see 'lines' in the roux when stirring.

3. Remove from heat. Set aside to cool slightly, the cover with cling film, ensuring the film touches the top to prevent a skin forming. Cool completely before using. Store the rest similarly covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. Throw once it turns grey.

Ingredients for Red bean bun

350g (2½C) bread flour

55g (3 tbsp + 2 tsp) caster sugar

5g salt (1 tsp)

1 large egg (more than 50g), beaten

7g milk powder (1 tbsp + 1 tsp, I omitted)

125ml milk (½C)

120 tangzong

6g yeast (2 tsp

30g butter, cubed and at room temp

1 tin (430g) red bean paste, refridgerated 

1 egg beaten, for glaze

2 to 3 tbsp sesame seeds (either black or white)

Method

1. In a KA mixer, pour in half of the flour and ⅓ of the milk. Add the salt and sugar, then beat at Speed 2.

2. Once these have come together, add more milk, half of the beaten egg, and a few tbsp of flour. Allow to mix. Continue alternating wet with dry until all used up and allow to beat for 5 minutes.

3. Once combined, add the yeast. Use your hand or a dough whisk to fold in the yeast. Use the KA at speed 3 and continue beating for 5 minutes.

4. Add the cubed butter, one cube at a time and allow each to beat into the dough before adding the next one. Once all are in, beat for 5 minutes at Speed 2.

5. Turn up to Speed 4 and beat until you reach the windowpane stage (approx another 15 to 20 minutes). Stop periodically to check because it can go from not yet ready to ready in a matter of minutes. The dough should be soft but not sticky and glossy on the outisde.

6. Remove from the beater and oil the bowl. Form the dough into a ball and cover the bowl with film and a tea towel. Allow to proof for 40 minutes (28 deg C and 75% humidity) until doubled in size.

7. Divide dough into 12 potions (approx 51g each). Cover half of the balls with a damp towel. With each portion, roll with the palm of your hand into a ball until the surface is smooth. Then using the Asian rolling pin, flatten out into a 5 cm diameter circle with the edges thinner than the centre.

8. Use the 2.5 tbsp scoop and spoon out 30 to 35g of filling.

9. Seal the filling tightly, be sure to scrimp all the folds and turn seam down. Gently roll back into a ball to flatten the folds. Using both hands and a cupping motion, form a dome shape, the taller the better as it will sink and flatten when proofing.

10. Cover with cling firm and a damp tea towel and proof for 45 to 60 minutes (38 deg C at 75% humidity) until doubled in size. 

11. Pre-heat oven. Glaze the tops of each bun with the beaten egg.

12. Using the rounded end of the Asian rolling pin, dip in the egg then into the sesame seeds. 'Stamp' the seeds onto the top of each bun by slightly and gently rotating the pin so that the edges of the stamped circle are properly formed.

13. Bake at 160 deg C for 30 minutes or until golden brown. I swapped and rotated the trays halfway.

Recipe feedback

So unusual! Because I used bread flour, it came out crusty straight from the oven (like crusty bread). It softened slightly the next day but was still not like normal white bread. More like French crusty loaf?

Custard creamed corn bao

Quite disappointed with this recipe but am unsure cos there are too many new variables. First of all, the this is a new recipe and looks really simple - 7 minutes kneading, 7 minutes resting, and only proving 20 minutes. It was meant to solve all my past issues with ugly looking bao that are lop sided and have wrinkly skin. Second, my dough was a bit wetter than intended, which made handling the bao and sealing up the filling really difficult. Third, I follow the recipe and used the microwave to make the custard, but perhaps because I'm using a different brand and doubling the portions, it came out really lumpy. Next time I'll go back to using the stove even though it may be more work. Fourth, I used my new bamboo steamer so I'm wondering if that affected? I had my metal steamer side by side and also following the instructions, started steaming from cold so that affected all the timing and made it dry out yet uncooked inside. Comparing the bao from the metal to the bamboo steamer, the metal steamer seemed to keep the moisture in better and also there was more lift. Fifth, I doubled all the portions so perhaps it is still my fault in the end!

I might not try the recipe again for the bao dough but stick to the red bean bao dough recipe.

Recipe adapted from: https://mykitchen101en.com/steamed-corn-custard-pao-chinese-steamed-bun/

Ingredients for custard filling (makes 10) (makes 19)

170ml milk (240ml)

3 tbsp custard powder (6 tbsp)

2½ tbsp sugar (5 tbsp)

90g cream style corn (180g)

1 slice cheddar (2 slices)

Method 

1. Combine the sugar, milk, custard powder in a pot on the stove. Bring to a boil and stir until smooth. Remove from stove. (Original recipe uses microwave, 1min 30seconds at 1000w)

2. Pass through a sieve to get rid of lumps.

3. Add the cream corn and stir until combined.

4. Cut up the sliced cheddar and stir until combined.

5. Leave to cool for 10 minutes. Cover with cling film, ensuring that the film touches the surface of the custard so that it doesn't form a skin. Leave in the fridge to cool for 30 minutes.

Ingredients for bao (upsized to 500g)

280g (2¼ + 4 tbsp) bao flour (500g)

20g (2½ tbsp) cornstarch (5 tbsp)

1 tsp instant yeast (2 tsp)

65g (⅓C) fine sugar (less 2x at 120g)

200ml milk (350 to 400ml)

20g (1½ tbsp) veg oil (3 tbsp)

pinch of salt

Method

1. Combine the flour, cornstarch, salt, and sugar and stir well. Add the yeast and stir.

2. Gradually pour the milk until a dough is formed. Do not use up all of the milk but only until the dough just comes together with a few dry spots.

3. Pour in the oil and knead until blended. If there are still dry spots, add as much milk as needed to moisten the spots

4. Knead for 6 to 7 minutes until the dough is shiny and smooth and no longer sticky. 

5. Cover and rest for 6-7 minutes.

6. Roll out the dough into a rectangle and fold into thirds. Roll out again and then roll up into a cyclinder.

7. Cut into 10 portions. Cover half of the dough.

8. Roll into a circle with a thicker centre. Fill with 1½ tbsp filling. Seal proper so that the filling doesn't leak out. Put on prepared parchment (Original recipe uses flattened muffin cases)

9. Prove for 20 minutes. (Original recipe has a complicated method of bringing to a boil 500ml of water, then adding 1 l of water and putting the steaming basket on top). Try to prevent over-proofing otherwise the skin will wrinkle after steaming.

10. Steam on medium heat for 15 minutes, then turn off the flame and let it rest for 3 minutes before removing.

Recipe feedback

Comparing this recipe with my red bean bao which also used 500g of bao flour, this recipe used only 2 tsp of yeast (so only 1 proofing) compared to the 2 tbsp yeast (Edit: this sld be 2.5 tsp) and the nearly 1 hour of total proofing time for the red bean bao. While the red bean had a wrinkly skin, the bao was fluffier than my corn bao, but still not as fluffy as seen in the corn bao video.

Aside from being very dense, the dough still tastes a bit raw and the taste of the oil is very strong. This recipe didn't work probably mostly because of the short or negligible proofing time and insufficient kneading. 

I learnt from China Sichuan's char siu bao recipe that has more sugar, liquid, and yeast that uses a single proofing method (like Kitchen101 here) because it saves time and leads to more fluffy and less chewy buns. This differs from her red bean buns which proofs for 1 hour. 

Single proofing method

- Her mantou recipe says to obtain a smooth surface, buns have to be well kneaded, not over-proofed, and controlled fire which differs between steel and bamboo. 

- The second 'proofing' (after shaping) for 10 to 20 minutes until it slightly puffs up is actually just resting the gluten rather than proofing. The steaming water should start from cold and then rapidly brought to a boil on high heat. Start the count and turn down to medium flame only when you the steam escaping. The cooking time after from this point can take 20 to 25 minutes depending on the size of the buns and filling. 

- Bamboo steamer has to be on medium fire but steel has to be high fire all the time and cooking time for bamboo steamer has to be longer ie between 25 to 30 mins (including bringing to a boil). 

- The single proofing method requires a longer cooking time so that it can puff up. I made the mistake of turning down both steel and bamboo down to medium fire and assuming it's 15 mins for everybody. No wonder my buns from the steel steamer came out better cooked than the bamboo which was undercooked. I might also need to switch the steamer baskets around halfway. Kitchen101 used a bamboo steamer but her timings and single proofing method don't work for me!