Dim sum -- Baozi

Dim sum (点心) is a variety of small Chinese dishes traditionally served in restaurants for brunch and often associated with Cantonese cuisine. As dim sum continued to develop, chefs brought in influences and traditions from other parts of China and it became present in other Chinese cuisines as well.

For example, like the xiaolongbao, which originated in Jiangsu province, but has also become a type of dim sum.

The xiaolongbao I made 

My hometown is Ningbo, very close to Jiangsu province, so xiao long bao is one of the very common dim sum meals. This is the first time I made xiaolongbao, and possibly the last, because the process is just too complicated!

Xiaolongbao in dim sum restaurant

Many dim sum dishes are made from seafood, minced meat or vegetables wrapped in dough and then steamed, fried or pan-fried. Traditional dim sum brunch includes various types of steamed duns (baozi), similar but different from dumplings.

If you can't have ice cream or bread in your freezer, I can't have frozen dumplings and frozen baozi in my freezer, they allow me to fix a meal in less than 30 minutes. Like dumplings, I would spend the whole afternoon making many different flavours of baozi.

Baozi

The buns are fluffy and soft, not as thin as dumpling sheets and not as firm as wholemeal bread, so if you're curious, try making them from the recipe below!

This recipe makes 14-16 baozi.

Ingredients for the dough:

300g   Plain flour

100g   Milk

70g     Water

3g       Yeast

10g     Sugar

1. Warm milk and water.

2. Add sugar to the water, then add yeast.

3. Pour the liquid into the flour.

4. Make a dough, knead until the surface is smooth.

5. Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

6. Deflate the dough and divide it into 14-16 equal weight pieces.

7. Roll out the small dough slightly, add the filling and wrap it up.

*You can use the same filling as for the dumplings.

8. Place the baozi on a steamer with warm water (35-40 degrees) in the bottom and let it rise 1.5-2 times bigger in this warm environment, it will take about 30 minutes.

9. When the fermentation is done, do not open the lid, just boil the water and steam for 12 minutes.

10. After steaming, do not open the lid immediately! Wait for another 5 minutes before opening.

11. Than, you can enjoy~

My friend Iris took a video where I was making baozi, if you are interested you can watch it.

 

My favourite youtuber also posted a video about baozi, you can learn a lot from it too.

If you have any questions about baozi, don't hesitate to leave comments!

See you next time! :D