Description
From Cynthia Chen McTernan’s A Common Table
As always, a digital scale is recommended when measuring flour for bread.
This is really nice with Okonomiyaki (Cabbage Pancakes), and it would wonderful aside Red-Cooked Pork Belly and Simple Cucumber Salad as well.
Ingredients
for the dough:
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk powder (optional)
for the buns:
- 1 cup finely sliced scallions, from 8 to 10
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
for serving:
- sea salt, optional
- soy dipping sauce, I like this one, optional
Instructions
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the milk to a gentle boil. Remove pan from heat. Let cool till 100ºF to 110ºF. Stir in the oil.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast, sugar, milk powder (if using), and salt. Add the milk-oil mixture to the flour bowl, and stir to form a dough ball.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes. Return dough to bowl and let rise in a warm spot for at least 2 hours or as as long as 24 in the refrigerator.
- In a small bowl, stir together the scallions, oil, and salt. Cut out twelve 6-inch square pieces of parchment paper. Lightly flour a work surface.
- Turn dough out onto prepared work surface. Punch down to deflate. Using a knife or bench scraper, divide the dough into 12 pieces and shape each roughly into a ball. Using a rolling pin, roll each into a 4×6-inch oval. Working with one oval at a time, slice ribbons lengthwise into the oval, leaving about 1/2 inch at the top of the oval intact—video guidance for this cutting/shaping process can be found here; skip ahead to frames 14-16 for shaping guidance. Brush or spoon about 1 tablespoon of the scallion mixture across the dough. Pick up each end of the oval, gently pull outward, then twist into a coil. Then, twist the coil into a knot. Place the knot on a sheet of parchment paper. Repeat process with remaining ovals until all 12 knots are shaped. Let rest 30-40 minutes.
- Prepare a steamer basket. If using a wok with a bamboo insert, bring 2 inches of water to a boil, being sure water does not touch the bottom of the steamer basket. If using a pot with steamer insert, fill with water, again being sure water does not touch the bottom of the steamer basket, and bring to a boil.
- Place 3 to 4 scallion knots with parchment paper into steamer. Cover. Reduce heat so that water is just simmering. Steam for 15 minutes.
- Serve warm sprinkled with sea salt, if you wish, or a soy dipping sauce.
- Leftovers can be frozen and reheated in a steamer or microwave (about 15 seconds).
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Method: Steamed
- Cuisine: Chinese