Steamed Buns Recipe – Bunny & Strawberry Mantou

This recipe teaches you how to make the cutest ever bunny and strawberry steamed buns step by step.

These Bunny Steamed Buns are perfect for Easter if you want to make something in cute bunny shape.

Don’t worry if you have never made steamed buns before! This recipe is in such detail and so easy to follow.

You will feel so proud and have a great fun making these heart-melting lovely buns!

What are Steamed Buns?

Steamed Bun (Mantou, 馒头) is said to have been created about 2000 years ago by a Chinese military strategist called Zhuge Liang.

    When Zhugge and his troops tried to cross a river, the river god refused the safe passage unless Zhuge agreed to throw 50 heads of his soldiers into the river.

    In order to meet the river god’s requests without sacrificing any soldier, Zhuge made 50 steamed buns into the shape of human heads. He successfully tricked the river god with these buns and crossed the rive.

    Therefore, the steamed buns were named Mantou (蛮头, barbarian’s heads) in Chinese. (Chung Ying Restaurants: “A Brief History of Bao”)

Steamed buns and bread are both fermented wheat flour doughs, but one is steamed and the other one is baked.

It’s also easy to tell the difference between steamed buns (mantou) and baozi (bao): a baozi is a stuffed steamed bun. 

This recipe shows you how to make the basic steamed buns into bunny and strawberry shapes. Feel free to stuff these buns with any filling you like, such as red bean paste, custard, or chashu, to turn them into baozi. 

All purpose flour vs Bao flour

I used bao flour (or pau flour, 大包粉) in this recipe. You can also substitute it with regular all purpose flour. They have similar gluten levels, but bao flour is highly bleached, and its gluten level has been finely adjusted for making Chinese buns.

Steamed buns made of bao flour will have a smoother and whiter surface. But the choice of flour won’t affect the taste of buns too much. 

All purpose flour worked perfectly in Mandarin Orange Buns recipe, because I wanted these buns’ surfaces to wrinkle slightly, so that they look more similar to real oranges.

How to Make Bunny Steamed Buns (Mantou)

EQUIPMENT

• Food Scale
• Stand mixer (optional)
• Steamer

• Heat-resistant rectangular container

INGREDIENTS

Pink Dough:

• ⅛ tsp red gel food coloring (I used “Christmas Red Icing Color” from Wilton.)

• 125 g milk (½ cup + 2 tbsps) (Feel free to substitute milk with soy milk, oat milk, coconut milk to make this recipe vegan-friendly.)
• ¾ tsp instant yeast

• 200 g Bao flour (2.2 cups) (Can be substitute with regular all purpose flour, just that the buns will have a slightly coarser texture.)

• 30 g sugar (2 tbsps +1 tsp)
• ½ tbsp cooking oil (Use neutral tasting cooking oil, such as vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, corn oil…)

White Dough:

• 125 g milk (½ cup + 2 tbsps) (Feel free to substitute milk with soy milk, oat milk, coconut milk to make this recipe vegan-friendly.)
• ¾ tsp instant yeast
• 200 g Bao flour (2.2 cups) (Can be substitute with regular all purpose flour, just that the buns will have a slightly coarser texture.)
• 30 g sugar (2 tbsps +1 tsp)
• ½ tbsp cooking oil (Use neutral tasting cooking oil, such as vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, corn oil…)

Others:

• 1 green gel food coloring (1 toothpick tip amount ) (I used “Leaf Green Icing Color” from Wilton.)

• 1 candy decorating pen – black

Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a bowl, dissolve ⅛ tsp red gel food coloring and ¾ tsp instant yeast in 125g cold milk.

2. Add 30g sugar and 200g bao flour to a large bowl. Pour milk yeast mixture to the flour.

3. Stir using two chopsticks or a rubber spatula until there’s no liquid or dry flour in the bowl.

4. Knead with hands (or medium speed with a stand mixer) for about 10 minutes until all the ingredients are evenly mixed. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with food wrap. Set aside, allow the dough to rest under room temperature for 10 minutes. (It’s okay if the dough doesn’t look perfectly smooth at this moment. It will turn smoother after fermentation.)

5. While the pink dough is resting, make a white dough with similar steps (skip the food coloring). Cover with food wrap. Set aside, allow the dough to rest under room temperature for 10 minutes.

6. Poke a hole in the middle of the pink dough. Shape the dough into donut-shape by gently stretching the ring.

7. Cut the ring, and stretch it into a long sausage shape.

8. Cut off a piece of 20g dough. Cover with food wrap. Set aside to rest. (We will use this small piece of dough to make bowknots, bunny ears, and blushes later.)

9. Cut the rest of the dough into 6 pieces (for strawberry shape buns). Each piece should be about 55g. Set aside and cover with food wrap.

10. Cut the white dough in to 8 pieces: one 20g piece (for strawberry leaves), one 30g piece (for bunny ears and strawberry seeds), and six 50g pieces (for bunny shape buns). Set aside and cover with food wrap.

11. Take the 20g white dough, color it with green gel food coloring. Knead the dough until the color looks evenly. Set aside and cover with food wrap.

12. Take a piece of pink dough (55g), knead the dough to shape it into a ball. See video instructions here: How to knead the dough into a ball. Set aside and cover with food wrap.

13. Repeat until all the doughs are kneaded into ball shape.

14. Brush oil in 2 heat-resistant rectangular containers. Put 3 pink doughs and 3 white doughs into each container, make a color pattern you like. Cover the containers with food wrap.

15. Roll the green dough into a long sausage shape. Cut the dough into 6 pieces.

16. Roll each piece into a ball, press it to make an oval. Cut off 2 triangles from the edge of the oval to make a leaf shape.

17. Stick one of the triangle on the top of the leaf to be the stem.

18. Pat a little bit of water on the surface of each pink strawberry dough. Stick the leaves to the strawberries.

19. Use the white dough we saved before to make some 2mm size mini balls. Stick 6 mini balls to each strawberry as strawberry seeds.

20. Make bunny ears by stick a smaller teardrop shape pink dough to a larger teardrop shape white dough. Stick two bunny ears to each white dough.

21. Make bowknot with a small pink dough. Make patterns on the bowknot with a toothpick.

22. Stick a mini white ball in the middle of the bowknot. I also used pink dough to make blushes for my bunnies. Feel free to design your own decorations.

23. Draw facial expressions with a black candy decorating pen.

24. Add hot water to a steamer.

25. Place the buns into the steamer. Cover the lid. Allow the buns to ferment in this warm and humid environment for 30 minutes.

26. 30 minutes later, turn on the heat, steam the buns over medium high heat for 15-20 minutes.

27. Serve hot. Or store your leftover bunny steamed buns in a food storage bag, and keep in the freezer. They will stay good for 6 months.

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