Brown Bear Mantou

I am kinda hooked on making mantou nowadays that I have put a temporary stop to bread making.  Seems like. Nah, I will get back to making bread soon I guess. Hubby will get sick of eating my cute creations too hahha!

Mantou. They are often being referred to as Chinese steamed bun or bread. They are so easy to do and somehow gives me a gratifying feel more so than bread. Not sure why too but I guess it is because I can make them and keep them away in the freezer, put them to steam and eat them rightaway when they are at their softest taste.

I took a pic of this along with some X'mas deco to give it some Christmasy feel.

This time, I made a dozen of cute brown bear mantou using 彭秋婷的创意受1作中式发面 book. I definitely had fun making them! Best of all, you need not have to own an oven to make these.  If you are in for some cute bun making, this should be it :)

Again, I did a simple translation of the original recipe by 彭秋婷

Brown Bear Mantou
Servings: 90g × 12 pcs

A. Dough
7g Instant yeast
270g fresh milk
50g caster sugar
500g plain flour
10g butter
24g cocoa powder

B. Dough
50g flour
5g caster sugar
1g yeast
25g water

1. Mix caster sugar with 3/4 of fresh milk and stir well to dissolve sugar. Mix instant yeast with remaining 1/4 fresh milk. Place all other dry ingredients in A into a mixing bowl, pour in the wet ingredients and mix well to form a rough dough. Knead dough till smooth and shiny. In a separate bowl, put all B ingredients and mix well to form a dough. Set aside.
2. Place kneaded dough in mixing bowl and cover with clingwrap or moist cloth to let proof for 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Roll put main door to rid air bubbles and roll till 1cm thick, and 40cm in length.
4. Cut rolled main dough into 12 equal pieces, about 80g each. Out of each 80g dough, I cut out 2 pcs of 6g dough for the bears' ears (68g will be used for bears' heads). Cut 10g of dough from B dough and add in charcoal powder to make bears' eyes and noses, while remain B white dough will be used for bears' mouths.

5. Roll bears' head into a round shape, place them on cut out baking paper and slightly flatten dough.
Shape bears' ears (6g dough) and stick it into bears' head - I used a chopstick to shape ears and stick it into bears' head.
Divide white dough into 12 pieces, flatten each piece of white dough into an oval shape and adhere it on bears' face. You can brush on some water and place on dough for them to 'stick' better. Place on eyes and noses.
6. Place all deco brown bear mantou into steamer and let proof for 20 to 30 minutes.

7. Steam mantou on medium high heat for 8 minutes. Make sure water is boiling before placing in mantou. Place lid cover sideway for about 1 minute. Remove steamer with lid covered slideways away from stove and let cool for further 2 minutes or so to cool - this is done to prevent mantou skin from crinkling up with the sudden temperature change. Serve warm!

After the steamed mantou have cooled, I packed them into a ziplock bag and freeze them. Put the mantou to steam rightaway without the need to defrost them and you can enjoy piping hot buns with a good cuppa coffee in no time!

熊大创意馒头
(Recipe by 彭秋婷的创意手作中式發面)

分量  90g x 12个 

A   面团
速溶酵母 --- 7g
鲜奶 --- 270g
细砂糖 --- 50g
中筋面粉 --- 500g
奶油 --- 10g
可可粉 --- 24g

B   面团
中筋面粉 --- 50g
细砂糖 --- 5g
酵母 --- 1g
水1 --- 25g

1   搅拌 
a 先将细砂糖与配方中 3/4 的鲜奶充分搅拌均匀， 酵母与配方中 1/4 的鲜奶拌均匀， 将其他材料 A 放入盆中， 再倒入液状材料揉至呈光滑面团。
b 另将面团材料B 全部搅拌均匀备用。

2   松弛
盖上湿布或保鲜膜， 让面团基本发酵 5-10 分钟。

3   延压
取出面团用杆面棍或压面机将面团气泡压出，成厚约1cm约40cm的长条状光滑面皮。

4  分割
A 面团分割80g 12个，B面团切取10g 加入竹灰粉做眼睛，其予白面团做嘴巴。

5   整形
a 面团整形成圆的馒头形状再压扁执上烘焙纸。
b 在头部1压出耳朵位置，用 A 面团以圆的花嘴模压出耳朵，一端捏尖后压扁以工具按压固定在脸部。
c 鼻子用白面团整形后固定在脸部，以竹灰粉面团整形出眼睛及鼻上装饰固定好。

6  发酵
间隔排入蒸笼層中，最后发酵 20-30 分钟。

6   蒸製
移入热水蒸锅， 以大火蒸 12 分钟，时间到后将蓋子打开一个小缝 1 分钟， 移出蒸锅再放置 2 分钟后掀蓋。