Cocoa Mantou

I love mantou.

Ever since I got myself a book on mantou and started making my own mantou, I said N-O No to supermarket frozen mantou. 

Knowing what goes into my food is very important to me these days. Not comfy with the idea of preservatives in my food and so I am a strong believer of almost all food homecooked, homemade and homebaked.

Got myself busy with these mantou and woo! I wished I had made more of them. They were so soft and fluffy with a tinge of cocoa fragrance in them. These fluffy little buns definitely ignited my mantou making flame once again. 

What mantou should I make next?  :P

Cocoa Mantou

5g Instant yeast
183g fresh milk
35g caster sugar
340g Hong Kong flour
20g unsweetened cocoa powder
5g butter (room temp)


1. Mix caster sugar with 3/4 of fresh milk (137g) and stir well to dissolve sugar. Sprinkle instant yeast over remaining 46g of fresh milk and let it sit for about 2 minutes before stirring them to dissolve yeast. 
2. Sift Hong Kong flour and cocoa powder. Place all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, pour in the wet ingredients and mix well to form a rough dough. Knead dough till smooth and shiny.
3. Place kneaded dough in mixing bowl and cover with clingwrap to let proof for 10 minutes.
3. Do a quick knead on the dough to remove the air then using a rolling pin, roll out dough to form an even rectangular shape with even thickness of 0.5cm and 70cm in length.
4. Trim off sides of dough to get a nicer rectangular shape and carefully roll up dough like rolling swiss roll. About 1cm at the end of the dough, brush on some water and gently press down dough to flatten it a little. 
5.  Using a sharp knife, slice rolled up dough into 10 equal pieces. (For me, I got 8 pcs, and with the trimmed dough I divided it into 2 long portions and made them into knotted patterned mantou)
6. Place baking paper under dough and leave dough in steamer to proof for 20 minutes.

Let proof for 20min

Put to steam.

There you are. Home made mantou.

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!

To freeze - Allow mantou to cool and then place in ziplock bag, press out air, zip and freeze.

No need to defrost mantou before steaming. Just set your steamer to boil and place in mantou to steam on medium high heat for 7min.