Southern Style Mantou | History, Science and Recipe

In this video, we'll show you everything you need to know about making delicious and flawless Southern-style steamed bread, mantou! From all the science to a step-by-step recipe, we're going through everything, including the beautiful history behind steamed breads and buns. If you've ever wanted to know why your mantou has dimples or blisters, why it isn't a milky white color, why it's gummy, and more, then this is the perfect video for you. Watch the video for more!
#steamedbread #mantou #baozi #steamedbuns
(Two-step method)
Ingredients g %
Total Flour 300 100.00%
Hydration 150 50.00%
First Step
Bao Flour 210 70.00%
Water 120 40.00%
Inst. Yeast 0.5 0.17%
Second Step
Bao Flour 90 30.00%
Water 30 10.00%
Neutral Oil 6 2.00%
Sugar 18 6.00%
Salt 1.5 0.50% (optional)
All of First Step
Chapters
0:00 Opening
0:48 History
3:47 Ingredients and Science
16:10 Recipe

[@31.8mm]

Im not really passionate about bread stuff, but now i do have a goal to make a sellable mantou, so i can be proud as proud as the mantou im about to make using knowledge from this video. Thank you for sharing

[@ramencurry6672]

Excellent teacher. Beautiful lady

[@khodayehrangekaman315]

Dear maiden you are absolutely Amazing❤❤ in your knowledge just beautiful 🌾🌷🌾🌹🌾💗🥀

[@axislexington8042]

What's the chance I was thinking of making Cha Siu Bao. Man tao will be my entry to asian bread making. Thanks Serapine❤

[@suanhak]

Thanks, Serapine. Your video is very entertaining, scientific, and very well presented . I came across your video while searching for reasons why I failed in some of my bao making. Using your recipe and methodology with just a tweak in the bao flour . It came out pretty good and satisfactory today 😊. Instead corn starch, I used 10% wheat starch with the AP flour. Recently I was in Narita airport on a transit flight and I was very hungry so I bought a meat Boa at Lawson Store. The filling was so so, but the Bao skin was really something spectacular I that had never come across. It has a texture of dense chiffon cake, and yet it was really nice, unlike any Bao skin I had ever tasted. Please keep up the good work and thanks again for everything, much appreciated ❤

[@fredbrown7954]

Nice informative video. Thanks much 🙏

[@hugeal8716]

Another vote for the cha siu bao, but the baked glazed version. 😃 I’ve also noticed the shift in the channel and DO miss the traditional Indo recipes as well. 😃👍

[@NovitaListyani]

Noted!

[@christianwu1309]

Nice video. What would you define as southern mantou. I see the use of pre ferment and round shape and i think a more northern style mantou where the fermentation flavor really shines. Im more familiar with newer southern style mantou where it uses milk and more sugar, is rolled and folded multiple times and shaped more in a round rectangle form for a more layered mantou. Would be interested on your take on these smaller southern dim sum style mantous.

[@spicemasterii6775]

Kongming is superhuman smart. Won't be surprised if the legend is true.

[@valencia6790]

If I want to use tangzhong, do I put it in the first or the second step? I also wanna thank you for this video! I appreciate it and I really enjoy all the science behind it

[@kirstend.3533]

Thank you so much for the inspiring videos! 👍 I would love to see your variation of a german "Hefezopf" or "Butterzopf" (nearly the same, only salty). Brioche would also be great!

[@FireAndFoodCompany]

Pastry flour might be a good substitute, the one I have is 8.5% protein and 0.5 ash content. Even our cake flour is 8% protein and 0.45 ash because Canadian wheat is a lot heavier in protein

[@martinpecheur-xh1qp]

Chineses are amazing. Even for a cooking tutorial you get a science course in addition. No wonder why they are getting #1 in almost everything nowadays.

[@johnnyong2341]

😊 Good

[@SebastianLarsen]

Absolutely love these videos. If I was to give a tiny piece of advice it would be that the channel branding is very confusing. It would seem focus and ownership has changed since inception. My family refers to this channel as Bread Babe. Now, I am not sure that is the best name but it fits. Something a bit more cerebral, perhaps 😅

[@daniswara1164]

Nice. Could you make a baozi next

[@NovitaListyani]

It's on the list but don't know when 😊

[@zazalili7864]

Tu as bien fait de preciser que le Mantou n'est pas un Bao ( ou brioche asiatique farcie ) comme on dit ici en France .🤭 Car j'aurai confondu et je t'aurai demandé avec quoi tu les farcis 😂😂 En tous les cas ça m'a l'air délicieux 🤩 ..... Hors sujet J'aime tellement la cuisine asiatique que j'ai décidé de manger cette année ( pour Noël ) que cette cuisine ( Korean , Thaïlande , Vietnamienne et d'autres asiatiques ) Dans ma ville j'ai de la chance d'avoir l'un des plus grand market asiatique de France et donc d'avoir un choix immense qu'on trouve nulle part ailleurs en France . Merci infiniment pour votre video🙏👍

[@NovitaListyani]

En effet, étant un aliment de base dans le nord de la Chine, le mantou est généralement servi nature et consommé avec des accompagnements.

[@rabbitc7713]

Please give some advices for hand kneading method. I don't have electronic mixer and always fail when it comes to steamed bun. It's too dense, dry and crumbling. Unlike the baked bread that I hardly fail. Many Thanks.😊

[@adamscisse7050]

Hello Seraphine. Thank you very much for all these lessons that we are following carefully.. If I understood correctly, you just need to add garnish to this mantou to obtain a Baozi?? Can we add some filling and bake it to get a tasty and soft filled bun??

[@NovitaListyani]

I think if you want a baked bread, it's better to start it off with our burger buns recipe.

[@yonatan.b]

I am just discovering your channel and the use of thangzhong which is very new to me, would you say that thangzhong is widely used in Asia or only in certains countries? I ate some soft filled pandan buns in Thailand and I couldn't believe the softness of the buns.. would you say it's the use of thangzhong? I'm originally from france and we don't get soft breads like in Asia apparently hence my curiosity and fascination for this technique that I've just discovered and keep learning about! Thank you!

[@smg8081]

Nice mantou! Can I interest you in making dimsum char siu bao next? 😊It's the type of bun that cracks after steamed. I know that this is a very challenging bao to make due to its fermentation process. A lot of science involved here though. Would love to hear your take on this. 😅

[@NovitaListyani]

Noted

[@medericoguerrero7019]

Will definitely make this! I like siapao since its very sweet even more with asado filling. Also . Im wondering do you do pastries like croissants?

[@NovitaListyani]

Croissant is in our to-do list, but it may take a while

[@medericoguerrero7019]

@@NovitaListyani will look forward to it!

[@zzukiyaki7521]

Hi. I’m from the Philippines and residing in Europe and im really craving for filled streamed buns(Siopao as we call it) cause there are no Filipino stores nearby. I just watched your old mantou of 2 years ago. I asked why my mantou seemed to be not cooking even after 20 minutes. There is still so much uncooked Dough. Should I have cooked it longer than 20 minutes? Thank you. ❤

[@NovitaListyani]

Usually, 12-15 minutes is more than enough. Make sure the water is boiling, put the dough in only after the water is boiling. If by uncooked you mean gummy, then it's most likely that the steaming rate is too low.

[@zzukiyaki7521]

@@NovitaListyani thank you so much. Yes. The Bun is like fresh, it’s still in its dough form. Only outside is cooked. Thank you so much for the info.

[@Br0adCastYourS3lf]

24:24 Does anyone know the make and model of the steamer basket with lid? Or any other good quality steamer basket for six buns.

[@smg8081]

Hi. Can you share the brand of bao flour you used? I can't find bao flour with 9% protein here. The bao flour here are either bleached or mixed with leaveners, which I'm trying to avoid. Thanks!

[@NovitaListyani]

It's a local brand, simply called "Bao Flour", the protein content listed on the packaging is 9%. The latest version, though, has cornstarch in their ingredient list. I suggest you make it yourself. Use the formula in the video to get to the flour percentage you want, 11:41

[@smg8081]

@@NovitaListyani Ok, thanks. Will try that next time. Another question, on the step 1 process, would it be possible to make a not so stiff dough so that in step 2, we won't have to tear them into pieces before kneading?

[@NovitaListyani]

Any sizable change in hydration will have noticable effects on the fermentation time and other aspects of the preferment. You may compare this to the Biga and Poolish in the preparation of preferment. So, if you change the hydration, one thing for sure, the fermentation time will be different, and with that, all the subsequent steps will have to be adjusted.

[@smg8081]

@@NovitaListyani I see...tq for the input!

[@marcinpawelek9066]

is that a lizard at 14.33? left top corner walking on the wall

[@NEPHILIM_0]

Most likely its a house gecko

[@richardyang5743]

Have you ever attempted making mantou using tangzhong? I was wondering if it would have a positive or negative impact in this case. A quick google search shows only a few results using pregelatinized starch. Would it perhaps make it too gummy? I guess it would definitely prevent staling issues, but that's not much of a concern if reheating with steam maybe? I was also wondering if replacing the oil with butter at such a low percentage would leave a peculiar taste. In terms of crumb, I would think that using a solid fat produces better results, but hydrogenated oils (something like shortening) would definitely be not worth it IMO. Best choice I can think of is lard or butter (and I don't have lard on hand).