Yummy and colorful Chinese steamed pumpkin buns.
I love to play with the dough when I started making basic Chinese steamed buns (Mantou) at home. At the very beginning, I use hand kneading and spent a quite long happy kitchen life with all kinds of dough balls. Earlier this year, I got a stand mixer as a birthday gift. From that time, I started a new period in which I made steamed stuff from starch at least twice a week.
Compared with soft and milky bread (like this one), the dough of steamed buns is much easier to make. They have a denser texture and plain taste. But we can always do some changes and make plain steamed buns colorful and interesting.
I have listed two ways of making a wonderful steamed pumpkin buns. You can make pure yellow pumpkin buns or make a swirl version mixing with a white dough. Pleaser weight the pumpkin cubes after peeling. As pumpkin contains a large amount of water, there is no need to add extra water in the dough.
To make pure pumpkin buns
- 250g pumpkin cubes
- 300g all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- pinch of salt
- 2-4 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoon instant yeast (1 and 1/2 teaspoon in summer)
Steps
Clean the pumpkin; remove the skin and the filling, cut into small cubes. Place all the cubes in a steamer.
steam for around 20 minutes until well softened. Then blend it until really smooth. Set aside to cool down to Luke warm.
In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer, add all-purpose flour, salt, sugar and yeast then pour in pumpkin puree.
Knead for 6-8 minutes until you get a smooth, elastic and soft dough. Transfer it to a bowl and cover with plastic wrapper until the dough is almost double in size.
Divide the dough to two halves. Shape one of the two halves into a long log.
Cut it into 8 small portions. Then repeat to finish the other half.
Set up the steamer by adding enough cold water to a large pot. Place the buns into a lined steamer and then count 15 minutes after the water boils. Wait for 3-5 minutes and lift the cover. Serve warm.
If you want to make the swirl version: make plain white dough according to Chinese steamed buns. We need half of the pumpkin dough.
Re-knead the two dough balls until smooth again and roll each one out to a large rectangle (around 20cm long and 9cm wide). Lay the pumpkin wrapper over the white one and then roll the layered wrapper up tightly.
Divide the long log into two shorter ones. Take one out and slightly press the log to make it longer and tighter when rolling on the operating board.With a sharp knife, discard the two ends and cut the remaining part into 6 equal portions. Repeat to finish all.
Set up the steamer by adding enough cold water to a large pot. Place the buns into a lined steamer and then count 15 minutes after the water boils. Wait for 3-5 minutes and lift the cover. Serve warm.
Steamed Pumpkin Buns (Two Ways)
Ingredients
Pumpkin dough
- 250 g pumpkin cubes
- 300 g all purpose flour , plus more for dusting
- a small pinch of salt
- 2-4 tbsp. sugar
- 2.5 tsp. instant yeast , 2 tsp. in summer
White dough
- 150 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. instant yeast
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 75 g water , or 10ml more if needed
- a tiny pinch of salt , around 1.5% of the dough
Instructions
Pure Pumpkin buns (I kept the other half for the second version)
- Clean the pumpkin; remove the skin and the filling, cut into small cubes.
- Place all the cubes in a steamer and steam for around 20 minutes until well softened. Then blend it until really smooth. Set aside to cool down to Luke warm.
- In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer, add all-purpose flour, salt, sugar and yeast then pour in pumpkin puree. Knead for 6-8 minutes until you get a smooth, elastic and soft dough. Transfer it to a bowl and cover with plastic wrapper until the dough is almost double in size.
- Dust your operating board with a thin layer of flour and re-knead the dough until the surface becomes smooth again.
- Divide the dough to two halves. Shape one of the two halves into a long log. Cut it into 8 small portions. Then repeat to finish the other half.
- Set up the steamer by adding enough cold water to a large pot. Place the buns into a lined steamer and then count 15 minutes after the water boils. Wait for 3-5 minutes and lift the cover. Serve warm.
Swirl version (white dough+ half pumpkin dough)
- Make plain white dough according to Chinese steamed buns. We need half of the pumpkin dough.
- Re-knead the two dough balls until smooth again and roll each one out to a large rectangle (around 20cm long and 9cm wide). Lay the pumpkin wrapper over the white one and then roll the layered wrapper up tightly. Divide the long log into two shorter ones. Take one out and slightly press the log to make it longer and tighter when rolling on the operating board.
- With a sharp knife, discard the two ends and cut the remaining part into 6 equal portions. Repeat to finish all.
- Set up the steamer by adding enough cold water to a large pot. Place the buns into a lined steamer and then count 15 minutes after the water boils. Wait for 3-5 minutes and lift the cover. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
This sounds great, I loved buying pumpkin flavour mantous in China and would love to make some myself. I’m wondering which type of pumpkin would commonly be used for these?
Julia,
I cannot give the exact type name of the pumpkin I use in the recipe. But it is quite big, with dark yellow color and quite sweet.
Can I substitute the pumpkin with sweet potato? If so how much?
Yes, you can use sweet potato as a substitute. But I do not know the exact amount currently since the water contained in the two ingredient are different.
Hi Elaine,
I’ve tried various Mantou recipes over the past year but I always end up to say yours are the best ones…
Thank your this great recipe, it works great for this season. (I know it is Mooncake time but I’m too scared of making them ^^ ) So I’ll try some pumping Mantous maybe even in shape of a pumpkin….
Is it possible to use Butternut Squash instead of pumpkin? (Just because that’s what I have mostly all the time here…
Happy Mid Autumn Festival to you!
Nicole
Nicole,
Thanks for such a lovely comment. And I a so sorry for the late reply. We had too many holidays in the past two weeks.
Butternut squash should work fine for this recipe. Go ahead and use them.
Hi Elaine, I was going to try your recipe today, but there must be a mistake for the white dough-150 g flour and 150 g water, the dough was so runny….. the pumpkin dough was perfect… could you help me out please… your buns are beautiful … thank you ?
Sorry Irena,
This is a mistake for sure. Add another 150g flour in to save the dough.
Hi Elaine, Thank you for your respond ?… yes I was adding more flour until I felt the dough was almost the same Than pumpkin one… So I made them last nite and they were lovely , I made them with lievito madre instead of yeast ☺️… I just need to work better with the steaming … All the best and Thank you ?♀️?
Hi,
The recipe only gives a weight for raw pumpkin but steaming the pumpkin adds moisture and weight. Do you know how many grams of actual puree is used in the dough? I have a lot of canned puree on hand and would like to use that up.
Thanks for the recipe!
Greg,
I am quite sorry that I can’t give the grams of the puree now. And in fact there are lots of variables. But you can adjust the dough by changing the amount of flour. Add flour and mix with chop stickers until there is no dry flour before kneading. Then add flour slightly until get a appropriate softness. If you ever make regular buns, the dough should be very similar.
Beautiful buns to look at and eat!
Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Buns can be quite creative with colors. Happy cooking!
What should I do if I want to freeze it?
Steam well, cool down and place in air-tight bag. Re-steam after freezing.
Hi Elaine,
I’ve tried your plain mantou recipe and it was so GOOD! Thank you for the great recipe and clear instructions.
I come across this pumpkin bun recipe and would like to give it a try. There are few question i would like to ask you as follow:
a) Do we need water in this recipe? Because i don’t see that we need it. But aren’t the instant yeast needed water for proofing before slowly added in the flour?
b) I see from the picture show above that you have combined pumpkin puree, yeast, salt, sugar and flour together in the mixing bowl and knead it.
c) As i understand from your plain mantou recipe is to avoid adding instant yeast with sugar and salt.
I would like to make pumpkin mantou only 🙂
Thank you.
Janice,
For your question,
a) The pumpkin puree has enough water for the dough. If you feel the dough is too dry, slightly add more water.
b) There are two types of yeast usually used to make steamed buns: instant yeast and dry yeast. If you are using dry yeast, activate them by placing them in warm water, in this recipe mix with puree (around 35 degree C) before mixing with the dough. But instant yeast can be added directly in the flour.
c) you should avoid adding instant yeast near sugar and salt. Although I place them together but in different locations. By the way, I am using high sugar tolerance instant. Make sure read the instruction on the bag of your instant.
Hi! Do you know if Japanese pumpkin (kabocha) will work with this recipe? It is the only pumpkin in season four us right now.
Japanese pumpkin works too, Ali. However you need to adjust to see whether extra water is needed.
If i cant take yeast or baking powder, any ingredient that i can replace?
No.