Traditional Chinese Steamed Sweet Potato Milk Buns (Mantou) Recipe

Traditional Chinese steamed milk buns or mantou (馒头) is one of the most popular steamed bun originating from China.

It is a yeast-based Chinese steamed bun made of yeast, flour, milk, and sugar but I always like to add sweet potatoes to get extra soft and fluffy steamed milk buns.

Good homemade mantou have a slightly chewy texture and are not entirely smooth and uniform in size.

You can really see the difference between homemade mantou from those frozen stores bought ones. Freshly steamed mantou will fill your kitchen with wonderful bread-like aroma.

These Chinese steamed milk buns are extremely soft and fluffy especially when they are fresh off the steamer.

Plain mantou are traditionally eaten with a slice of meat or floss. Just slice them without cutting them entirely through (like a hot dog bun), place your favourite filling and it easily makes a delicious meal.

I usually make sweet potato spiral mantou to be served at tea break. These are eaten on its own without the need for any filling because sweet potato brings it a notch higher than just a plain bun.

This steamed sweet potato milk bun is absolutely delicious and is a hit at home. I’m going to share my recipe and tutorial so that you can learn the simple step-by-step to make sweet potato mantou from scratch.

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Homemade Steamed Sweet Potato Milk Buns (Mantou)

Course Snack

Cuisine Chinese

Prep Time 20 minutes

Proofing 1 hour 15 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 35 minutes

Author Merryn Tan

Equipment

• Steamer

Ingredients

Sweet Potato Dough

• 100 g sweet potato steamed and mashed
• 100 g plain flour
• 25 g sugar
• 50 g warm milk
• 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp oil

White dough

• 150 g plain flour
• 80 g warm milk
• 25 g sugar
• 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp oil

Instructions

Sweet Potato Dough

• Steam sweet potato until soft.
  
• Dissolve sugar in warm milk.
• Add instant yeast into the milk. When I first started making mantou, I used 1/2 tablespoon instant yeast as how I was taught. But after making countless times, I realised 1/2 teaspoon is enough.

  In my earlier videos, you'll see me adding the yeast last but now I learn the trick is to add the yeast into warm milk and sugar mixture first before adding into the mashed sweet potato.
• Mash the steamed sweet potato.
• Combine milk + sugar + yeast mixture with the mashed sweet potato.
  
• Add flour.
  
• Lastly add oil and knead into a dough.
  
• Close and let it proof for 60 minutes.
  

White Dough

• Dissolve sugar in warm milk.
• Add instant yeast into the milk.
• Pour the milk mixture into the bowl of flour.
• Add oil and knead into a dough.
• Cover and let it proof for 60 minutes.

After 60 minutes proofing

• Use a rolling pin to roll and flatten the sweet potato dough.
  
• Do the same with the white dough.
• Brush water all over the surface of the white dough.
  
• Transfer the sweet potato dough onto the white dough.
  
• Roll the dough and cut into desired size.
  
• Cover with a cloth and let rest for 15 minutes.
• Transfer into a steamer and steam for 10 to 15 minutes in medium heat.
• Serve warm.

The above recipe is for a basic sweet potato spiral mantou.

Once you have mastered how to make sweet potato steamed milk bun, you can add your favourite flavours such as chocolate or infuse pandan into it.

BASIC SWEET POTATO SPIRAL MANTOU

SWEET POTATO CHOCOLATE MANTOU

PANDAN SWEET POTATO MANTOU