Local name: 素菜包
White yeasted buns pleated by hand around a cabbage and mushroom filling, then cooked in a steamer basket.
Photo: J. Samuel Burner, CC BY 2.0
A centre thicker than the rim keeps the base from tearing under the weight of the filling. Opening the basket too soon collapses the buns, a temperature shock the still-hot dough cannot take.
An estimate computed from the recipe quantities and the USDA food composition database. Real values vary with the products used.
Salt draws the water out of the cabbage before it can come out inside the bun. A wet filling soaks the dough through the fifteen minutes of steaming and eventually blows out the base. Wring the cabbage in a cloth until nothing more comes, and do the same job on the mushrooms by driving off their liquid over high heat.
Yes, and it is the best way to plan ahead. Freeze them raw once shaped, spaced apart on a tray, then bag them once solid. They go straight into the steamer without thawing, needing about five extra minutes. Already-cooked baozi also reheat in the steamer, never in water.
Usually because the water was too hot and killed the yeast: it should feel lukewarm on your finger, never hot. The other common omission is the second twenty-minute rise in the cold steamer basket, which gives volume back to dough that has been knocked down and shaped.
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