We made some steamed buns/mantao together this weekend. Kids just watched My Neighbor Totoro recently and since the color involved looks quite simple so we went ahead with this character bun 😅

Not perfectly shaped but not so bad for our first try 😜 and kid enjoyed the session a lot!

Recipe adapted from this blog :

http://lovingcreations4u.blogspot.com/2018/03/smooth-single-proofing-cute-mantou.html

Ingredients (makes 10 totoro ) :

160g cold unsweetened soy milk @nutrisoysingapore
2g ( 1/2tsp ) instant yeast
30g caster sugar
300g hongkong flour
7g olive oil
Charcoal powder
Matcha powder
A tablespoon of unsweetened soy milk for assembling the parts.

Steps:

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix cold soy milk, instant yeast and caster sugar.
2. Add flour and olive oil to the yeast mixture. Mix with a spatula until all liquid is absorbed into flour. Roll out and knead the dough on a pastry mat. Knead for about 10 minutes till getting a smooth dough.
3. Portioned the dough for different colors Total about 500g dough : Grey- 400g (charcoal powder), White – 61g (plain dough), Green – 16g (matcha powder), Black – 21g (charcoal powder).
4. Knead the dough with the colored powders. Remember to keep the unused dough covered when not working on it. Have to work quite fast to avoid dough rising up too fast!
5. Divide the grey into 10 pcs of 38g for Totoro body and 20 pcs of 1g for ears and arms. Divide white dough to 10 pieces of 3g to 5g for the tummy and use the rest to make 10 pairs of white eye balls. (We didn’t finish all the white so we made a white totoro 😅) divide the green to 10 pcs for the leaves. Divide the blacks dough for the eyes , nose , whiskers and patterns on tummy (we also have leftover black dough for a soot spirit and some black bows)
6. Assemble the Totoro! Sticking the parts together with a little soymilk.
7. Proof the shaped buns on the steamer racks for 30mins. (As we spent quite a long time doing the different parts, our dough was rising too quickly. So we only proof for 15 mins)
8. Steam the buns for 20 mins.