Pumpkin Pie Baozi : 24 Steps (with Pictures)

Hi everyone! It has been a while since I posted an Instructable; working mom life has been keeping my hands full. Anywho, I am so stocked to be sharing a new post for today. It's officially the first day of November, and the holidays are right round the corner so you will be seeing alot of thanksgiving ingredients abound in the store. One of which, Libby's pumpkin puree will definitely be the #1 ingredient next to yams, brown sugar, and other baking needs. It's fall, it's time for warm, spicey, comforting food from savory to sweets.

That's why for today, I am going to share a recipe for the Pumpkin Pie Baozi. This is a cross between our classic Cantonese style custard steamed buns with America's all-time favorite Thanksgiving dessert, Pumpkin Pie.

The Cantonese-style custard steamed bun consist of your fluffy white bun and the interior is made up of a custard. The custard is soft and creamy but not oozy. This is not the oozy-gooey variation, tho I can make a post if you request for it. The CCB has a little more structural integrity, it's creamy but it's not going to flow out, so it is an easier recipe for a beginner and intermediate homecooks.

The only difference is that instead of the usual vanilla-eggy flavor, we are going to incorporate pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices for this recipe. You can omit the spice totally and have a simple sweet vanilla pumpkin flavor or you can go heavy on the spices if you are a fan of deep warm flavors.

This recipe is super fun, so let's get to it!

Step 1:

Picture1 (left): Here is the sliced cross section for Variation #1. Variation 1 (Cantonese-style) has a filling that is creamy but is denser. It's firm enough to slice even when it's hot.

Picture 2 (right) is our Lava Variation. Proceed to Step 18, for Variation #2. This variation has a molten center, it's creamy but not soupy.

Step 2: Making the Filling

Ingredients (for the filling):

1/8cup+2 tablespoon of milk (slightly warm)

4 and 1/2 tablespoon of unsalted butter (melted and cooled)

3 egg yolks

1 egg

1/2 cup of white granulated sugar

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree

1/4 cup of milk powder

1/4 cup of all purpose flour

A pinch of salt

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin spice* (*optional, or vary by taste)

Red & Yellow food coloring* (*optional)

Directions:

In a medium mixing bowl, place your egg yolks, egg and sugar together and whisk till it's creamy. Add in your pumpkin puree, vanilla, salt, melted butter and continue whisking.

Step 3:

Next, add in your milk powder and flour and whisk. The mixture will be thick, add in your warm milk and continue whisking until smooth.

If you wish, you can add red and yellow food coloring to make the color a more deeper orange. I personally added it, because personally I am not a fan of the pale orange color.

Step 4: Cook the Pumpkin Custard

Transfer the pumpkin mixture into a medium size pot.

Place the pot onto your stove and start the heat to medium. At first, it will look like nothing is happening, but continue whisking as the pot heats up. Make sure when you are whisking, scrape the bottom of the pot to ensure nothing gets settled under and burn. (If you are using a non-stick teflon pot, make sure to sure a silicon whisk!)

Continue whisking as it starts to heat and steamed. Never stop whisking!

As it cooks, you will notice it will get thicker nearer to the bottom. Whisk continuously until homogeneous.

If you feel that the pot is getting way too hot, lower the heat to low-warm.

Continue cooking until the mixture is thick and slowly starts to peel itself away from the bottom and you can see the bottom of your pot.

When that happens, remove from the stove and add in your pumpkin spice, as little or generous as you like.I personally just use cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg because my kids don't like cloves.

Step 5: Cool & Set Aside

Place the thick pumpkin custard in a heatproof container. Your custard should be thick enough that the globs of custard is able to not flow. Flatten and place a saran wrap over the custard, make sure to touch the surface so it does not form a skin or dries out the surface.

Set aside to cool and place in the refrigerator to firm completely.

You CAN make the filling about 2 days prior as long it stays in the refrigerator.

Question: Can you FREEZE it?

Yes and No.

Yes- If you just want to rapid cool if your are making the filling and dough on the same day, to consume on the same day. You can place the custard in the freezer to cool, BUT DO NOT FREEZE.

But NO- If you are thinking of making ahead and freezing the custard. Freezing custard will make it cuddley. The fats, the egg and the liquid will start to separate once thawed, and it becomes a weird, unsalvageable scrambled mess.

Step 6: Make the Dough

Ingredients (for the dough):

400g (1 package) (Banh Bao Flour Mix)

1 packet of Fast-Rising Yeast

1/2 cup of white granulated sugar

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree

1 cup of warm milk (you may need more or less depending on your altitude)

Saffron/ Orange Food coloring* (*optional)

Directions:

Cut the Bao flour package open and discard the yeast inside the package. The yeast is usually very old and are dead, do not use.

Instead, use your most-recent yeast bought from the store but you still need to check if it's alive and active. Place your yeast in a bowl or a cup and add in your warm milk and a sprinkling of flour for the yeast to eat. Let it sit for 10 minutes until frothy. If it's looks the same for the past 10 minutes, and is not bubbling, discard immediately, the yeast is dead. Replace with new package of yeast.

If the yeast is bubbling, than things are going well.

In your stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, pour in your flour, sugar, pumpkin puree, milk and yeast mixture.

Mix and knead. if you feel that the dough is too dry, add a little milk a tablespoon. Do not make your dough to wet and sticky.

If it's too dry, add a little flour.

Step 7: The Dough

Your dough should be soft, smooth and supple and NOT STICKY.

Place your dough in a clean bowl and cover with saran wrap. Place in a dark warm proofing cabinet or dark OFF oven.

Let it proof for an hour to an hour and thirty minutes till double in size.

Step 8: Continue With the Filling

Once the filling is completely chilled and set, we can work with it.

The filling will make 8 tennis-size balls.

Divide the batter into 8 by slicing into them.

They will still be sticky but it shouldn't be runny.

Dampen the palm of hands with a little water and scoop a section. Place it in your hands and gently roll it into a ball.

Place it unto a plate lined with wax paper and set aside. Repeat till complete.

Place a saran wrap over the plate and continue refrigerating until ready to use.

Question: What if it's still too soft to work with or runny?

If it's runny, that means you didn't cook it long enough to thicken it. You can place it back in a pot, and cook it again till very thick and pasty. Repeat chilling process.

If it's soft and unworkable but not runny, perhaps refrigerate it a little longer. If it persist to be too soft, cook it again till thick and pasty.

Step 9: Time to Make the Bao

Once the dough has risen and doubled in size, punch the air out and turn it over to a working surface. Knead a little to press any gas and air bubbles out.

This dough recipe will produce a DOZEN baos.

Divide the dough into 12 equal size pieces.

Set aside and place a saran wrap or a damp clean kitchen towel to prevent drying and skinning.

Before you start, also ensure you have PARCHMENT PAPER.

Cut 12 equal size square parchment paper pieces. This will prevent your bao from sticking to the pan and prevents the dough from adsorbing moisture from the bottom.

Step 10: Step by Step

Place one dough ball unto a floured working area. The flour will prevent the ball from sticking.

Roll and flatten the ball into a flat circle about 6 inches in diameter.

Place one filling in the center.

Crimp and seal the dough tightly.

Place the crimp side down and gently roll it to form a perfectly smooth ball.

Using a paring knife, gently score the lobes of the pumpkin but do not tear into the filling. Doing so, will cause a huge rip when cooking.

Place the bao over a parchment square.

Step 11:

Place the bao in a turn-off oven to prevent any drafts and air to dry out the surface of the dough. Repeat the process for all.

Proof for 60 minutes till it enlarge a little.

While proofing, heat up a pot of boiling water.

When you are ready to cook, place the baos into your steamer basket.

Step 12: Add Stems (Optional)

If you like, you can add some cloves to dress the pumpkins with stems. Tho, if you do add them, they will leave a slight clovey smell unto your dough.

Press the cloves into the dough, BUT DO NOT puncture all the way down into the filling.

Step 13: Prep the Basket

If you are using a metal basket with a glass lid, place a plain paper towel in between each basket and lid, to prevent condensation from falling into the dough. I placed a white clean cloth on the lid too for extra measure.

If you are using a bamboo basket, you can skip this step as the bamboo adsorbs moisture well.

Step 14: Cooking Time

Place the basket over the pot of boiling water filled with steam.

Be careful to ensure no fabric is touching any part of the stove to prevent fires.

Let it cook ON HIGH for a total of 15 Minutes.

Once the 15 minutes is over, turn off your stove and let it steam for another 3-5 minutes with the residual heat before opening the lid.

Step 15: Serve Hot

And there you go guys! I usually love to tear and take a big bite when it's still hot from the steamer (it's dangerous, please don't do what I do, I am not liable for any mouth burns and injuries). But to show you the inside, I slice the bao with a serrated knife (how sacrilegious..) to show you a cross section. As you can see, the filling is still so creamy but it stays in place!

Step 16:

Try my recipe out guys, you will not regret it! Good luck and thank you!

Step 17:

Step 18: VARIATION 2 (for the Lava Lovers)

Okay everyone, so I had decided to attempt a Lava variation for this Pumpkin Baozi. This variation will yield a flowy pudding-like center. It is not super runny nor soupy, but it is definitely looser than variation 1. But I do have to warn, because of it's looser consistency, do take caution when eating while it's hot. My husband prefer this variation because he generally likes lava cakes and anything that has a gooey center.

And for this recipe, I'm just going to stick to the regular white bun recipe, just to to show the contrast of the filling.

So let's get to it!

Step 19: Lava Pumpkin Filling Recipe

Ingredients (for the filling):

1/8cup+2 tablespoon of milk (slightly warm)

1 stick of unsalted butter (or 8 tablespoon/112g) (melted and cooled)

3 egg yolks

1 egg

1/2 cup of white granulated sugar

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree

1/4 cup of milk powder

1/4 cup of all purpose flour

A pinch of salt

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin spice* (*optional, or vary by taste)

Red & Yellow food coloring* (*optional)

Directions:

Repeat the same cooking process as variation #1.

The directions are completed the same as variation with only 2 differences.

The first difference is, we are using a whole stick of butter.
The second difference is, when we are cooking the custard, we are not cooking it till it gets super thick and pasty, this time we are just cooking it till it's thick but has a lava consistency. The high fat content of this recipe will not thicken the custard entirely.

The high fat content means, it won't thicken as much while it's cooking, but it will harden firmer in the fridge because the fat solidifies into a block.

Step 20:

The custard mixture will first look very loose and watery. it may be even be clumpy if your melted butter siezes up because your milk or eggs might be too cold. But if it's clumpy, that's alright, the butter clumps will eventually melt as the mixture heats up.

Continue whisking while you're cooking, ensuring to scrape the bottom constantly.

Whisk until the filling is thick and lava like.

Once thicken, remove from heat.

In your heatproof container, lined the bottom with saran wrap.

Then pour your thicken custard into it, and lay another saran wrapper touching it's surface to prevent skinning.

Chill until harden and solidify.

Step 21: Making the Plain Dough

Ensure to activate your fresh packet of yeast. I personally like to feed my yeast with a pinch of sugar and flour to really make them go into a bubbly frenzy.

400g (1 package) (Banh Bao Flour Mix)

1 packet of Fast-Rising Yeast

1/2 cup of white granulated sugar

1/2-3/4 cup of warm milk (you may need more or less depending on your altitude)

Directions:

Cut the Bao flour package open and discard the yeast inside the package. The yeast is usually very old and are dead, do not use.

If the yeast is bubbling, than things are going well.

In your stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, pour in your flour, sugar, milk and yeast mixture.

Mix and knead. if you feel that the dough is too dry, add a little milk a tablespoon. Do not make your dough to wet and sticky.

If it's too dry, add a little flour.

Step 22: Roll the Filling

Once the filling is harden, remove from the refrigerator.

Flip the container over, and pull on the plastic, it should easily plop out. Remove the plastic wrap.

As you an see, this filling is definitely much firmer compared to variation 1, this is because the ratio of butter is higher, so when the melted butter solidify it becomes a hard block.

Using a warm knife, slice into 8 equal pieces.

The custard is firm enough to hold and roll, but still has a very creamy texture*. (see picture 5)

Roll all 8 pieces. (Dampen hands if the custards starts to stick to your palm)

Set aside.

BAKER'S TIP

*This will make a very good reverse pumpkin pie recipe. If you are not a fan of making pumpkin pie because you don't like juggling custard into a hot oven and having to second guess if the pie is underbaked or overbaked; this is a recipe you can trust. Just blind baked your crust fully (store-bought or homemade) and once baked, pour your cook custard and let it set overnight. It slices cleanly, it's easy to lift from the pan, filling is firm but has a creamy rich mouthfeel)