If you've ever had Chinese dim sum or most Asian foods, chances are you've heard of/tried steamed buns before. In Japan, these are often called "nikuman", and they are pretty common in supermarkets, department store food halls, and even convenience stores. My mom had heard about using Pillsbury biscuit dough - yup, those blue tubes - to make these, and we just had to try it out for ourselves to see if it really worked.
We made a basic pork dumpling filling, flattened out the biscuit rounds, and wrapped a little bit of the filling into each round. We then pinched the top of each bun tightly, making sure that there weren't any holes. Due to the steaming process, if there are any openings in the buns, they could explode, haha. We steamed them in a covered pot for about 10 minutes or so...
Turns out - this method totally works! While the buns themselves turned out smaller than most nikumans, the consistency and taste were pretty much spot on. Once steamed, the dough doesn't taste anything like biscuits, and they have a soft texture throughout.
Ok, so they aren't the prettiest things to look at, but they tasted great! I would highly recommend getting the basic biscuit tubes, and not the "extra butter/flaky/etc." variations- I'm not sure they would work out as well, texture and taste-wise. Another option is to make plain steamed buns like the ones on the Pillsbury site, using the same method! I have to say I was v. skeptical of this trick at first, but I'm really glad that we tried it out!
I want to make these with you haha
ReplyDeletelooks good!
ReplyDelete@Ashley: Haha! :o)
ReplyDelete@KandS: Thank you!