Autumnal Baked Sweet Potato Safflower Spiraled Knots Scallion Buns
One of our breakfast favorites and they are soft, airy, crunchy, and oh so delicious with a gorgeous aromatic spring onions flavor permeating every bite. With the added Suncore Foods® Autumnal Baked Sweet Potato Yam Powder, it elevated the experience of these freshly steamed Pan-Fried Autumnal Baked Sweet Potato Safflower Spiraled Knots Scallion Buns or Hua Juan (花卷) which also called Flower Buns. Golden crispy bottom, tasty scallion or spring onions filling between each layer of dough, blend of sesame seeds, and five spice powder — it’ll soon be your household staple too. Perfect to enjoy at breakfast, dinner or anytime of the day. This recipe is surprisingly simple to make and so, so scrumptious.
Ingredients
Neutral oil for cooking
Water for cooking
More chopped scallions and sesame seeds for topping
Dough Wet Ingredients:
1 cup warm soy milk or other non-dairy milk
1 tbsp sesame oil or neutral oil
Dough Dry Ingredients:
3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour
2 tsp instant dry yeast
1/4 cup (55g) sugar
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp Suncore Foods® Autumnal Baked Sweet Potato Yam Powder & safflower powder
Scallion & Sesame Filling:
2 cups (120g) chopped scallions
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder can be subbed with 1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1/3 cup neutral oil sizzling hot
1 tsp Suncore Foods® Autumnal Baked Sweet Potato Yam Powder & safflower powder
Directions
1. Toasting Sesame Seeds – Heat a pan. Once hot, add in the sesame seeds. Cook over medium heat until lightly brown. Keep moving around to evenly toast. Leave to cool and place in an airtight container for future use.
2. Preparing the Dough – You can watch the video below for a complete step-by-step on how to make these buns. In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients. Mix warm soy milk and oil. Pour it in the flour mixture while mixing. I used wooden chopsticks and a spatula to mix everything together. Keep mixing until a dough is formed. Shape the dough into a ball. You can use your hands! Knead for a few minutes, around 20-30 times. Brush the bowl with some oil then place in the dough. Cover it with a towel and let it rest in a warm place for at least 2 hours to let the dough rise.
3. Making the Filling – Place the scallions, salt, five spice powder, and sesame seeds in a bowl. Mix well. Heat the oil. I simply microwaved mine at high for around 2.5 minutes. Pour the hot oil in the scallion mixture. Mix well then set aside.
4. Shaping the Dough – Once the dough has risen, flour your work surface. Take the dough out of the bowl. Punch a hole in the center of the dough and stretch apart, to make a donut shape. Keep stretching. Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Each piece will be around 55 to 60 grams. Roll or shape each piece of dough into a ball. Cover them with a towel so they don’t dry out while your roll them piece-by-piece. To make a wrapper, press down on the ball of dough and lightly flatten it over the surface. Sprinkle a little flour on top and lightly coat your rolling pin with some flour as well. While using a rolling pin, roll out the dough by moving the pin forward and backward. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat the movement. Continue to roll out the dough until you have a wrapper that’s around 4 by 6.5″ inches in size.
5. Making the Buns – Get one wrapper. Vertically slice strips on it. Place some of the scallion and sesame filling. Grab both ends of the wrapper, pull, and then twist! Shape into a bun. See video above (or here) for a better idea. Tuck the ends of the wrapper to seal the bun.
6. Cooking the Buns – Heat a pan and prepare a lid (I used a non-stick pan), add in 1 tbsp of oil (for every 4 buns). When hot, add in the buns. Leave to cook over medium heat for 4-5 minutes until it has a golden brown crust.* Note: the number of buns per batch will depend on the size of your pan! Prepare the lid of your pan. Using the lid as protection, carefully pour 1/3 cup of water (around 1 tbsp for every bun) into the pan and then immediately cover to prevent it from splashing due to the heat. Leave to cook in the steam, until the water has evaporated. Take out the buns and repeat this step for the remaining ones. Enjoy while hot and really fluffy! Feel free to garnish with more scallions and sesame seeds.