Purple Sweet Potato Rose Mantou

 

How time flies!!!!

I’ve just noticed that I’ve not been posting anything here for over a couple of months.

Sorry for slacking….

No, I have not abandon this blog…

I have been so busy lately, that I just could not find the time to blog here.

Anyway, I made this a couple of weeks ago, took pictures to post here and totally forgot about it till today.

No… this is not clay art or play dough… this is edible mantou!!

I found this interesting recipe while blog hopping one morning. Thanks to Wendyywy of Table for 2….or more, I now can have colorful and pretty mantou (without artificial coloring).

I love playing with my dough … so this is just the perfect recipe for me.

Purple Sweet Potato Rose Mantou (by Wendyywy)

Ingredients :

250gm steamed purple sweet potato (I skinned and cut them into cubes and microwaves for 3 mins on High… instead of steaming)
200gm water
500gm pau flour ( I used Blue Key Pau Flour)
1 tsp baking powder
100gm sugar
50gm shortening/Crisco ( I substitute with 50ml Corn Oil as I do not have shortening)
1/4 tsp salt
11 gm instant yeast

Method :
1. Mash sweet potato, or blitz sweet potato with almost all the water to get a fine paste. Purple varieties tend to be firmer than orange ones.
2. With balance of water, mix with yeast.
3. Combine everything except shortening( or Oil) and mix to form a dough.
4. Put in shortening (or Oil) and knead until dough is smooth. Add slightly more flour if dough is way too sticky to handle. If the dough is sticky but can retain its form, like not slacking down, just continue to knead, the gluten just hasn’t form, there’s no need to add extra flour.
5. Cover and let dough proof until double, about 1 hour.
6. Punch down dough and knead for 1-2 minutes.
7. Divide dough into into 2 and shape the dough as follows :

Rose Shaped Buns.(pictorial instruction here)
1. Make small dough balls of 15gm each.
2. Flatten each ball and roll out flat.
3. With fingers, press the sides of the circle to make them flatter and to create ripples (uneveness) .
4. Arrange 6 pieces of flattened dough, half stacking on top of each other.
5. Start rolling from the first piece on the bottom.
6. With a chopstick, saw the roll, it will roll while you saw, creating a fatter center than the sides. Eventually it will break into 2.
7. Place rose buds upright on a piece of paper.
8. Let buns rise to double (it will take about 45 mins) and steam on high heat for 12 minutes.

Ain’t they pretty… proving (and blooming) for almost 45 minutes.

 

Straight out from the steamer… so pretty.. love the smell of the sweet potato.

The 1st time I made them, I had my in-laws over for a family gathering. Received lots of compliments and the roses were wiped out within minutes. I made them again a week later so that I could share my parents and my family.

A lot of time is spent in forming the rose buds. If you do not have the patience to do so, just form them into small balls and prove & steam. :D