One of my all time favourite Chinese dishes is baozi, the stuffed and steamed dumplings served at pretty much any respectable dim sum parlour. The best baozi, by far, are stuffed with vegetables, and then dipped in chili sauce, a dash of soy, a hint of rice vinegar, and some soy sauce. I know lots of people like the pork buns, but I just don’t dig on them all that much. Vegetables are where it’s at, for me.

Alas, not living in the city anymore, access to baozi is limited. Sometimes my Chinese mother brings them back from trips, and it fills me with excitement, but the other night, I decided to try my hand at making my own. I discovered that it’s not only really easy to make baozi, it’s immensely satisfying. I was going to take pictures of the process, but I kind of forgot, and then it got dark. So, the accompanying photos are actually of some leftovers when I reheated them the next day.

You need to start by making dough:

Mix one half cup warm water with one packet of active dry yeast, and add two tablespoons of sugar. Allow the yeast to proof for 15 minutes or so.

When the yeast is nice and foamy, add a half teaspoon of salt and another cup of warm water, then whisk vigorously.

Add four cups of flour, one cup at a time. Stop if the dough starts to get really stiff; flour measurements are pretty much always guesswork when making bread.

Turn the dough out onto a floured counter, and knead it until it is smooth; around 20 minutes or so.

Lightly oil the dough with sesame oil, and put it in a glass bowl, covered with a damp cloth, to rise until doubled in size, which will take one to one and a half hours.

While the dough is rising, mix your filling. You can pretty much throw whatever you want in there; the baozi I made had shittake mushrooms, garlic, and ginger. I would definitely recommend using garlic and ginger in whatever filling you devise. You can also throw in stuff like chopped bok choy, carrots, water chestnuts, tofu, whatever. Sprinkle some sweet chili sauce, salt, sesame oil, and soy sauce over your filling. You can mix it up with stuff like black bean sauce too, if you’re feeling frisky.

After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured counter, compress it into a disc, and sprinkle one teaspoon of baking soda on top. Then, knead the dough until it pulls together in a cohesive ball again. Divide the ball into 12 chunks of dough, and turn each chunk into a disc with a puffy center. While you’re working, keep the dough covered with a damp cloth to keep it from drying out.

To make individual bao, cup a disc of dough in your hand and transfer a spoonful of filling. Use the fingers of your other hand to grip the edges and twist them around to make a neat little dough purse with a swirly top. As you finish each dumpling, set it on a small square of parchment paper. When all the dumplings are done, cover them and allow them to rise one hour.

(Obviously these have already been cooked, so they don’t look that doughy, but they look kind of neat, and you get the general idea. Also, note parchment paper, which keeps them from sticking to whatever surface you set them out to rise on.)

After the baozi have risen, steam them for 10-15 minutes, until done. Mine were pretty small, so they were done in more like 8 minutes, but cut one in the first batch open to test. You can eat the dumplings hot, or refrigerate and reheat them by steaming another day.

Here they are in the steamer before I stuck the lid on. The parchment paper is crucial, because it keeps them from sticking to the bottom, and each other, when they are crammed into the steamer. Do not leave out the parchment paper!

Now that I know how foolishly easy it is to make baozi, I’m so going to do it all the time.

I will also work on making them look a little prettier next time. But they tasted great.