Healthy Old Dough Mantou 健康老面馒头

When I was in Shanghai , I frequently patronized XibeiYouMianCun 西贝莜面村, a stylish northwestern Chinese restaurant.  It serves healthy and delicious Chinese food ranges widely from soup Xiao Long Bao filled with mutton, to oat noodles with tomato sauce. There are also Mongolian beef which is very popular too, as well as steamed vegetarian dumplings to try out. I simply can't have enough of them. How I wish this restaurant open a branch in Singapore !

Sometimes, I try to mimic some of these traditional Chinese dishes at home. For example, steamed egg & chive dumplings, beef oat noodles and old dough mantou. So far, only the old dough mantou turns out quite well, thanks to the skill I learned from my mom many years ago.

What's so special of old dough mantou?  It's Chinese steamed bun made from naturally occurring airborne yeasts, rather than commercial yeast. Old dough mantou is known to be fluffy and nutritious  with distinct flavor due to the long fermentation process. The older the dough is, the better the texture and the flavor of the mantou.

How to make old dough? To start off, mixing flour and water with 40-50% hydration. Cover it and let it ferment at room temperature. It's ready to be used after a day or two depending on the weather. Thereafter, reserve one piece of dough after each mantou session , and you can have generations of old dough if you make mantou frequently. Old dough can be kept  in a container and reserved in refrigerator for 3-5 days. Each time, just take it out from refrigerator 30 minutes before use.

I made old dough mantou on weekly basis, and use it to prepare sandwich for breakfast. It is simple magic, a great way to start our day.

OLD DOUGH MANTOU

Ingredients:

• 4 cup plain flour
• 2 cup water
• 70 gram old dough

Directions：

1. Take old dough out of refrigerator and leave it in the open air for 30 mins until it becomes soft.  Add some water and mix coarsely.
2. Prepare the flour in a large bowl. Pour the the old dough mixture to the bowl with flour. Add water gradually,  mixing thoroughly after each addition.  
3. Knead the flour into smooth and soft dough. Cover and allow it to rise until doubled in volume. This process can be done by mixer.
4. Forcefully re-knead the dough, slightly dust the operating board and punch the air out. The surface of the dough needs to be smooth again.
5. Divide the dough into two halves and take one portion and re-knead again. To make smooth mantou, it is quite important to pinch all the air bubbles out of the dough. Cut a cross sections and see whether there are large bubbles inside. If yes, continue knead.
6. Cut the dough into 8 equal portions, and shape each portion into smooth ball (mantou)
7. Place mantou into a lined steamer, and then cover the lid and rest for 10 minutes or until the mantou becomes fluffy again.
8. Turn on the heat and steam for 30 minutes.  Leave the mantous for 6 minutes. This helps prevent excessive shrinking.
9. Open the lid and serve.