Ma Lai Cake Brown Sugar Mantou(馬拉糕紅糖饅頭)

Redefining Recipes for the Digital Age

Ingredients

55 g brown sugar
60 g hot water
65 g cold water
1.5 g instant yeast
65 g tapioca starch
80 g flour
1.5 g baking powder
8 g oil
180 g flour
1.5 g instant yeast
10 g sugar
90 g water
180 g flour
1.5 g instant yeast
40 g brown sugar
82 g warm water

Steps

Ma Lai Cake
Start by making the Ma Lai Cake. Melt the brown sugar in hot water, followed by cold water
After that, add yeast, tapioca starch and flour respectively
Mix well until you get a smooth consistency with no granulates
Set aside and let it ferment until it doubles in size
Mantou dough
To make the plain dough, add yeast, sugar and water first, then followed by flour. Knead until everything is well combined. The dough doesn’t have to be smooth
Wrap the dough in cling film and set aside
As for the brown dough, firstly melt the brown sugar in the warm water and let cool down
Add yeast and flour afterwards
Knead to form a dough
Cover with cling film while we roll out the white dough
Construction
Roll out the white dough flat and long as shown
Likewise, do the same to the brown dough, try to make it the same size as the white dough
Lay the brown dough on top of the white dough and stitch their edges
Roll out the dough to an even flatter sheet
Cut the dough in even halves
And stack them above each other. You can manually stretch out the dough to make the two layers same size
Turn it 90 degrees and roll it out to a long flat sheet once again
Repeat the above steps: cut the dough in half
Stack above one another
Roll out the dough to about 33cm long
This time, cut the dough into 11 strips of 3cm thick
And roll the strips to a circular shape on a parchment paper. Make sure you have the smoother/prettier surface facing outwards. Stitch the connection ends tightly with a bit of water
Let the dough proof for about 30 minutes in a warm area
The dough should grow in size once done
The Ma Lai cake batter should be done fermenting too
Add baking powder and oil
Mix until well incorporated
Carefully transfer the Ma Lai cake batter into the middle of the dough
Only fill to about 90% full
Steam over boiling water. Let steam for 18 minutes in medium heat, after that, turn the heat off and let sit for another 3 minutes
After that, it’s done!
Enjoy while hot!