How To Make This Fried Mantou Recipe From Scratch

Did you Google fried mantou recipe only to find the instructions to be, “Buy ready-made frozen mantou buns and deep fry them,”? Yeah, me too. That is why I made this fried mantou recipe for you. It will walk you through every step (pictures included) so you can make mantou buns from scratch at home.

Mantou buns are soft steamed or fried buns that are light and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. They’re absolutely versatile and make for an amazing dessert dish or accompaniment to a savory dish like sweet chili crab or this turmeric low FODMAP shrimp stir fry.

They sound tempting, don’t they? Besides the actual fried mantou recipe, we’ll also be covering a few of the basics like:

Every good story begins with an origin story and these fluffy little buns are no different. For those of you who are not too familiar with mantou buns, let me give you a brief introduction in the first part of our post, “what are mantou buns?” 

What Are Mantou Buns?

Mantou or 馒头 in simplified Chinese is a white steamed (and occasionally fried) soft bun that originated from China. Mantou’s are made from the same dough used to make baozi or bao. The difference is that bao buns are a filled bread whereas mantou’s have no filling.

Growing up in Malaysia, people often called this roti mantou which basically means mantou bread. 

Now, onto that origin story I promised you earlier on. Wikipedia has an interesting folklore tale about mantou bun origins that include severed heads, soldiers, river crossings, kings, and appeasing some sort of river God. 

That all sounds fine and dandy but I think I’ll stick to the basics in this post. Mantou buns are easy to make but sometimes the ingredients are not readily available (if you live in a European country or in the states).

In the next section, we’ll talk about the original recipe and find accessible alternatives.

The Original Recipe

Mantou buns are often made with special Chinese white bread flour. I can get a hold of this at my local pan-Asian grocery store but sometimes, I can’t be bothered to get on my bike and cycle there. 

A good replacement for bleached white Chinese bread flour is cake flour mixed with some wheat or potato starch or cornstarch. Okay, I know that doesn’t sound like a walk in the park either. Fancy flours aside, I’m here to show you that you can make this recipe with all-purpose flour and it’ll come out just as delicious. 

Because I am lactose intolerant, this mantou bun recipe is made with water and oil but some recipes will call for milk powder or cold milk in the dough. I wanted to keep this recipe vegan and accessible because not everyone has skim milk powder on hand.

In my opinion, the best mantou recipe is one that can be made lickety-split with ingredients that are easy to find. Now that you know a little bit about these buns, let’s talk about serving options.

What To Serve With Fried Mantou Buns

You want to make mantou buns but you don’t know what to serve them with? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. 

In Malaysia, they are commonly served alongside dishes like sweet chili crab and other saucy seafood dishes to soak up all the delicious goodness. But why stop there? Mantou buns can be cut in half and filled like a sandwich too.

If you have more of a sweet tooth, you can also serve them as a dessert. You can find mantou buns dipped in sweet condensed milk. I recommend cutting them down the middle and stuffing the bread with coconut and ube ice cream. You have not lived until you’ve had a mantou bun filled with ice cream.

Mantou buns can be steamed or deep-fried but it’s 2022! And if you want to have fried food without the oil, that is entirely possible. Simply switch out the gallons of oil for an air fryer and voila. Healthy ‘fried’ mantou buns. 

If this is something you’re interested in then hop on to the next section with me and we’ll cover air frying mantou buns.

Deep Frying & Air Frying

Thanks to the advancements of technology we can now fry anything without actually deep frying it in vats of oil. If you want to make this deep fried mantou recipe but you’re not keen on the amount of oil needed for it, that’s a-okay.

These mantou buns can also be air fried. Huzzah! Air frying the mantou’s will cut down significant calories (if you’re counting that is), remove any possibility of oil splatter and save you some money on oil. 

To make this mantou recipe in an air fryer, follow the instructions until the point where the dough is portioned and cut. Next, place the portioned dough onto baking sheets and steam them as directed. After steaming them, brush the mantou buns with some oil or melted butter. The buns are ready to be air-fried for 5-8 minutes at 180c or 350f until golden brown. 

I love making mantou buns but sometimes I end up making one too many. Pfft, who am I kidding? There’s never enough mantou buns to go around and I never have leftovers. But if you have extra or want to make them ahead, here’s how you do that.

How To Make Ahead

What I love about these versatile buns is that they can be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer. 

Allow them to cool completely after you’ve steamed them for 12 minutes. The cooled mantou buns should be wrapped individually in parchment paper or cling film. Store them in a ziplock bag or any freezer bag that will keep the air out.

When you want to have some buns, you can steam them for 3-5 minutes. If you want them fried, you can cook them in an air fryer at 180c or 350f for 5-8 minutes or place them in hot oil until golden brown. No thawing necessary!

It’s finally time for the main event, how to make these fried mantou buns!

How To Make This Fried Mantou Recipe

Earlier on we spoke about substitutes, now, we’re going to go into equipment. Some mantou recipes will call for a stand mixer but I didn’t always have fancy baking equipment. So I wanted to show you it can absolutely be done and made this recipe without a stand mixer. If you have a stand mixer or bread mixer, feel free to use that. 

If you want to know how to make mantou buns, follow these simple steps:

1. Making the dough
2. Shaping and resting
3. Steaming
4. Frying

Let’s get started with the dough and move our way through the list.

Making The Dough

This dough is very easy to make and comes together after 3-5 minutes of kneading. Start by sifting all of your dry ingredients to remove any lumps. Add all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and make a well in the center. Gradually pour in the wet mixture and move in a circular motion, pulling in the flour as you mix.

Dump the dough onto a floured surface when it roughly comes together. Start kneading the dough until the surface is smooth like in the fourth picture. This took me about 3 minutes but it can take anywhere from 3-5 minutes in my experience. After that, set the dough aside and prep your parchment paper. 

Cut parchment or baking paper into little squares like so:

The mantou buns will be resting on these little squares. Set them aside and let’s move on to the next step: shaping the dough and allowing it to rest.

Shaping And Resting

Mantou buns have a distinct oblong shape and subtle spiralized motif. It is not decorative and helps achieve the light and fluffy texture we’re after. Take your dough and roll it out flat (about 1cm or 0.4 inches). Fold the corners into the middle and roll it out again to the same thickness earlier.

After this, we’re going to start shaping the dough. To help everything stay sealed, flatten one end of the dough with your thumb. Press down onto the dough lightly to make one end thinner than the other. Starting with the thicker end, roll the dough into a log.

Pinch the edges together and roll this log gently to seal it. Now we can begin cutting. Cut the dough in half. You can remove the ends if you want but they are edible and delicious, they just look a little funny. I’ll show you a comparison in the steaming section. 

Portion out the dough by dividing the log into sections like so.

Set each piece of dough on parchment paper and let the dough rest in the steamer for 20 minutes.

In winter, this means covering the steamer in a damp towel and setting it next to the radiator.

Here you can see my mantou buns nestled next to the radiator, protected by a damp cloth, and hiding from the Dutch winter cold.

Steaming

After the dough has rested for 20 minutes, we can now steam them! They only need to be steamed for 12 minutes and then left to cool for a minute or two before frying. Remember those wonky ends I was talking about? Here’s what they look like when they’re steamed. 

Now, you have a lot of mantou bread that is ready to be served. But if you really want to take it to the next level, you can turn your steamed mantous into fried mantou buns in a few minutes with the next step.

Frying

Once the mantou buns are cool enough to handle, heat up a small saucepan with enough oil and wait for it to come to temperature. Place your steamed buns into the hot oil and fry on each side until golden brown.

When they’re done frying, set them on kitchen paper to remove excess oil. And folks, you will have a plate of mantou bun fried to perfection -ready to serve and soak up any delicious sauce. 

This is a foolproof fried mantou recipe that you can depend on rain or shine. This recipe is actually a variation of my gua bao and bao bun recipe and has never failed me before. Even on cold winter days when I think the dough won’t make it, it proves me wrong.

Want to make this fried mantou recipe but not sure what to serve with it? Why not make these recipes? They’re perfect to dip your fresh fluffy mantou buns in:

Sweet & Sour Low FODMAP Shrimp Stir Fry

Malaysian Chili Crab

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