As absurd as that headline may sound to you, it’s a question many home cooks ask. What is the Chinese secret to getting their buns so snowy white? It’s like how is Wonder Bread produced? In Asia, there’s the notion – just like there used to be in much of the developed western world – that white colored food reflects modern progress, purity, and civility. (If you want more on this, read Laura Shapiro’s Perfection Salad and note what she says about the use of white sauce on page 91.) I have done a fair number of experiments, as a previous post on The Trick to Making Bao described, but I’d not gotten down to the nitty gritty. Here they are:
Does adding vinegar to bao dough make it whiter? Sorry. No. I’ve read of that trick in a number of Chinese American recipes and have tried it out, but the vinegar doesn’t do anything to the color. I suspect that the deal with adding the vinegar has to do with developing gluten in the dough. In order to get white bao, many Chinese American cooks use low-gluten (low-protein), bleached cake flour for their bao dough; cake flour is milled from soft wheat and has 8 to 10% gluten/protein. To make up for the flour’s lack of gluten a touch of vinegar is added to result in more chewy dough.
Does putting vinegar in the water for steaming produce white bao? Nope. It just makes for a sour smelling kitchen. I never understood the rationale for this approach.
What can I do to produce snowy white bao? The answer is the flour. Below is a photo of three kinds of ultra-white wheat flour that I collected for the purposes of developing recipes for Asian Dumplings. From left to right: Taiwanese all-purpose flour by Sunlight Foods Corporation that I purchased from Ranch 99 market; legendary White Lily All-Purpose flour obtained from a trip to the American south; and Malaysian Red Man (Phoon Huat) Hong Kong Flour brought back from a trip to Singapore. Note how the Taiwanese and Malaysian flour have pictures of bao on their labels, as if to signal to consumers, “Buy me if you want white bao!”
These three are all specialty flours that most of us can’t just go down the street and get. But I tried them out and in testing the flour for making steamed Chinese bao, the Hong Kong Flour produced by Red Man yielded shockingly white results, followed by the Taiwanese flour. White Lily came in third. All three produced steamed bao dough that was whiter than supermarket Gold Medal all-purpose. (The top three bao in the photo at the top of The Trick to Making Bao post are of bao made from Red Man, White Lily, and Sunlight Foods flours respectively; Gold Medal are on the bottom row.) But frankly, the flavor of the dough was flat in comparison to the Gold Medal flour, which even in a bleached form, had more natural sweet wheat flavor.
Are all bao in Asia super white? Nope. In wealthy urban areas such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, the bao tend to be white. I’ve had outstanding not-snowy-white bao made from not-so-bleached flour in the countryside. However, even in Shanghai, I purchased nice tasting, not-so-white bao from a storefront bao vendor. You just have to look, but the real point here is that not all bao have to be super white to be delicious or authentic!
When to use bleached vs. unbleached flour? When flour is first milled, it’s naturally yellowish in color. Flour bleaching agents are added (such as peroxide and chlorine) to yield whiter color and finer grain. My thought is that some bleaching is fine but when you overdo it, you rob the flour of too much flavor. Note that for making tender sweets, such as cookies and cakes, I use bleached all-purpose flour. For savories, such as pot stickers or poached shuijiao dumplings, unbleached flour contributes a more toothsome texture and deep flavor.
How to choose all purpose flour for bao and other Asian dumplings? High-protein flour, such as King Arthur All-Purpose (flour stats sheet), do not work for most Asian foods because the gluten (protein) level is too high – around 11.7 percent. Doughy Asian foods are not of the rustic European kind; chewiness is obtained from the addition of starches or other techniques, not from the wheat flour alone. All-purpose flour with a moderate about of gluten — about 10.5 percent — works best for Asian dumplings. I spoke with a Gold Medal representative earlier this year and their all-purpose flour has a moderate gluten level.
Conclusion: For good flavor in Asian dumplings and pastries, flour from the supermarket work just fine. If you want bright white results, seek out specialty flour such as the ones pictured above.
Related links:
- My baking soda and bao mistake — see what happens when baking soda is used in the dough
White Lily flour is available by mail order from the internet – just Google it!
So *that’s* what Hong Kong flour is for. I’ve seen it in the local baking supply store here in Kuching and wondered what do they use it for. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
I think that, growing up with mostly white bao, I’m trained to think that this color and flavor are the norm. I just haven’t seen “natural” colored bao around, unless I’ve made it myself. And then the color throws me off, affecting my idea of the bao’s taste.
I should expand my horizons more.
In my experience super-white, Hong Kong-style bao wrappers are also ‘fluffier’ or lighter — not as much substance or chew. Andrea — Have you found the same relationship between wrapper color and texture? My personal preference is to be able to really taste the wheat and that the wrapper have a good sturdy mouthfeel (without being tough), so Hong Kong-style bao are not my favorite. Give me one of those peasant-y rustic bao anytime!
Plays with Food — Thanks for the tip on buying White Lily by mail order. A few years ago, the company stopped distributing west of the Mississippi.
Nate — You’re smack in the middle of all that crazy Asian flour. Enjoy the unnatural beauty of snowy white buns.
Robyn — Yep, the buns in Hong Kong are HK style — super white, fluffy and sweet. You barely need teeth to enjoy them. Kinda nice for older people or babies, huh? I’m like you — a peasant who wants a little chew.
I wonder what is the long term health impact that all of these bleach on food do to one body? Probably not a good thing, just like most chemical. I also have noticed the same trend in rice paper now a day as well. You can purchased a super bleach out rice paper, probably that was made from all bleach out flour as well, and they are really white.
Ann — I can only imagine that the long-term effect of eating bleached food isn’t great. But you have to eat A LOT of it. Our bodies are resilient machines but exposure to too much of anything in a concentrated period of time — like too much celery, for example, can be toxic. Ew — super bleached out rice paper? What is next???
I think the vinegar does help with my bao. If I don’t add it, the color is slightly off. It could be my imagination but I have grown up to add a tbsp of vinegar to the water when I steam.
I think the homemade, not so white, bao taste better because I have been tricked before and seduced by that unnaturally white color. I always end up disappointed in the taste.
Thuy — it’s funny that you used the term ‘tricked’ as it does often seem like someone says, “Hey — you can’t make X taste right unless you do X. Here’s the top secret…” On the other hand, it’s nice to be seduced once in a while!
The super white Hong Kong style bao have a certain kid-like cotton candy quality. Who doesn’t like that on occasion? For me, on a regular basis, I’d rather have more flavor than less color.
Intriguing! I actually thought that the vinegar in the steaming water was to neutralise the ammonia released by the ammonium bicarbonate that some Hongkong bau dough recipes call for – too much alkalinity makes the dough beige-ish. So I reasoned that the acidic fumes helped to keep the outside of the dough white. Haven’t tested it empirically though.
Chris — when I’ve made bao dough with baking soda, it turns the dough beige and makes it taste metallic. So in using baking powder and yeast, the dough works like a charm with no color change. The use of vinegar with ammonium bicarbonate that’s often used in Asia as leavening may give rise to the need for vinegar. Here in the U.S., we don’t have ammonium bicarbonate as a commonplace leavening. Perhaps that’s why it’s not worked? When I made bao dough w/ AB, I didn’t use vinegar and the resulting dough was beigy. Oye.
Hi I tried different recipes of Bao from the Internet (Chinese recipes) I copies about a dozen of them and tried about 3 to 5 of these recipes using the char siew fillings. My first try was an ordinary all purpose flour when done and steamed, the color was beige, not as fluffy as I want it to be etc I was disappointed. So I bought white flour from a Chinese store called “White Bun Flour” and used another recipe the Hongkong style, one of the ingredients 2 tsp of ammonium bicarbonate, when done, Oh my Oh my – it smell so terrible it goes straight to the garbage bin. I stopped and wait for another two weeks, then not to surrender, I made the 3rd recipe called Char Siew Pau Hongkong Style (again??) It calls for starter dough to be proved overnight up to 14 hours then mixed to the Skin dough (another set of ingredients) shape each piece into a ball, place the filling, steamed for 10 minutes, VIOLAAAA? PERFECT so white, so fluffy and yummm, the price of being patient. T can give the recipe, try it, play with it as your instinct tells you.
Hi sorry for all the mistakes I didn’t go over it before sending ha ha.
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Hola,
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It could be my imagination but I have grown up to add a tbsp of vinegar to the water when I steam.
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The quality of the food is great and the decor is classy. The food is probably fresh because of the Chinese supermarket next door.
I’m sorry
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