Pandan Swirl Mantou
Fluffy, fragrant, and delicious. The pandan provides a sweet, fragrant aroma as well as a beautiful, natural pop of light green to the mantou. The pandan juice in this recipe is made from scratch using frozen Pandan leaves from an Asian supermarket, but if pandan leaves aren't available, pandan extract can also be used. Pandan dough can also be subbed with taro, cocoa, ube, etc. to create different colors.
Ingredients
Makes 8 large mantou
Milk Dough
200g all-purpose flour
100g milk
15g sugar
15g vegetable oil
20g water (around 100F)
2g active dry yeast
Pandan Dough
215g all-purpose flour
100g pandan juice
15g sugar
15g vegetable oil
20g water (around 100F)
2g active dry yeast
Pandan Juice
Makes 200g (enough for 2 recipes)
20-30 pandan leaves
1 1/4 cup water
Directions
Pandan Juice
1. Chop leaves into inch sized pieces, and blend on high with the water.
2. Once blended and smooth, strain into a cup.
3. Re-strain the liquid to ensure completely smooth.
4. Refrigerate any leftovers for at most a week.
Milk and Pandan Dough
1. Combine yeast, sugar, and water. Stir and let sit for 10-15 minutes until foamy.
2. Once yeast is foamy, combine all dough ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Use a spatula to mix everything together, then fold dough and scrape remaining flour off the sides until a ball forms.
4. Knead dough by hand or in stand mixer until dough is completely smooth (about 10 minutes). Try to work fast or knead both simultaneously in order to prevent one dough from sitting much longer than the other. While dough may start off sticky, it should become harder over time. If it does not change after 2-3 minutes of kneading, add flour a spoon at a time.
5. Cover dough with wrap, and let rest for 5 min.
6. Uncover dough, and begin rolling vertically, leaving top and bottom edges unrolled.
7. Flip dough to now roll in the horizontal direction. The unrolled edges will start to form the rectangular shape.
8. Use the palms of the hand to apply pressure accordingly in order to round the corners into a rectangle.
9. Continue rolling until dough is 15” by 10”. Make sure both are approx the same dimensions.
10. Once both dough have been rolled out, place the pandan dough on top of the milk dough, aligning the edges.
11. Roll a few more times to add an inch lenghtwise and widthwise, before rolling the edge furthest from you as thin as possible.
12. Dab fingers with water, and press and drag the dough all across the edge.
13. Starting from the edge closest to you, tightly and carefully roll the dough one rotation at a time.
14. Once a roll forms, roll the roll a few a more times to secure the edges and layers.
15. Divide into 8 mantou.
16. Place each on parchment paper and inside of a bamboo steamer to rest for 40-45 minutes until doubled in size.
17. Boil water in pot. When boiling, put steamer inside pot for 10 minutes. Do not lift lid at any time. The mantou may collapse and shrink.
18. Once 10 minutes is done, close the heat, and let sit for 5 minutes. Do not lift lid.
19. After 5 minutes, serve and enjoy!