Fluffy Steamed Spinach Buns

These fluffy light wheat steamed spinach buns are made with spinach water and steamed in a bamboo steamer.  The buns are naturally green, very mild tasting, and have good keeping quality due to being steamed.

This month, the Bread Baking Babes are making steamed buns and our host kitchen is Judy of Judy’s Gross Eats. She adapted her recipe from Mooncakes and Milk Bread by Kristina Cho.  I adapted the recipe a bit further to suit my hot kitchen.  See notes.

Using spinach from the garden

The star of these steamed spinach buns is the spinach that I harvested from my garden.

I planted the spinach in early Spring along with romaine lettuce.  I enjoyed the lettuce and a good bit of the spinach in salads, but I wanted to use the last bunch of spinach for something special.  Making these buns provided just the occasion I needed.

Now that I’ve made these steamed spinach buns, I can envision different ways of making steamed sandwich buns.

I’m thinking of mini light wheat hamburger buns to go with my oldest son’s famous mini burgers.  Steaming them sure would be cooler than heating the oven to bake homemade burger buns.

How to make naturally green steamed buns

To get the beautiful green color, these spinach buns are made with spinach water.

I’ve made bread with spinach puree a few times, but I hadn’t tried this method for extracting the color.  I liked the process of pureeing the fresh spinach leaves with warm water.

In addition to using fresh spinach in the dough, I also included 25% whole wheat flour.  I wasn’t sure how the color would come through with flour made from red wheat so I used white whole wheat flour milled from Clark’s Cream wheat.

As it turns out, wholegrain flour doesn’t affect the color.  It provides a unique texture which I think could work for burger buns.

Make spinach quick bread with the leftover pulp

The one thing I didn’t like about the process of extracting the natural green color was the thought of discarding the pulp after straining out the spinach water.  This was especially difficult for me since I was using spinach from my garden.

So, I came up with a solution.  I made spinach quick bread using my favorite zucchini bread recipe.  The bread had a really good flavor, but it was a little bit dry.  I would need to tweak the recipe for future use, but to solve my immediate issue of not wasting the pulp, it was a good solution.

What’s not to love about steamed bread

I like the idea of making steamed buns, especially during the summer.

These steamed spinach buns are easy to make and because they are steamed and not baked, it doesn’t heat your kitchen as much as when you turn the oven on.

The buns can be stuffed before steaming with your choice of filling.  Or, steam them without any filling, then slice and spread them with your favorite sandwich fixings.

I opted to use these vegetable buns as sandwich buns.  I enjoyed some spread with tuna fish salad and some with egg salad.

Notes:

I reduced the amount of yeast in the original recipe from 1 teaspoon to ½ teaspoon.  I kept the proofing times the same.

It was so hot in my kitchen; the dough would’ve proofed way too fast if I had used more yeast.  Although, I tend to reduce the amount of yeast in most breads even when it’s not quite this hot.

I also reduced the sugar slightly. For flavor, I didn’t think it needed that much sugar, but since it is used as an enrichment, I didn’t want to reduce it too much. I wanted the buns to be fluffy.  30 grams might have worked, but I went with 40 grams instead of 50.

Fluffy Light Wheat Spinach Steamed Buns

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• Author: Bread Experience
• Yield: 12 buns 1x

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Description

These fluffy light wheat steamed buns are made with a spinach puree and steamed in a bamboo steamer. They are very mild tasting and have good keeping quality due to being steamed.

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Ingredients

Units MUS Scale 1x2x3x

• 225 grams / 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 75 grams / 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
• 40 grams / 3 1/4 tbsp. sugar
• 3.15 grams / 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 2.4 grams / 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1.15 grams / 1/4 tsp coarse sea salt
• 177 grams / 3/4 cup warm water (about 110˚F)
• ~100 grams / 3 cups firmly packed fresh spinach leaves

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Instructions

Making the Spinach water:

1. Puree 3 cups of firmly-packed spinach leaves with ¾ cup warm water. Strain the puree through a sieve.
2. Use the spinach water in the dough and discard the pulp, or make quick bread with the pulp. After straining, you should have about 160 g of warm spinach water.

Making the dough:

1. Place the flours, sugar, yeast, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir or whisk to combine.
2. Pour in the warm spinach water, and using the dough hook, mix on low speed to form a shaggy dough.
3. Increase the speed to medium-high and mix about 5-6 minutes more until the dough is smooth and slightly tacky.
4. Form the dough into a smooth ball and place in a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, bees wrap, or a kitchen towel, and proof in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 ½ hours. Optionally, place in the refrigerator to proof for at least 6 hours or overnight.
5. Once the dough has doubled in size, deflate it and place it on a lightly floured work surface. Then, shape the dough into a smooth ball.

Shaping the Buns:

1. Cut 12 4-inch squares of parchment paper. The parchment squares are used to create a non-stick surface so the steamed buns don’t stick to the steamer.
2. Using a bench scraper, or sharp knife, divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. A scale works really well for this part, if you have one. The total dough weight is about 528 grams so each piece will be about 44 grams.
3. Fashion each piece into a smooth ball, and place on a parchment square. Cover the buns with a damp towel or lightly greased plastic wrap. Let the buns rise until they are about 1 ½ times their size, about 30-45 minutes.

Steaming the Buns:

1. A double-stacked bamboo steamer with a lid works well for steaming these buns. However, you can steam the buns in any set up you prefer, including a double boiler steamer set up, a steamer basket (working in batches), or a frying pan with the bamboo steamer set up.
2. Start by adding water to a wok, or a pot that fits the size of the steamer, bring it to boil, and then turn it down to simmer.
3. Meanwhile, arrange the buns, (on the parchment squares) about 2” apart in the steamer. You should be able to fit 3 buns on each level. (Cover the remaining 6 buns with greased plastic and place in the refrigerator to keep them from over proofing while the other buns are steaming.)
4. Set the bamboo steamer (with the buns), in the wok to steam for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the buns rest for 5 minutes in the steamer to keep them from collapsing. (You’ll be tempted to remove the lid and look at the buns, but don’t do it! Let them rest.)
5. After 5 minutes, remove the buns and let them cool slightly before serving.
6. Repeat with the remaining 6 buns.
7. Slice and enjoy with your favorite sandwich fixings.

• Category: Steamed Bread
• Cuisine: Chinese

I encourage you to try this recipe. Judy provided a wide range of suggested fillings, including custard! Or, just steam the buns and enjoy them plain.

Be sure to visit the blogs of the other Bread Baking Babes (listed below) to see how they prepared this month’s steamy buns!

Happy Baking!
Cathy