Resources on steamed breads?

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Anonymous on 7 May 2016 at 21:45

I've recently become interested in making steamed breads like Chinese buns, Boston brown bread and idli, but I've mostly just been finding isolated recipes on the Internet or cobbling attempts at breads based on vague Wikipedia articles. Does anyone know any resources on steamed breads, comprehensive or otherwise?

Hello! I got into steamed breads for a little while and found the same thing. I found that steamed breads tend to be quite consistent in texture, regardless of whether the recipe's origin is Chinese, Polish, or whatever. Crumb is usually on the tight side and of course there's no crust. My impression is that many of the variations you might try in baked bread work in steamed bread too. For example, I had success using both white and wholemeal flour.

What sort of questions do you have about steamed breads? Is there anything in particular you've been looking for - e.g. techniques related to the steaming process itself, recipe development, etc.? I'd be interested to hear your experiences :)

Edit: if you haven't found it already, we had some discussion about steamed breads on this post

Oooh goodness, I have so many questions! The problem is I'm so early in the process that I'm not even sure where to start. I guess I'm interested in both steaming techniques and recipe development because I ultimately want to be able to improvise steamed breads and get good results.

I'm definitely interested in learning more about steaming techniques. Beyond steaming doughs in containers/wraps vs. steaming free-form loaves and buns, I have no idea what variations exist. I also haven't steamed doughs in containers enough to have a sense of whether that has an effect on the final bread beyond shape. For example, could a container possibly have some sort of flavoring effect by being a more direct source of heat? I doubt a steaming container would ever get hot enough to achieve true browning, but could you get a sort of pseudocrust from a container that conducted heat really well?

And what about if the container was in direct contact with the surface of the steaming pot? Would that more thoroughly heat the surface of the bread? How would the results be different if the container was preheated, like you would preheat a pizza stone?

I'm also very interested in recipe development. At least as I understand it, the process of making a steamed bread is basically the same as any other bread up until you plop it into a steamer instead of sliding it into an oven. I feel comfortable enough from my oven and griddle bread making to play with flours and flavorings and such, but I'm not really sure how hydration plays into a steamed bread's final outcome. Hydration has a big impact on bake times and temperatures since water is being evaporated out of the loaf, but how much does that happen with a steamed bread?

I've also only ever steamed small buns and I have no intuition for how long they should cook for. I've been sticking to around 20 minutes steam time when improvising, but some recipes call for shorter times. Is that largely a function of the size of the bread/loaf? Is it possible to overcook a bread by steaming? Approximately how long would I want to steam a full sized loaf for? Is it safe to assume I should steam loaf for about the same time I would bake a similar sized loaf for, or should I steam it for longer since the temperature is lower?