Sakadane Mantou + IDY Milk Rolls

I've been too busy to cook myself dinner recently, let alone do much baking, but managed to find some time over the past week!

I think something that's nice about sakadane is that it is quick to set up and maintain - less than a week to get a starter that's usable, you only need to feed it once a week, and it's usable right out of the fridge. The only downside is needing koji rice. But it just feels so forgiving (when used with white flour, anyway).

I made these mantou after neglecting my sakadane ever since my country loaf and through mashing 2-3 different sourdough steamed bun recipes in my head on the fly... not exactly the best way to do things, but life (well, the day job) has been hectic. But they turned out well!

Sakadane Mantou:

Stiff Sweet Starter:

• 80g AP flour
• 40g water
• 20g sakadane
• 12g sugar

Mix together and let double. I let this go too long (24h - intended to only go 12-18h but doing this on a weekday, even during a WFH day, isn't reliable haha) so it tripled and was on a downward trend, but it still worked out fine!

Dough:

• all of the starter
• 225g AP flour
• 25g wheat starch
• ~160g milk (eyeballed it because I was trying to finish the carton... would recommend starting at 100g and adding until it turns into a workable dough)
• 5g salt (would recommend lowering the salt amount, this much doesn't make a salty bread per se, but it comes through enough to make it not taste like how I expect a mantou to taste)
• 25g sugar

Mix it all together. I tossed this all together and used my dough whisk until it just formed a shaggy dough, since it was late at night and I had other stuff to do. It would be best to do some kneading to form this into a smooth dough, for better texture. Then I tossed it into the fridge to deal with the next day.

I pulled it out around lunch time the next day and let it rise more on the counter, then did a really crappy job of shaping (I was cooking dinner at the same time haha) - flattened the dough out, rolled into a log, and cut into 6 pieces. They would've been easier to shape and look better too if I had made a smooth dough to begin with. They got put onto some pre-cut parchment squares and were put into the steamer insert to rise.

I probably left them for ~2h while I ate and cleaned up from dinner, then I steamed them for ~10min on medium heat. After, let them cool for ~5min with the stove off, so they don't collapse. 

Header image is from when I took them out of the steamer.

Even though they look pretty ugly, they taste almost exactly like how I expect mantou to taste! The salt is the major part that makes it less like a mantou. I would bring it down to 3g or maybe even less. 

For a less ugly bread, I made some milk bread rolls for dinner the other day and have since been snacking on the remainder.

I forgot to take a picture of them when they were all whole haha, I only remembered after I starting eating.

This one is just the KA milk bread roll recipe.

It went with a bean and bacon soup - really nice during the snowy weather we've been having. I can see some people preferring a crustier and less rich roll with this soup, but I liked having the sweetness as a contrast to the salty bacon.