How to make the Custard Bun so white?

How to make the Custard Bun so white? - Content female customer with long curly hair wearing casual outfit sitting at wooden table with netbook in classic interior restaurant while making online order

I'm trying to make Custard Bun following the instructions from :

How to make Custard Bun- Milk Yolk Buns

Everything goes well except the color of the dough and the bun. I can't make it so white as it looks in the images. Both the dough and the bun I made were white but yet a little bit golden.

What makes the bun so white? Any guess what step I might do wrong and by that get the little bit golden bun?

Thank you



Best Answer

There can be several factors here. The first is the flour. Are you really using bleached cake or pastry flour? If you are using all purpose flour, especially if it is unbleached (and bleached is banned in some countries), you will get a more yellowish hue of the dough. This is the most likely culprit. If you are in Europe, try mixing 405er flour (or the local equivalent) with starch in a ratio of 2:1.

The second is the color of the filling. The human visual system does not work in an absolute way, it constructs color relative to all information available. So if there is higher color contrast, and especially more yellow in the filling, the outside will be whiter. The original recipe requires you to use a custard powder with coloring. If you skipped that ingredient, or used an uncolored powder, or your eggs were not as dark as those in the original recipe, then your filling was maybe paler than the original, not creating enough contrast for the bun to appear white. You can add some food coloring of your own if you don't have access to that powder.

The third thing to keep in mind are your expectations. Color gets changed a lot from the capture in a digital camera to your perception on your monitor. Contrast gets changed in-camera and in post production, and most monitors are set up in a way which overemphasizes contrast. It is entirely possible that you would have a different impression of the buns if you saw them in person, than from the picture you are seeing in the blog.




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How do you make steamed buns white?

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.

Why are Chinese bun are so white?

The answer is because of the flour. The flour has been treated or bleached to give you that white result. You don't have to use bleached flour. Regular unbleached flour will still give you great steamed buns.

How long do you steam custard buns?

Cover and steam on medium-high heat for 5 to 6 minutes. Do not uncover during the cooking process. Turn off the steam before opening the lid, remove buns with tongs and then add the next batch. Repeat the steaming process until all of the buns are cooked.

What is the yellow Bao?

Custard bun also called nai wong bao (\u5976\u7687\u5305) which is yellow milk bun. In addition, it originated from southern China and is a very popular Cantonese dim sum item that you can find at most of Chinese dim sum restaurants. Often, custard buns are eaten for breakfast or as a snack.



DIM SUM - Steamed Custard Buns Recipe




Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Yan Krukov, Karolina Grabowska, Andrea Piacquadio, Ron Lach