300 gram of bread flour
140 gram of water + 10 g of heavy cream (or use 150 gram of water if you don’t want to add cream)
1 tsp of instant dry yeast
3 1/2 tbsp of sugar
Make the gua bao: In a stand-mixer with a dough hook or by hand, mix all the ingredients under “gua bao dough” together. On medium speed, knead the dough until very smooth and elastic, approx 5~6 min. In the beginning of the mixing process it would look suspiciously dry and you’d be very tempted to add more liquid. Just wait. Assess the dough until all the ingredients are completely incorporated. This should be quite a stiff dough and it SHOULDN’T stick to the bowl or to the counter-top or to your hands. If it does, add 1 tbsp more of flour. But if it still seems too dry (wouldn’t come together as a dough), add 1~3 tsp more of cream.
Leave the dough in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put a kitchen towel on top. Let it proof under room temperature until doubled in size, approx 1:30 ~ 2 hours depending on the temperature.
Once doubled, scrape the dough out onto the counter-top. Again, the dough shouldn’t be sticky so there’s no need to dust any flour. Punch the air out of the dough and roll it out into a rectangular shape. Roll it into a log and turn it 90 degrees, then repeat again. Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Cover them with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 min. Meanwhile, prepare 12 sheets of 3 1/2″ (9 cm) squares of parchment paper.
Once the dough is rested, shape the dough into an oval shape first with your hands, then roll it out into a long rectangular shape with round tips (3″ x 7″) (8 cm x 17 cm). We call this the “beef tongue” shape because it resembles a tongue. Place 1 square of parchment paper on 1 side of the dough and fold the other side over, sandwiching the paper. Place the gua-bao on another piece of parchment and repeat with the rest.
Place all 6 gua-bao on a steamer with at least 1 1/2″ of space between them. I like to stamp a flower (or whatever you like) on the top of the gua-bao with red food-dye and the tip of a chopstick. The trick is to use ONLY enough to “stain” the surface because too much of it would start to run and result in a big blob of red… (if you accidentally applied too much, soak it up with a Q-tip). But if you are not into food-dyes, then forget this step.
Cover the steamer with plastic wrap and let proof for another 1 hour. The gua bao should look poofy but not doubled.
Add enough water into the steamer pot and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium. Place the steamer with gua-bao on top and cover. Steam under medium heat for 10 min. It is CRUCIAL NOT to let the temperature get TOO high or else the dough would inflate and deflate again, resulting in a very ugly gua-bao. Open the lid every 3~4 min to ensure this isn’t happening. Once the gua-baos are steamed, they should be very puffy. You can make the gua-bao a day ahead and warm it up by steaming it for 3 min when needed.
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