Rose Steamed Bun - Gandara Steams!

Rose-shaped Siopao (Mantou or Steamed Bun). They don't really taste any different from regular steamed bun. Its just that, they are too pretty to eat. I came across this YouTube video tutorial on how to make it and I tried it myself upon realizing I have all the ingredients on hand. They're very simple and I bet you can make yours too!

I bet you'll have all the ingredients you need in your kitchen or sari-sari stores near you except for the food coloring. So when you get a hold of a red food coloring, you can do this right away. 

You might be able to do it better than I did. Next time I'll be doing this, I'll make the sides thinner because at the same time, mine looked like pink poops. LOL

Here are the ingredients and the procedure on how to make it. I made some slight adjustments to match our Filipino taste. Below, I'll post the YouTube link from where I got the idea from. Thumbs up to May Lynn!



Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups flour
1 cup warm water
1 tsp yeast
6 tbsp sugar 
3 drops of red food color for lighter pink, 6 for slightly darker pink

Procedure:
1. Put your warm water in a bowl (warm: slightly over room temperature. Make sure its not too hot). Add 1tbsp of sugar and add your yeast. Set aside for 5min.

2. Mix your sugar and your flour - Dry ingredients.

3. Once you see the yeast rising, add your dry ingredients half at a time, as well as your food coloring. Mix until the color is well blended.

4. Knead into a dough. Keep kneading until you get a smooth dough. Then shape into a ball, place it back in it's bowl, lightly sprinkle some flours over it to avoid forming skin. Cover it with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for an hour to rise.

5. Once they're ready, divide them and form little balls. Then with a rolling pin, roll 5 balls to make a round sheet of dough with each being slightly bigger than the other. 

6. Roll a small cylindrical shaped dough to be the center (bud).

7. Follow the rolling procedure as shown in this picture.

Place each flat rounded dough slightly on top of the other and roll. Once you have that cylindrical-ish roll, cut it in the middle. Each roll will give you two cute roses. 

8. Place each bun onto a cut parchment paper. Steam them for about 15min and you're ready to serve.


FAQ
Question: Can you put filling in this?

Answer: No.

Question: Why?

Answer: To maintain its rose shape, it has to be plain steamed bun.
What I'm thinking however, is that, if you really wanna put something in it, steam it first, and let it cool. Then probably make a hole at the bottom and then add your filling in. Lock it with the dough you removed. Won't work with asado, I'm guessing. But should be okay with bola-bola.


YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVlpDFZxIPE