Bun DIY
The process of making buns is too long. We can see the all process, but DIY is only that put the stuffing into the dough and make 16 folds on the baozi.
I learned a lot during this visit to “A-Zen Bakery”. The owner, Mr. Cheng, told us that “food business demands a tradesman’s conscience; something like the adulterous, bad-quality plant oil harms the health of people”. He put a high standard on the raw materials of baozi, and has been super picky toward flour, butter, yeast, milk powder and pork. This is the key to the success of the A-Zen Bakery.
When we began our work in making baozi, all of us found this work much more difficult than we’d expected. The baozi made by Mr. Cheng was like a piece of artwork, whereas mine looked twisted and irregular. Adding stuffing into a baozi also demands skill and patience. Some of my classmates even described my baozi as “shao mai” (a little Chinese dessert in Kong Kong cuisine). I was so embarrassed that I felt like finding somewhere to hide. A baozi needs as many skills as any first-class dishes do.
The chief's skill is very fast and practiced.
I could not suppress my excitement when I was told to have this DIY activity. Mr. Cheng showed us how to make 16-folds baozi and we learned to make one as he did. Yet the result was quite disappointing, which was lack of meat stuffing and folds.
When I felt a little down at the outcome, Mr. Cheng told me with a kind smile, “A short performance on stage requires ten years of work, you know? This is your first time to do baozi, and I think this is good enough.” Thus I realized that success is not achieved overnight, and only perseverance and humility can make a dream come to pass. I will work even harder to pursue my dreams in the future.
The chief puts flour, milk powder (of a New Zealand’s brand), crude sugar, and yeast in to the blender and make dough.
I was so excited to make a visit to the A-Zen Bakery to engage with a baozi DIY activity. At the first, Mr. Cheng showed us with a friendly manner the raw materials and equipment. Shortly after, he gave us each a small cap and demanded us to squeeze all our hair into that cap. He said in an earnest manner that “one has to be very careful about hygiene when making food. So I ask all my bakers to wear a cap when working”.
This was much fun to me. The dough felt so flexible and soft; no wonder the baozi tastes so good. The bakers showed us how to make a 16-folded baozi within seconds, and I was astonished to find myself making a fuss over it. All of us were having a hard time in doing this right. Thanks to our teachers and bakers, we had gradually learned of the knacks to make a baozi properly.
Mr. cheng is skillful and practiced,too. He's really a boss.
I love baozi with meat stuffing since very young, yet I don’t know a thing about making baozi. During the visit to the “A-Zen Bakery” today, I knew that making baozi needs flour, yeast, milk powder, butter, and meat stuffing. The owner Mr. Cheng told us with some pride that even the milk powder is made from New Zealand, which is guaranteed top-quality.
I found that Mr. Cheng had done a very thorough work in stirring all the raw materials before putting them into a blender to get pressed. Once the mass density of the dough is equal in all transverse sections, the dough appear whiteness and appetizing. We all learned to make 16 folds for a baozi, and found it was not as easy as it looked. The baozi would be 2.3 times bigger than earlier. It’s so interesting that a baozi needs skills and patience as any other dishes.
We are in the DIY happily.
We went to the A-Zen Bakery and had a DIY experience with them. They taught us first how to knead balls with flour with adroitness so that the baozi would taste good and chewy. After kneading was done, the bakers showed us how to make stuffing for them. The key principle for a stuffing is abundance. After stuffing was made, we placed the baozi into steamers and waited for them to get steamed. This experience let me know that every line of work has its challenge and difficulty. I would never waste a shred of food anymore.
It's good.Just try it.
In this visit to the A-Zen Bakery, I realized that making baozi was not a piece of cake, and one had to be very careful with the stuffing. Beyond a doubt, the bakers in the A-Zen Bakery are all well trained. I wish someday I could have acquired such skills and made tasty baozi with my hands.
Do I like a little chief?
In the procedures of making baozi, I was most impressed with the “stir” part, as the blinder was loaded with milk powder, sugar, and water and began to stir, aroma started to permeate through the air. It really was appetizing! We made baozi with our own hands and press 16 times (to make the folds of a baozi) as the bakers asked, yet it was so difficult that most of us had failed.
Oh, no. Is it my buns by my hand!?
After this visit, I came to realize that a common baozi requires hard work and lengthy time. I knew that food materials have to be good and with a perfect ratio, added with accurate timing, to make wonderful food as a result.
We saw the pressing machine is running.
We each wore a cap before entering the A-Zen Bakery lest our hair would fall into the baozi or steamed buns. Inside the kitchen, there are many equipment with which the flour balls can be made sinewy with good taste. In the DIY activity, I knew that a baozi had to press into 16 folds, which was not as easy as I’d ever thought. This visit made me realize that even an ordinary baozi is a product that requires hard working and patience, and above all, skills.
Our hand-made buns...................are far away from chief's made.
I was very impressed with the bakers who looked so occupied with their work at hand. When it was our turn to try, I began to knead flour and mix mushrooms and pork balls with poor skills. I could not even add the stuffing into the baozi at first. Before returning home, we took a few pictures with the bakers as a record for this precious experience.
Article and Photo by Project team.