Better known as Chinese steamed buns, mantou is a staple food in the Chinese diet. Originating from a folk tale over 2,000 years ago, mantou has evolved from simple, plain buns to a wide range of shapes, sizes, and colors. Initially, it was popular mainly in northern China because rice is seldom grown there so people had to find alternative foods. Now, it graces the menus of every city, every town, and every village in China.

Mantou in its most basic form is white and round, often considered part of the main course. As a dessert, smaller deep-fried versions are dipped in sweetened milk. Nowadays, mantou is a cross between food and art, with chefs racing to find a new, creative way of styling the dough. My household was first introduced to this innovation on Valentine’s Day this year when my mom decided to steam Mantou roses. Since then, we’ve been working our way through mantou crabs, porcupines, frogs, and many more.

Qinglan and her mom with their mantou creations

Ingredients (makes 6 medium or 3 large mantou)

• 250g all-purpose/plain flour
• 1 tsp dried active yeast
• 130ml lukewarm water
• 1 tbsp sugar, or to taste (optional)
• Food dye or raw ingredients for coloring (yellow mantou can be made from steamed pumpkin, green from crushed spinach, pink from dragon fruit, and purple from purple sweet potato.)

Method

1. Decide on a color for your mantou;  In my case, I’ll be working with yellow, made from 1 small pumpkin.
2. Start by washing the pumpkin, then slicing it, and finally steaming it.
3. Put the flour in a clean metal pot. Squash the steamed pumpkin pieces and blend them in with the flour. It’s optional to add white sugar at this stage depending on your preference.
4. Dissolve the instant dry yeast in the water. I suggest the brand Angel (安琪 ān qí).
5. Once it’s fully dissolved, pour the liquid into the flour and pumpkin. Stir the mixture thoroughly until thoroughly blended, and cover the pot.
6. Allow the dough rise for two hours.
7. Shape the mantou into your desired design, below I show how to make a mantou rose, crab, and porcupine.
8. Place your creations in a steam pot and allow them to rise for another 10 minutes before turning on the stove.
9. Steam for 15 minutes, turn off the heat and wait another 10 minutes before removing the mantou.
10. Enjoy your very own colorful, creative mantou collection.

Mantou Rose

• When the two hours are up, retrieve the dough and a cutting board, and break off a handful of dough.
• Using your hands, sculpt that piece of dough into a long strip.
  
• Now split the strip into six equal pieces with a knife and use a rolling pin to knead each piece into a flat circle, just like with dumpling wraps.
• Layer the six circles on top of one another so that they overlap.
  
• Take a chopstick and press it down along the center of the stack’s length. Roll the stack up, along its length, and cut it with a knife according to the mark previously made by the chopstick.
• This produces two separate roses.
  
• Adjust the petals of the roses to your liking by pulling them out and opening them up. Then, place the two finished products in a steam pot.
  

Mantou Crab

• Break off another handful of dough from the metal pot and split that into five even pieces with a knife.
• Take out a rolling pin and knead one of the pieces into a flat oval. This will serve as the crab’s body.
• With the remaining four pieces, sculpt them into thin, long strips of equal length for the crab’s legs. Lay the legs horizontally across the crab body.
  
• Fold the two sides of the oval over the strips and make sure they stick firmly. Flip the whole structure upside-down and insert two beans, (both red beans or green beans work great) into the edge of the oval to resemble eyes. You may need a small knife to properly embed the beans.
  
• Lastly, take a comb and press it into the crab’s back repeatedly to form a pattern. Place the finished product in the steam pot and move onto the final design.
  

Mantou Porcupine

• Probably the most heartwarming of mantou designs, mantou porcupines requires just one piece of dough. Mold it into a teardrop shape with your hand and flatten one side slightly so the porcupine appears to be crawling on the ground.
• Take a pair of scissors and cut and lift small pieces of dough all over the rounded side, forming the porcupine’s prickly back. Make sure to maintain the scissors in an upright position so that with every cut, a triangular spike is created. Don’t cut too deep into the dough or else the spikes will be too large.
  
• Take two beans and insert them into the pointed area of the teardrop structure, serving as the animal’s eyes.

Qinglan Du is a 16-year-old student from Beijing City International School. She’s originally from Beijing but is currently living in Jerusalem with her mother due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from her passion for writing, she enjoys singing, spending time with friends and family, and experiencing new cultures.

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Photos: Qinglan Du, food52

The best cookie I’ve ever tasted was one made by a deaf child at Rainbow Angel Coffee House. Not only did the warm buttery texture harmonize with its nuttiness, but it also reminded me of persistence, perspiration, and patience: the three P’s that would make an unbeatable combination to success, according to the late American self-help author Napoleon Hill.

What is RAC?

虹彩天使文化, Rainbow Angel Coffee House (RAC) is a coffee shop and bakery in Haidian District dedicated to helping hearing-impaired children. It was founded in 2017 by Felicia Li, a Chartered Financial Analyst and mother of two who’s always encouraged her daughters to volunteer and give back to the community. Li got to know many hearing-impaired children at Beijing Tianyun Hearing and Speech Rehabilitation Center and at first Li and her daughters donated food, books, and toys to the children. Soon, however, Li began to worry about the future of these kids. They couldn’t live on donations for the rest of their lives, and would eventually need to support themselves. Li wanted to teach the kids professional skills as a baker, skill they can continue to use later on in life. Thus, the idea of RAC was born.

Since its inception, RAC has trained numerous hearing-impaired youths in Beijing’s rural areas for free, four of which have gone on to become RAC chefs. While training at RAC, these young people not only learn how to bake handmade snacks but also develop their self-reliance skills, allowing them to discover more of their potential, while embracing their dreams. As Li puts it, hearing-impaired people usually have invisible wings with dreams we fail to see. Only once they accept themselves can more people acknowledge their true values, and RAC gives them a platform to spread their wings and soar into the sky.

My Involvement With RAC:

I was doing community service even before I learned to walk. In 2018, I co-founded a charity platform called 1+1 (art + charity), and one of our projects was to help a hearing-impaired orphanage with their long-overdue rent. During this project, I had the opportunity to work with RAC, and learned the dreadful truth that the majority of people – including the media – are only interested in the hearing-impaired as children during their ‘innocent years’, and that once they have grown up, they often become segregated from society. In the workforce, people will degrade them, scorning them merely because they fail to see their invisible wings, and many will also question their ability to bring up a family. Li told me that people often ask her how the hearing-impaired can take care of their families if they can’t take care of themselves or have a stable job. This injustice is a reason why RAC was initiated: to help hearing-impaired children become more independent and creative and to give them an increased opportunity of securing a job, a family, and a place in our society.

Thus, seeing the hearing-impaired chefs’ ambition, skills, and confidence flourish over time, as well as my desire to help them amplify their voices, I became RAC’s first Youth Ambassador and spokesperson. I helped with promoting their coffee house via social media (scan the QR code to purchase delicious freshly baked goods), running stalls during school events, such as Dulwich College Beijing’s Christmas market, and working with numerous volunteers.

Moreover, since I love to bake healthy treats, I recently taught them a recipe I invented, and which they named after me: the Helena Angel Bun. This will soon also be available for purchase via their WeChat store. But most importantly, baking with the RAC chefs, I saw the smile, determination, and passion. This is what inspires me to do community service, because small actions contribute to the bigger picture, just like in jigsaw puzzles. Step by step, all communities in our world can work together harmoniously, side by side.

How Can You Help? By Baking and Buying

There are various ways to help RAC, other than volunteering: bake with them, buy from them, and share their story.

Every weekend, RAC hosts a range of events, from music performances to baking with RAC’s chefs. Schools, companies, friends, and families can all make a reservation to participate. You may be wondering, “How are these events beneficial, other than raising awareness?” Well, there are many ways. Firstly, you’ll be able to cultivate your baking skills by learning from the hearing-impaired chefs, who have spent years mastering their skills. Secondly, this will enhance our connection with the hearing-impaired community as those participating in these events will not only understand their community more profoundly but also appreciate what they already have. Meanwhile, the hearing-impaired will get a confidence boost through this interaction, due to the recognition and newly made friendships.

No one said it better than Professor Dumbledore of Hogwarts, “we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.”

If you wish to volunteer with RAC contact me, Helena Zhao, via email at HZxiaoshiliu106@hotmail.com. Scan the QR code to purchase delicious desserts made by RAC’s hearing-impaired chefs. For more information about RAC’s events and festivals, simply contact Felicia Li via WeChat (13520366533).

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Photos: Courtesy of Helena Z

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 August issue

I believe that baking is an important form of self-expression and encourages creative thinking. Earlier in the year during quarantine, my family and I spent quite a bit of time baking a variety of goods from scratch. Baking from scratch means starting from the very beginning and relying on yourself to complete tasks such as kneading dough and creating a mixture of ingredients. Instead of buying a starter kit or pre-mixed dough, you start with fresh products and create your own food. As a family, we made desserts as simple as chocolate chip cookies and more complicated ones such as apple pies. It was the perfect activity to pull us away from our screens and pushed us to spend more time together.

My sisters and I love sugar; however, our mother is very strongly opposed to it. Every time we ask for sugary treats, she points to her lips and says “One sweet moment on your lips, forever on your hips”. As a result, when my siblings and I were younger, we would continuously badger our father into taking us out to Dairy Queen or Baskin Robbins for a sugary treat. Eventually, my mom became fed up with the amount of fast food and store-bought desserts we consumed and started teaching us how to bake from scratch. She prefers to bake from scratch to control the amount of sugar and artificial ingredients added to the desserts we make.

Over the weekend, I made an apple pie from scratch with my mother and asked her a few questions about baking less sugary desserts from scratch.

Why do you choose to bake with less sugar?
Growing up, I saw how some of my family members struggled with diabetes and how it affected their health. As I got older I came to understand that one of the things they could have tweaked to control their diabetic condition was to lower or cut down their intake of sugar. I challenged myself to try to do just that.

What is special about baking from scratch?
I am able to control the portions. I can use less sugar, salt, and substitute them with healthy fat options. I know the quality of what I am eating. I suppose the downside is the cleaning up and dishes to be done when I bake from scratch, but I have my daughters to help with that.

What is your favorite dessert to bake from scratch?
Oat cookies with dried fruits and nuts.

Why you should bake from scratch too

In terms of health, baking from scratch allows you to know what ingredients you are putting into your body and easily prevents allergic reactions. You can choose to make healthier options by adding less sugar and artificial ingredients. Also, commonly store-bought desserts contain overly junky ingredients that are unnecessary and include chemicals that you should probably not ingest.

Baking is a fun and simple activity that often ends up being cheaper and tastier than store-bought desserts.

Moreover, you will not find a prepackaged dessert that tastes better than your own freshly baked goods. Grocery stores often use lower quality ingredients to reduce costs, resulting in low-quality foods. Baking from scratch encourages you to use the best ingredients to make the best possible dessert.

It is also better for the environment. The manufacturing and packaging involved in industrial foods have negative environmental impacts. In addition, consider the transportation costs and negative implications of moving industrial products from a manufacturer to various stores than to your kitchen.

Finally, baking in your kitchen influences your family members and allows them to join you while spending quality time together. As a family, you can split up specific tasks, teach your children a few basics, and have fun!

This week, I baked classic American Apple Pie with my mom. Here is the recipe so you can make it yourself at home.

Dorothy’s apple pie with a classic lattice pattern

Dorothy’s American Apple Pie

Ingredients

Pie crust

• 2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of chilled unsalted butter, cut into little bits
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 5-7 tablespoons ice water

 

Pie filling: 

• 6 medium-sized apples cored and sliced
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons of white sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons of butter (melted at room temperature)
• ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons of milk for brushing of pie top later on

Method

1. To make the pie crust, combine flour, salt, and butter in the food processor. Pulse until mixture is coarse crumbs. About 9 (1 second) pulses should do it.
2. Pour half of the iced water into the flour-butter mixture. Pulse again, about 3 (1 second) pulses.
3. Put dough on wooden board, pat and round into 2 discs.
4. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or two.
5. To make the pie filling, combine all ingredients of apple pie filling(excluding milk) and set aside.
6. Take out pie crust discs, let them sit at room temperature for a few minutes.
7. Roll the crusts out on the wooden surface you’re dusted with 2 tablespoons of all-purpose.
8. Line a pie dish with one half of rolled out pie crust.
9. Arrange the filling in layers in the pie dish.
10. Roll out the other pie disc. Cut it into 1 inch- wide strips.
11. Arrange 5-6 strips across pie. Form a lattice pattern by arranging another 5-6 strips diagonally across the previously placed strips.
12. Brush the lattice with 2 tablespoons of milk.
13. Bake pie at 400°C for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375°C and bake for about 1 hour until juices bubble thickly. Cool on a rack for 40 minutes.
14. Serve, and enjoy!

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Photos: Unsplash, Dorothy Asiedu