I still have a backlog of recipes/posts to share but got very excited about today’s bake so it jumped the queue. I’ve got several recipes for steamed buns (Chinese bao or Korean jjinppang) in my recipe archives but I went to my favourite YouTube channel, TabiEats, for a small batch of buns, especially as I was able to use up a container of leftover runza filling (shredded corned beef, sauteed red cabbage and shredded cheddar cheese) for them.
It’s also a very fast recipe … no yeast proofing, a few minutes to knead, 30 min bulk proof, shaping and a final 20 minutes to final proof. Steaming took only 15 minutes and my buns were ready to eat. I didn’t bother with the squid ink variation so I added a total of 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to the dough in the kneading step.
Before proofing and after steaming
I had about 360 gm of dough so I divided it into six equal portions. There was a lot of filling (about 300 gm) but I shaped into tight balls and used it to fill the buns. There was a high filling (a bit under-seasoned) to bun ratio which was a plus.
REVIEW: Highly recommended recipe. There’s nothing I’d do differently.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 
I don’t think I’ve ever had steamed buns before but I can tell you with all certainty that I’d love them! Yours look perfect. I can’t believe they don’t take much time to make. Would you serve a sauce with them? BTW, that video was hilarious!
No sauce is needed. Usually the filling is perfectly seasoned and the combination of slightly sweet outer crust and filling (sweet or savoury) are sufficient. It’s one of my favourite dim sum choices.
Here’s an early post when I made the buns using a Chinese formulation … whether unstuffed and rolled (mantou) or just folded over and steamed (momofuku), the basic dough is a useful recipe to learn, I think.
See this google search for some amazing presentations.
https://www.google.com/search?q=mantou+folded+over&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3xpzTqvnjAhWaLc0KHYFPBkMQ_AUIESgB&biw=1662&bih=902
My steamed bbq pork buns
https://aboleyn01.wordpress.com/2017/07/23/1461/