I spent some time with Chef Todd Bright in the Wild Rice kitchen learning about how creative his desserts are for Vancouver Dine Out this week. The restaurant takes pride in using local sustainable meats and high quality ingredients. I’m not sure there’s anywhere else in town that you could fresh coho salmon wontons or sloping hill pork made into char siu in-house.
Chef Todd is from Australia where he worked at a Cantonese restaurant. He’s obviously passionate about food and finds creative ways to use all the ingredients he’s working with.
Two of the desserts on the $18 Dine Out menu are the white chocolate and red bean steam buns (which we’ll show you how to make) and the teacup chocolate pudding (which is vegan – tofu instead of gelatin!). I was lucky enough to try both and they were both decadently good.
Summary
Preparation Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 10 min
Servings: 20 bite sized pieces
Meal type: Dessert
Recipe Rating: 
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups warm water
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 3/4 Tbsp yeast
- 3.25 cups flour
- 4 oz (3/4 cup) Callebaut white chocolate
- 6 oz (1 cup) Red bean paste
* Wild Rice uses this brand – this one can be found in T&T for $2.17
Instructions for the White chocolate and red bean filling
1. Put a pot on low heat.
2. Combine the white chocolate and red bean paste until the chocolate is melted.
3. Cool in the fridge until the mixture slightly hardens and the mix is ready to use.
Instructions for the Steam Bun Dough
1. Add yeast to a bowl of warm water.
2. Add sugar and leave it sitting for about 15 minutes.
3. Once activated you’ll see the mixture bubble.
4. Put the flour in a bowl and add the yeast mixture to form the dough.
5. Let the dough sit for about 30 to 45 minutes depending on the temperature of the kitchen. A warmer kitchen is ideal – a cold kitchen could take longer.
Chef’s tip: Be sure to cover the dough with saran wrap. Air will make the outside crust of the dough harden and you don’t want that.
6. Once the dough has doubled in size it is ready.
7. Roll out the dough to get it about 7mm thick or as thin as you prefer.
8. Sprinkle with baking powder and fold the dough as if you were making a puff pastry. Leave it sitting for a few minutes.
9. Once again roll out the dough to 7mm thick and use a pastry cutter to cut out rounds. You can decide if you want small buns or bigger sized ones, so pick the size that you prefer.
10. Stuff with the white chocolate and red bean mixture and make sure the bottom is well sealed. See the series of pictures to learn how it’s done.
11. Steam the bun for 4 minutes.
Unfortunately at home we don’t have a dedicated steamer, so I usually heat up a wok to boil then use a bamboo steamer or just a plate balanced on the wok with a metal stand.
12.Plate and enjoy it fresh with some raspberry coulis.
Results
I didn’t realize how easy it was to make your own steamed buns. As for the filling, red bean is such a typical filling for Asian desserts but the addition of white chocolate makes it even better!! The white chocolate really compliments the red bean – kudos to Chef Todd for coming up with this great combo. Also with the thickness of the dough you can control how thick you want your buns to be. The frozen ones in stores always tend to have a lot of dough and not too much filling – the advantage of making it yourself means you can control the thickness.
I’m sure this will become a YouCook favourite.
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Tags: Chinese, chinese desserts, chinese fusion, dessert, Oceanwise, red bean, steam buns, steammed buns, sustainable, white chocolate, Wild Rice
