Quick & Easy Vegan Coconut Bao Buns

These buns are slightly sweet with a gentle coconut flavour. Despite being vegan and dairy-free, they have a lovely fluffy texture and work really well with most bao bun fillings. I used these buns in my "Mora Meat" Instructable on making my version of the dish from Genshin Impact: https://www.instructables.com/Mora-Meat-Inspired-by-Genshin-Impact/ They’re yummy on their own too!

Makes 6 buns

Prep time: 20 mins ~ Cooking time: 8-10 mins ~ Total time: 30 mins

Tools:

• Mixing bowl
• Steamer
• Baking paper
• Scissors
• Teaspoon
• Tablespoon
• Measuring jug
• Kitchen scales

Ingredients:

• 200g Self-raising flour
• 1.5 tsp Baking powder
• 1.5 tbsp Coconut milk powder
• 2 tbsp Caster sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 100ml Oat milk
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp Rice vinegar

Cut a square of baking paper big enough to cover the base of each layer of your steamer. My steamer is about 18cm in diameter and I can fit 3 buns per layer, as a rough guide.

Fill the base with water and set it on medium-high heat so it will be boiling by the time the buns are ready to go in.

Place your mixing bowl on the kitchen scales and measure out the dry ingredients into the bowl. (200g Self-raising flour, 1.5 tsp Baking powder, 1.5 tbsp Coconut milk powder, 2 tbsp Caster sugar, a pinch of salt)

Stir these all together and make sure you break up any lumps.

Pour 100ml of oat milk into the measuring jug, followed by 1 tbsp Vegetable oil and 1 tbsp Rice vinegar. Mix gently to spread the oil through the milk but don't worry if you can still see separate droplets.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ones. Stir together with a spoon until the powder is fully combined and you have a nice dough forming.

Lightly flour a clean surface to knead your dough on. It will be a little sticky at first but keep going until it's springy and no longer sticks to your hands. (This should take 5-10 mins.)

Split the dough into 6 equal balls (a half batch is shown in the photos). Add more flour to the surface and gently press out each ball into an oval shape of uniform thickness, about the same size as your hand (roughly 8 x 16 cm).

Lightly brush the top surface of each dough oval with a little bit of oil, then fold it in half, with the oil sandwiched in the middle. Don't press the halves together or they'll get stuck!

Arrange the buns comfortably in the steamer - it's okay if they're touching but don't cram them in too tightly.

Stack the steamer layers together and cover with a lid. Steam the buns for 8-10 minutes. When they're done, the buns should have risen to about twice the thickness and have a fluffy bread texture inside.

I hope you enjoy this bao bun recipe - let me know your favourite fillings in the comments!

Check out my "Mora Meat" Instructable for the recipe for the filling shown here.