The steps for making soda ash steamed buns:

Kneading dough, rising dough, applying alkali, testing alkali, adjusting softness and hardness, and steaming.

Kneading the dough:

The step of kneading the dough is very critical. The ratio of flour to water is required to be 1 pound of flour to 4 ounces of water. In fact, the less water, the better. If you do this all your life, you will only have a mouthful or two of water left. How strong is it? Why is the less water the better? Because during the dough rising process, some water will be produced. If there is too much water and the dough takes a long time to rise, it will become thinner and thinner and lose its shape, so the noodles must be dried. If you use 1 pound of noodles and 4 ounces of water and leave the noodles for 10 to 12 hours, the softness and hardness will be just right (this is based on data obtained from online videos and personally verified by Yishenggange). A life-long godfather who works like a dog basically spends more than ten or twenty hours a day and stays overnight, and he also has to make dry noodles.

Experience in kneading noodles:

Weighing flour:

Novices can use a kitchen scale. The kitchen scale has its own taring function. If you don’t understand, you can read the instruction manual. . However, according to the experimental data of Yishenggange, knowing the specific gravity of flour can easily estimate the weight. The specific gravity of dry flour is half that of water, and one liter of flour is one pound. Whether this is accurate or not, you can verify it yourself. A 2-measuring cup of 250ml is 255g, and an 8-measuring cup is 1015g. This is the data obtained by my lifelong friend. With this rule, there is basically no need to weigh flour. Many containers have graduations, such as common rice cooker liner, salad basin, large water cup, etc. And the more you do it and the more experience you have, the more you can roughly know the weight by just looking at it. Regarding the issue of the proportion of flour, few people seem to have summarized it. Reading the article of Yishenggange, the advantage is here, which will increase your knowledge.

Mastery of water:

4. What is the concept of two kinds of water? 200ml. As long as you have some knowledge of physics, it is not difficult to draw a conclusion. The specific gravity of water is 1000g/liter. Just use a calculator to calculate it. We can completely weigh water with a water cup. Some large water glasses have graduations.

Mixing the dough:

It’s simple, just mix the flour, water and dough fertilizer evenly. This step can be done with a steamed bun machine, I use a manual one. A few words about dough fertilizer. Every time you proof the dough and make steamed buns, you should leave a small amount of dough as the dough fertilizer for the next time you make the dough. In fact, the yeast and probiotics in the old flour are used to inoculate the new flour. Under normal circumstances, everyone leaves flour fertilizer before applying alkali. For the sake of accurate data, I always leave flour fertilizer after applying alkali. Facts have proved that it is also possible.

Weighing flour: The first picture shows the weight of a 250ml measuring cup. The second picture shows the weight of an 8-cup measuring cup. From this weighing data, one liter of flour weighs exactly one pound. Therefore, in the future, when steaming steamed buns, the step of weighing the flour can be completely omitted. Just take one liter of flour as one pound. Of course, if the flour gets damp, don’t be serious about it.

Proofing:

Place the mixed dough in a container and ferment it in a warmer environment for a period of time. Judging from the information searched, it usually takes at least 4 hours or more, and the more commonly used dough making time is about 10 to 12 hours. Of course, this depends on everyone's convenience. The risen dough will rise to 1 to 2 times its original size, and there will be abundant holes in the flour, forming a honeycomb shape. Try not to cook it for too long. Office workers have nothing to do. Basically, most of them overdo it and the noodles become soft. Remember to seal the container in which the dough is made to prevent bugs from crawling in. Generally, the lids of pots and pans will have ventilation holes. Plug them with a small piece of dough. This is considered to be made from local materials. If you are more particular, you can use plastic wrap, but it is not as easy to use as dough and will stick to it.

Noodle fertilizer picture: Noodle fertilizer is actually the old noodles left over from the previous steaming of steamed buns. It is a carrier that provides yeast and probiotics.

Look carefully at the small hole in the glass cover. I sealed it with dough to prevent bugs from crawling in. This is a detail that few people mention.

If you look carefully at the cooked noodles, you will find bubbles. I didn’t take a detailed picture. This is very sticky and will stain your hands, making it impossible to use the camera.

Alkali application:

The function of alkali is to neutralize the acidic substances produced during the dough baking process. The traditional dough baking method is actually the simultaneous fermentation of multiple probiotics. Some probiotics produce acidity, such as lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, etc. Yeast fermentation is pure yeast, so Angel yeast and other doughs do not need to use alkali, but it is said that this time must be strictly controlled. Dry yeast fermentation usually takes about 4 hours, and it will become sour after a long time.

There is no fixed data on the amount of alkali used in steamed buns. After watching the relevant videos, the range is very large. Noodles range from 2.5g to 5g per kilogram, and the data may not be reliable. What we need to know is only a rough range. The amount of alkali used is related to the degree of fermentation of the dough. The most used amount of alkali is 6.5g to 7g. This is not surprising. Others leave the dough for 10 to 12 hours, but I proofed it for 20 hours. The acidity produced is different. The amount of alkali used Of course there is a difference. Not talking about acidity, not talking about proofing time, all the data are just hoaxes.

Estimation of the amount of alkali:

Alkali also has a specific gravity. 5ml of alkali is about 3 to 4g, which is a 5ml measuring spoon and a flat spoon.