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Hey guys, Jeremy here from School of Wok, Covent Garden.
It's Valentine's Day so we've got something sweet for Valentine's on a Wok-less Wednesday:
Chinese steamed sponge.
So it's very similar to a Western steamed sponge.
It's a steamed sponge, we want it to rise nicely.
Very very easy to make.
We've got some self raising flour.
It is kinda like a 'throw everything in and hope for the best' sort of job.
We've got the same amount of flour to sugar.
I've got light soft brown sugar here.
Custard powder.
Some bicarb, and a good amount of baking powder - about 20 grams there, to 340 grams of flour.
Now the liquid: it's quite eggy this mixture.
I've got 5 medium sized eggs.
And this does make a good amount of sponge.
I'm making mini ones, but any left-over I'll just put into a big tray, sort of... tray
bake?
Tray steam!
Hong Kong style, in true Hong Kong style, evaporated milk.
We love evaporated and condensed milk.
If you have any left over, use it in your tea.
Nice strong Yorkshire brew with a bit of evaporated milk or condensed milk, serious Hong Kong
food.
Oil.
And then about half a teaspoon of good vanilla extract.
So we're gonna combine that, nice and slowly at the beginning.
I wanna get this really airy.
So once the ingredients have combined at the start, then we're gonna work it right up to
a high spin.
This is really quite simple.
I wanna get as much air into that as possible, the liquids gonna interact with the baking
powder and bicarb and that's what's gonna get it nice and airy.
Baking's easy!
I used to find it so difficult!
Right, so that's had a good 10 minute rest, and you can see how nice and bubbly that is,
and that's the sort of baking powder and the bicarb working.
We want that nice airy texture to this sponge.
Traditionally you'd do this whole sponge in one go, but it's Valentine's, so I'm doing
a mini sponge.
I've got 3 pots here, and one's just for tasting, 'cause y'know... gotta feed the clients and
then feed myself.
We're gonna go 2/3rd's the way up each ramekin, and they're buttered ramekins.
Now this sponge... oop!
Spunnggee!
Now this sponge does rise a lot.
I'm not gonna waste this mix, I'm gonna cook it all up for the whole team.
It's February, it's cold.
We're past January, we don't have to be healthy now.
So I'm gonna put this into our steam oven, but when you do a big sort of tray bake of
this steamed sponge, it does take a good sort of 50 minutes to an hour to cook up, which
is why actually the mini ones are slightly easier.
We're talking sort of 25 to 35 minutes of steaming on the small.
Now this, traditionally, Ma Lai Gao is a sort of dim sum cake, that you have any time you
like during a dim sum lunch, which is amazing y'know, dessert in between and you can keep
going back for savoury after.
Now, as I said, it should rise a fair bit, so you can just sort of put the steamer lid
straight on top.
The problem I see with that is that because if it does rise it could stick to the bottom
of your steam basket lid, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna cover this with an upside
down steam basket, to sort of increase the height and space to allow it to rise.
I don't wanna lose too much steam, so I'm gonna be quite particular with this.
I'm gonna try and cover that with some tin foil all the way around.
It won't be 100% perfect, but it should help keep the steam where we want it to be.
The lid can go on top, to stop the steam from coming out.
Okay, so I've covered it with my tin foil - that's not 100% necessary, but I'm just
trying to make sure I keep all the steam in.
You can steam this on a wok, you can steam it in your steam oven if you so happen to
have one, but if you want your steam to, or your water to stay for long enough, then a
deep saucepan does the trick best.
So, straight on top of the saucepan, and make sure that's well collected into the steam
basket, and right onto a high heat.
So you wanna steam this for about 25 to 35 minutes.
If you want to push it to 35, go for it.
The better the lot... ooh... the longer the cooking process, the better to insure it's
fully cooked all the way through.
So that's had a good 35 minutes.
Let's do the unwrap - unravel.
Oooah, look at those babies!
So, really good rise, and they haven't touched the top of my steam basket, which they would
have done if they'd hit that lid.
So we've got a nice beautiful dome.
I just wanna tuck in straight away, but these guys wanna take a photo.
So your steamed sponge, Ma Lai Gao, but again traditionally you'd sort of release it if
you can.
See how tall that is, it's a fantastic sponge.
It's that delicate steaming process, and you can see when you break it open how soft that
is.
Don't you just wanna tuck in right now.
Well I certainly do...
I can!
Mmm!
I'm just gonna keep eating!
On the streets, during, before, after dim sum.
However you wanna eat it, this steamed sponge does not get boring.
Super soft, super so- blahrhhghd!
Super soft, pillowy sponge.
If you like this recipe, you wanna learn more, we'll do some more sweets for you, don't forget
to subscribe to our channel.