Mushipan

From time to time I host a guest from abroad at my place through a site called CouchSurfing. Last weekend I had a Japanese guest who told me about a kind of Japanese muffin. It is highly customizable and easy to prepare just like a muffin but it is actually not baked.

Mushipan stands for "steamed bread" (roughly translated) and it figures that it is prepared over steam. This was my first time actually making something by steaming it if I don't count the times I warmed up jam filled dumplings... It's a Czech thing.

I had my expectations about mushipan and I must say that in the end, I estimated it's taste pretty well. It IS similar to fruit dumpling but it lacks the fruit in it. As I researched mushipan more, I found out that they don't really fill them with anything, not fruit. Sweet potato maybe but not fruit. Also no cinnamon or anything, it seems.

Anyway, the original recipe was set for 8 mushipan but I only had 6 silicone forms. I decided to multiply everything by 1/3 and make enough for 12 mushipan. Six I would make the traditional way - no filling - and six I would fill with a teaspoon of strawberry jam. Unfortunately, a mushipan is not a muffin and steaming is not baking - the spoonful of strawberry jam sunk down in the form and the mushipan was rather unsightly when taken out. However, it did taste pretty well... I leave it up to you to decide whether you want it there or not but I now know the reason why Japanese don't fill it with anything :)

Mushipan
for 12 mushipan you will need:

cover the jam with a layer of batter

• 3 eggs
• 50g white sugar
• 4 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
• 40ml milk
• 40ml vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoon rose water
• 130g all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• (strawberry jam)

1. Beat the eggs in a medium sized bowl. Add the sugar and the condensed milk and whisk well. Add milk and vegetable oil and whisk until completely incorporated. Split the mixture evenly into two bowls, add the vanilla extract into one and the rose water in the other. Whisk until smooth.
2. Start boiling water in a steamer.
3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour and the baking powder. Transfer a half to a different bowl (yup, it takes up a lot of bowls, I know). Take one half and fold it into one of the bowls with the liquid mixture. Stir until smooth.
4. Fill six silicone muffin forms with the batter and place them in the steamer. Steam over high heat for 15 minutes until a toothpick poked into the centre of a mushipan comes out clean
5. Take out, let cool, take out, wash the forms and while they're drying, prepare the second batch. Repeat the steaming procedure.