This Sourdough Chocolate Marzipan Mantou recipe requires a total rise time of about 5 hours and cooks within 15 minutes. Everything is made from scratch and vegan– including the marzipan, though you can definitely buy your own. The recipe for the vegan marzipan is just 4 ingredients and you can find it below the mantou recipe.

I recently bought and devoured Vanessa Kimbell’s The Sourdough School book. In one chapter, she talked about the different kinds of sourdough starters. I was familiar with or had read about all of them (e.g., white, rye, whole wheat), except for one: a cacao starter. So I decided to experiment with it. Although I don’t think I would ever keep a continuous cacao starter on my kitchen counter, I found that branching my mother starter to make the cacao one and then using it to make a levain for sweet bakes added a noticeable complexity to the dough.

For a chocolate base doughs like this one, it’s not as necessary to build a cacao starter since we are going to add cacao in to the dough. However, it does help incorporate cacao more evenly into the final dough. It is also a good way to learn about the cacao starter, how it behaves, and how to work with it without compromising the flavor of the bake or err… in this case “the steam”? That doesn’t have as much of a ring to it XD. I’m not going to include the cacao starter in the actual recipe, but if you are interested in experimenting with it, this is what I used:

5g regular starter
12g bread flour
4g cacao powder
26g water
2g sugar

Make sure you make this starter ahead of time and it is active at the time of use. You can perform the “float” test to make sure. To perform the float test, drop a small bit of starter in water. If it floats, it is active enough to use!

For more Mantou/Bao recipes, check below:

• Basic Steamed Buns
• Sourdough Basic Steamed Buns
• Sourdough Espresso Mantou (Steamed Buns)
• Black Sesame Bao & Mantou (Steamed Buns)

Happy Steaming!

Print Recipe

Sourdough Chocolate Marzipan Mantou

Naturally leavened mantou (steamed buns). Chocolatey, nutty, sweet & vegan friendly.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Rest time5 hours hrs

Course: Appetizer, Snack

Keyword: bread, sourdough

Servings: 8 buns

Ingredients

Dough

• 120 g sourdough starter or discard
• 80 g milk or water or milk of choice
• 15 g vegetable oil
• 30 g granulated sugar
• 10 g cacao powder
• 175 g all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder*

Add ins

• 150 g marzipan see below on how to make your own marzipan

Instructions

• Add milk and sugar to a saucepan until the sugar is just dissolved. Transfer to a bowl and add in oil. The mixture should be warm but not too hot for the touch. If it is, let it sit for a few minutes to cool down. Add the sourdough starter to the mixture until evenly dispersed.
• Mix flour, cacao powder and baking soda in another bowl. Add it to the milk mixture until everything is well incorporated. A semi sticky dough should form. Let rest for 30 minutes.
• After resting, knead the dough until smooth. If the dough is too sticky and wet, mix in flour 1 tbsp at a time until it is manageable. Cover and let rise for 2-4 hours. The time depends on how active your starter is and the environment. Using discard from the fridge, with a room temp of around 75F, mine is typically ready to go in about 3 hours.
  
• It is now time to shape the dough. 

  Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, working one at a time while leaving the others covered to prevent drying.

  Slice marzipan into 8 equal pieces, roughly 1/3 the size of the dough balls.

  Roll out the dough into a long strip about 8 inches tall and 4 inches wide. Take a piece of marzipan and flatten it between your fingers and place it on half of the dough. It is okay if it is not even. Fold the plain side of the dough over, like an omelette, and seal the edges. Rotate the dough (so it looks like aD or backwards D) and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out again to a long strip.
  
• Cut strips in the dough, leaving the top and bottom connected. Brush with oil (optional). Holding the top and bottom edges, stretch and twist the dough into a rope. Hold one end between your thumb and pointer finger and twist the rope around your pointer finger, creating a gap in the middle. Tuck the end into the gap. Please on parchment in a steaming basket, cover and repeat with the rest of the dough. Let the dough prove for 1-2 hours in a warm place.
  
• Add water to a pot and turn your stove on high. Place the steam basket on top and steam for about 10-12 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the buns sit for about 5 minutes before serving.
  
• Storage: You can freeze the buns once they have cooled. To reheat, just pop it back into the steam basket and repeat the steaming step.

Notes

* baking powder: not necessary but it helps creates a more tender crumb and gives the dough a fluffiness and lightness that you don’t get with just yeast. 

Print Recipe

Almond Paste (Marzipan)

A sweet, versatile almond filling to be used in breads, pastries or in candies.

Total Time5 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Keyword: fillings, spreads

Equipment

• kitchen scale
• small pan or pot
• plastic wrap

Ingredients

• 120 g almond flour
• 50 g granulated sugar
• 10 g honey
• 30 g water
• pinch salt optional

Instructions

• Combine sugar, honey and water together in a small sauce pot and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and mix in almond flour– the mixture will appear dry at first but keep mixing until a evenly moist dough forms.
  
• Transfer the paste onto a plastic wrap and shape it into a tube. Let it cool on the countertop before using or storing it in the fridge for future use.
  
• The marzipan/almond paste can be stored in the fridge for a week or longer in the freezer (just thaw before using).