Steamed Dough Balls with Three Sauces

DIFFICULTY
Average Average
COOK TIME
Under 1 hr. Under 1 hr.
SERVES
4-6 4-6
Steamed Dough Balls with Three Sauces
A light, sweet dough ball with a soft, rich and buttery honey almond crust.
Main ingredients
  • Bread & Cereals
Ingredients
Method

Ingredients

Dough
  • 300g strong white flour
  • 7g dried yeast
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 160ml lukewarm milk
  • 45g caster sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 50g butter, melted
  • Flour, to knead
Topping
  • 200ml milk
  • 40g butter
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 15g flaked almonds
Almond Sauce
  • 500ml milk
  • 10g corn flour
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 40g sugar
  • ½ vanilla pod
  • 100g marzipan, grated
  • 20ml almond liqueur (Amaretto)
Cherry Sauce
  • 2 tablespoons corn flour
  • 400g jar of Morello cherries
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 piece of lemon peel
  • 60g caster sugar
Quick Chocolate Sauce
  • 80ml milk
  • 40ml double cream
  • 1 tablespoon caster sugar
  • 100g dark chocolate (at least 70%)

  • Method

  • 1
    Put the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and mix in the lukewarm milk, sugar, egg and melted butter and pull together to make a dough.
  • 2
    Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes.
  • 3
    Cover the dough with cling film and leave in the bowl for about 1 hour at room temperature until it has doubled in size.
  • 4
    Unwrap and tip the dough from the bowl and knead for a couple of minutes.
  • 5
    Divide the dough into six equal pieces and shape them into balls, using a little flour to ensure the dough does not stick. Grease the soup pot with a little butter, place the dough balls close together in the soup pot and leave to rise for another 30 minutes uncovered.
  • 6
    Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/ Gas Mark 6.
  • 7
    Heat 200ml of milk with the butter and honey in a saucepan, do not boil. Pour half over the dough balls.
  • 8
    Place the dough balls in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes, then pour over the rest of the milk mixture and sprinkle the sliced almonds over the top. Return to the oven for a further 20 minutes until they turn a deep golden brown.
  • 9
    Almond Sauce
  • 10
    Add 2-3 tablespoons of milk to the cornflour and mix well, then mix in the egg yolks. Meanwhile, bring the rest of the milk to the boil in a saucepan with the sugar and vanilla pod.
  • 11
    Remove the vanilla pod from the saucepan and remove the seeds. Whisk in the cornflour mixture and continue to whisk as the mixture thickens.
  • 12
    Stir the marzipan into the hot vanilla sauce until smooth. Stir in the liqueur and then pass the sauce through a sieve before serving.
  • 13
    Cherry Sauce
  • 14
    For the cherry sauce, mix the corn flour with the 3-4 tablespoons of cherry juice from the jar of morello cherries. Put the cherries with the juice, cinnamon stick, lemon peel, sugar and add 100ml of water into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
  • 15
    Add the cornflour mixture and keep boiling, making sure to continuously stir. Remove the cinnamon stick and lemon peel and let cool.
  • 16
    Quick Chocolate Sauce
  • 17
    Put the milk, cream and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring continuously.
  • 18
    Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the dark chocolate. Mix together thoroughly until all the chocolate pieces have melted.
  • 19
    Enjoy the chocolate sauce warm or keep in the fridge.
 
In addition, the following sauces taste wonderful. The ingredients of the cherry and chocolate sauce together are sufficient for the steamed dough balls recipe above.
If you do not have a vanilla pod available for the almond sauce, use either 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or if you love almond, add 1 teaspoon of almond extract.
The steamed buns are delicious served warm with a cup of tea just as they are if you don’t have time to make the sauces to serve as a dessert.
 
 
Le Creuset