Chinese Yam Buns with Two Kinds of Sweet Potato — Gentle on the Stomach, Easy to Digest
By Vivian
Why You'll Love It
Spring is the season for Chinese yam, and I happened to have both sweet potatoes in the house, so I made these yam buns. Yam is gentle on the stomach, purple sweet potato is full of fiber — soft, sweet, and packed with it. They were cleared off the table in minutes!
Good for breakfast or an afternoon bite, especially for kids and grandparents: plenty of dairy aroma, easy to digest, no heavy feeling afterward.
You can put yam in soup, cook it in congee, stir-fry it — or make it into buns.
Especially for a child who turns their nose up at yam: as a bun, it smells wonderful.
My little one's digestion has been off lately, and yam is the traditional thing for settling it, so I've been making yam every which way. Today it's yam buns: soft and fluffy, sweet and good, one rise, nothing complicated.
Ingredients
| Dough | |
|---|---|
| 10½ oz (300 g) Chinese yam | 4¼ cups (500 g) all-purpose flour |
| 1¾ tsp (5 g) instant yeast | ¾ cup (180 ml) milk |
| 5 tbsp (60 g) sugar (optional) | |
| Sweet Potato Cubes | |
|---|---|
| 1¾ oz (50 g) purple sweet potato | 1¾ oz (50 g) orange sweet potato |
Ingredient Notes
- Steam the yam and mash it, then let it cool until it's no longer hot before adding the yeast.
- Cut the sweet potatoes into ¼ in (0.5 cm) dice — bigger pieces feel hard in the bun and crumble out after steaming.
- Add the milk in stages; flours differ a lot in how much they absorb.
- The sugar is optional — yam already has a mild sweetness of its own.
- Brush the steamer with a thin layer of oil; easier than lining it with a cloth.
Instructions
-
1
Get everything out first: peel and cube the yam and steam until tender, then mash it, add the yeast and the milk, and stir well.
-
2
Add the sugar and yeast, then the flour in several additions, stirring with chopsticks until shaggy.
-
3
Wear disposable gloves and knead it into a smooth dough. Peel and dice the purple and orange sweet potatoes, add them to the dough and knead until evenly distributed.
-
4
Divide the dough in two, roll each into a log, and cut into roughly equal pieces.
-
5
Roll each piece into a small log. Brush the steamer with a little oil, arrange the pieces with space between them, set it over cold water, cover, and rest 25 minutes.
-
6
Then turn on the heat and steam 15 minutes, and rest 5 minutes before taking them out.
-
7
These yam buns are sweet, soft, and full of good things — soft and easy to chew, and my family gets through a lot of them the moment they're done. Sharing them with you, go try them.
Anything left over goes in the freezer; steam one in the morning for breakfast and it couldn't be easier.
Recipe Notes
Chinese Yam Buns with Two Kinds of Sweet Potato
Dough made with mashed Chinese yam and studded with purple and orange sweet potato: soft, sweet, easy to chew, and gentle on the stomach. Freeze them and re-steam for the easiest breakfast.
Time Needed
Prep Ahead
- Peel, cube, and steam the yam ahead, then mash it — let it cool until it's not hot before adding yeast.
- Steam the purple and orange sweet potatoes in the same pot to save a round.
- 【Yield】10½ oz (300 g) yam plus 4¼ cups (500 g) flour makes 12–14 small buns.
- 【Key ratios】Yam purée to flour ≈ 3:5, with ¾ cup (180 ml) milk added gradually, 1¾ tsp (5 g) yeast, and 5 tbsp (60 g) sugar — you can cut the sugar to 2½ tbsp (30 g).
- 【Heat】Set over cold water and rest 25 minutes first, then steam 15 minutes and rest 5 minutes off the heat.
- 【Rising】One 25-minute rest is enough — they keep rising as the cold water heats up.
- 【Storage & reheating】Freeze up to 2 weeks, re-steam 8–10 minutes.
- 【Common problems】Sticky dough means the yam held a lot of water — add more flour. If they don't rise, the yam was probably still hot and killed the yeast.
Nutrition (per 100 g, estimated)
| Calories | about 246 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | about 6.5 g |
| Fat | about 3.5 g |
| Carbohydrates | about 47 g |
| of which sugars | about 9 g |
| Fiber | about 2.5 g |
| Sodium | about 40 mg |
Estimated from the ingredient amounts, not lab tested. One bun is about 2.6 oz (75 g), roughly 185 kcal, calculated at 4 / 9 / 4 kcal per g of protein / fat / carbs.