Ania is the grandmother of our friend Carla. Babcia Ania made us pampuchy, a Polish steamed dumpling similar to bao buns. They can be eaten sweet or savoury. It’s the dish her grandchildren always ask for when they go to visit her.
She usually lives in an apartment in Suwałki, but the family decided that our cooking adventure should happen at her daughter’s home just outside Poznań, due to size. The house was surrounded by forests and was a half-hour drive from the lake where we all went for a late-afternoon swim.
On pampuchy day Babcia had 14 mouths to feed. This meant we ate in two ‘loads’ at the table while Babcia established a very successful production line steaming a round of buns while others rose. We ate them first with a rich pork and onion stew called gulasz, using the fluffy buns to soak up the gravy. Then we ate them with the blueberry sauce – made with blueberries we’d watched her barter for with serious gusto at the market in Poznań that morning.
Makes 10–12 large buns
Takes 1 hour 20 minutes
Ingredients
500ml milk
30 grams fresh yeast (you can also use 3 tsp dried yeast, but Ania prefers fresh)
2 tsp granulated sugar
500g plain flour, plus 3 tbsp extra for the milk pan
½ tsp sea salt
2 medium eggs, beaten
1 tbsp vegetable oil
For the sauce
400g blueberries (fresh, or frozen and defrosted)
2 tbsp granulated sugar
Method
Warm the milk gently in a medium saucepan. Take off the heat and transfer ⅔ of the milk into a jug and set aside (you will need this to loosen the dough with later).
Crumble the fresh yeast into the pan and stir in the sugar and 3 tbsp flour. The mixture should be the consistency of double cream. Put a lid on the pan and leave on the kitchen counter to double in size.
Meanwhile, combine the 500g flour and the salt in a big mixing bowl and pour the eggs into a well in the centre.
Once the mixture in the saucepan has doubled (about 6 minutes), pour it into the well too. You can tip a little of the extra milk into the pan to swish out the remaining yeast if you like.
Mix everything together with a spoon to combine; this is where you may need to add more of the warm milk, a little bit at a time – you want it to be a firm but sticky dough that easily forms a ball. Then start to knead – you can use a little bit of flour to coat the dough so it’s easier to handle, but try not to add too much more, as it could make your buns less fluffy. Ania says to knead and beat the dough with your whole arm strength for about 5 minutes until smooth and stiff with no lumps.
Add the oil and take another minute or so to incorporate it. Now the dough should be soft and shiny. Sprinkle with flour and cover with a clean, damp tea towel. Leave in a warm spot to rise for 20 minutes. Ania says that in the summer this might be quicker, and the opposite for the winter.
Keep a few blueberries aside for decoration and whizz the rest together with the sugar in a bowl using a hand blender. Some people cook the blueberries down, but Ania likes to blend them from fresh.
Once it’s risen, turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Shape into a long, even sausage shape. Cut this length into 10–12 equal pieces (they should be about palm- sized) and roll into balls between your hands, tucking floury sides under in inside if they are stopping the ball from taking shape. Space the balls out on the board as you go, and when you’re done, cover with a tea towel and leave for 5 minutes to rise. Either use a steamer pan or build your own, like Babcia, who filled her saucepan with 2cm of hot water and covered it with a clean cotton tea towel, held taut with string – this will be the steaming platform. Put on a medium heat.
Pop the buns in batches onto the steaming platform 3cm apart, cover with a lid (or if you’ve gone DIY, with an upturned similar-sized saucepan or metal bowl) and steam for 10 minutes. If you’re using a metal steamer you may want to lightly rub with oil to stop the buns sticking.
When done, remove the buns from the steamer onto plates, leave to rest for a minute, serve with a drizzle of the blueberry sauce and a few fresh blueberries on top.
