Let me preface by saying I'm no chef, and only started cooking this year. Mantou is a sort of steamed rice bun hailing from Japan. I recently went to a Japanese supermarket and picked up a package of frozen chocolate mantous out of curiosity, but the things are incredibly rubbery and bland by themselves. I'm interested in trying to do something to them to make them into really delectable treats, but any recipes I find on the internet are for making mantous from scratch, not doing something fun with already-made mantous. I tried coating it in butter and cinnamon powder, frying it, and then slathering it with chocolate syrup... And although that DID make it less rubbery, it still wasn't very amazing. Does anyone have any ideas on what I could do with these things? Even something geared away from a "sweet treat" would probably be OK as the chocolate flavor is so faint that it'd probably just disappear in the process of cooking it.

Mantou 2 cups whole wheat flour 2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup skim milk, warm 1/2 cup water 2 teaspoons sugar 1 tablespoon peanut oil 1 (1/4 ounce) package fast rising yeast 1. Mix the yeast and flours in a large bowl. 2. Dissolve the sugar and add the peanut oil in the water. 3. Add to the flour bowl and mix thoroughly. 4. Knead dough until it becomes a consistent ball, adding milk or more flour as needed (I usually end up using a tad more than 1/2 cup of milk). 5. Cover dough in a bowl and allow to rest 10 – 15 minutes. 6. Remove dough, pound it down, and re-knead until it forms a fully elastic dough ball. 7. Place ball in a greased, covered bowl and allow to rise for 40 minutes to 1 hour, until doubled or tripled in bulk. 8. Divide into 16-24 small dough balls, or roll out into one large flat rectangle on a floured surface. 9. Flatted dough balls with a rolling pin, OR measure 3 – 5 inch rounds out of the pressed rectangle. 10. Fill each flat round with roughly 2 tbs of the filling of your choice in the center. Pull the dough on all sides from the corners up to the top, and ‘twist’ to close. 11. Steam filled buns (baozi) for 15 – 25 minutes over high heat. 12. NOTE: Plain buns, or mantou, can be obtained by simply omitting the filling.

You can probably do more with the plain mantous (literally man's head). Actually they originated in China, not Japan. They can be used like burger buns, just steam them for 8-10 mins and put your choice of filling. Do not microwave them or else they'll be hard or rubbery. Steaming produces pillowy soft buns (same for any other types of Chinese buns). Regarding fillings, it could be slices of ham/roast beef. For a more Asian twist use teriyaki chicken/pork, roast duck, Chinese BBQ pork (char siew) with gravy. A similar white Chinese steamed bun is used to hold slices of tender soy sauce-stewed pork belly meat, fragrant with cinnamon, star anise & other spices. For a different texture, you can deep fry the whole thing (as it is, without coating with butter) until golden brown. This is great as an accompaniment to stews, curries or dishes with gravy to mop up delicious gravy to the last drop. The deepfried mantou is a popular partner to famous Asian dishes like Singapore chilli crab. I guess you could try slicing the deep-fried mantou in half & putting a scoop of ice-cream as an ice-cream sandwich. Just experiment and think of recipes where there is bread, fried bread etc which could be substituted with the mantou bread buns. The mantou size is also just right for making appetizers. Remember that it is best in a supporting role, not a main course.