There are different types of dough, mixing with cold (room temp) water, warm water or hot water. After doing some late night research on the web, turned out it involves a lot of food science. Flour can absorb more hot water than cold water, and hot water dough is softer and more pliable (because heat destroyed the gluten somewhat) than cold water dough.
Usually, I just added random amount of flour to my bowl, then gradually mixed in water till I felt the consistency is right. My experienced coworkers said it usually takes them only minutes to mix the dough, it took me an hour once!!
anyway, cold water dough is good for items you need to boil (like dumplings or noodles) or deep fry.
Hot water dough is good for pan-frying (potstickers, green onion pancakes) or steaming (eg. dumplings).
Of course, for the dough for buns, I added active dry yeast. I usually use 1 teaspoon of yeast. Again, I added random amount of flour (probably 3-4 cups??), added room temp water and the rehydrated active dry yeast (warm water + sugar), and a pinch of salt. I usually let it rise for 2 hours, then started rolling them out. After each bun is formed, I let it rise for another 30-40 min or so.
These sites give better portions. I usually check out a few links (cos everyone uses different amounts), and sort of digest the info and come up with my own. But I never strictly follow a recipe. I think feeling with my hands is the best way to tell whether I need more flour or more water.... hope this helps.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/
http://www.globalgourmet.com/
Rosa's advice for what kind of flour to use:
For the buns with fillings, my coworkers (from Northern china, home of these dim sums) told me to use all-purpose flour only. She said whole wheat flour may not be "sticky" enough for you to work with, probably not enough gluten. If you just want to make the plain steamed buns (no fillings), I have tried whole wheat flour as well. They were fine, but not as fluffy as the all-purpose flour. My first batch of veggie/meat buns turned out to be very flat, because I didn't use enough dough for each bun, plus, I think my dough was a bit too wet. Second batch was better. Oh, by the way, my coworker said for some reason, gold medal AP flour didn't work too well for her for making buns. She said they looked fine while they were being steamed, but once she opened the lid, they collapsed. So she recommended using Safeway brand. Worked well for me! I saved my Pillsbury and Gold Medal AP flour for making dough with no yeast.
For the green onion pancakes and noodles, just AP flour.
I found this recipe for homemade sweet red bean paste:
http://www.applepiepatispate.com/japanese/sweet-azuki-red-bean-paste/
I will try making my own sweet red bean buns this weekend. I will try a batch with unbleached white flour (sinfully stripped of all nutritional value whatsoever) and a batch with whole wheat pastry flour (healthy enough to appease the nutrition-nazi in me). I'll report back on how it turns out.
