In a medium bowl, gently stir together warm water, warm milk, sugar and yeast. Set aside in a warm area (room temperature) and let sit for 10 minutes. The yeast will start to form foam on the top showing it’s activating.

In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, xanthan gum (if using) baking powder and salt. Set aside for now.

Add the activated yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with dough hooks on low speed until the mixture starts to come together well and is no longer sticking to the edges of the bowl (about 2 to 3 minutes).

Using your hands, form the dough into a ball and place dough ball into a clean large bowl. If the dough is sticking to your hands a bit, lightly wet your hands. If the dough is extremely sticky, you may not have added enough flour or the dough isn’t mixed enough yet.

Cover that bowl with food safe plastic wrap and set aside in a warm area (room temperature) for 30 to 60 minutes until it doubles in size.

Cut eight 4-inch squares of parchment paper and place on a large baking sheet.

Remove dough from bowl and place on a lightly floured surface (using extra gluten-free flour).

Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to a ½-inch thickness.

Use a 3 ½-inch cookie cutter to cut circles out of the dough. You should get 8 circles out of the dough.

Place dough circles onto the squares of parchment paper.

Lightly brush the tops of each bun with a small amount of olive oil then fold each bun over creating half circle shapes.

Cover the baking sheet with food safe plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes in a warm area (room temperature) to allow buns to rise a bit more.

Take each bun, still on parchment paper, and place the bun with parchment paper into a bamboo steamer. Depending on the size of your steamer (pictured here is a 10” steamer) you should be able to fit 4 buns without overcrowding them. The buns should not be touching each other. Most steaming baskets come with multiple levels. Only cook one level (layer) of buns at a time to ensure an even baking temperature for all.

Place about ½ inch of water into a deep frying pan or wok. This pan must be large enough to fit your bamboo steamer.

On the stovetop, bring the water to a boil on high heat then reduce heat to medium.

Place the bamboo steamer into the deep frying pan or wok. Be sure that the water isn’t too high that it’s touching the buns. The buns should never be submerged in water. They cook with steam only.

Place lid on the steamer and let the buns steam over low-medium heat for 12 minutes. When you start running out of water in the pan, add more as needed. Never let the pan run out of water while steaming. Adding room temperature water is fine – it will heat up quickly.

After 12 minutes, carefully remove the lid from the steamer. Be careful as the steam will be extremely hot.

Remove buns (with parchment paper) from steamer and repeat the steps to cook the remainder of the buns.

Allow buns to cool completely before storing leftovers. Store leftovers in a sealed food-safe container in the fridge for up to 4 days.