Steamed bread is a popular staple food in China. Jiaozi shows many advantages as a starter for dough fermentation and is frequently used for steamed bread production. The knowledge about the dough fermentation process using Jiaozi is helpful for production management and quality improvement of the final product. In this study, the applicability of Jiaozi for steamed bread production was investigated. Some important factors involved in dough fermentation were carefully examined and analyzed, including the evolution and diversity of major bacteria and fungi, acidity change, reducing sugar utilization, CO₂ production and retention, and different full dough fermentation periods. Combined with the quality evaluation of the final product, the results displayed that traditional Jiaozi was suitable as starter for steamed bread production using a two‐stage procedure with a wide range of full fermentation time and also provided more insights into steamed bread production by Jiaozi.