Pineapple Buns (Bo Luo Bao 菠蘿包)

Pineapple buns (aka Bo Luo Bao 菠蘿包) is a classic soft, sweet buns in Hong Kong where I grew up with eating countless pineapple buns as afternoon tea. The recipe I developed here, was adapted from the owner of a Hong Kong bakery shop, specialized in making and selling pineapple buns. There are two important ingredients in the original recipe, lard for making the topping crispy, and ammonia powder for making the crackling patterns on the crispy topping. As I don’t use lard in my home-cooking at all, I tweaked it and used butter only. Besides, how would I make Asian breads without tangzhong (湯種)? Absolutely not. Many of my readers have already known that I’m addicted to tangzhong breads because they are soft and fluffy, and can be kept for days. Since I tweaked the original recipe with butter and tangzhong, I have had three trials until I got it right and feel satisfied.

As for using ammonia powder, it’s quite tricky. If used not enough, you’d be disappointed for no crackling patterns appear on the topping. If more than enough, your buns would smell weird (yes, like wee). Hope that I didn’t scare you off. If you don’t want to risk, or can’t find any ammonia powder, you can skip the ingredient, and use a knife to score the top pastry before transferring your buns in oven for baking. You’d get regular patterns, instead of getting irregular crackling that classic Hong Kong pineapple buns would have. Taste remains the same anyway. Hope you all like my sharing here.

(Update: This recipe was originally created and guest posted for Ann's PigpigsCorner on 31 Jan. 2011. For some reason, she stopped blogging on the site, so I've put the full recipe back on my blog again for my readers.)

Pineapple Buns (Bo Luo Bao 菠蘿包) Recipe (Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 180 mins
Yield: Makes 12 buns, each about 62 grams

Ingredients:

• 350 gm bread flour
• 70 gm caster sugar
• 4 gm salt
• 56 gm whisked egg
• 10 gm milk powder
• 6 gm instant dry yeast
• 120 gm tangzhong (refer this post for making tangzhong)
• 125 ml milk
• 30 gm butter, softened at room temperature

Ingredients of topping (makes 12, each about 20grams):

• 125 gm cake flour
• 55 gm caster sugar
• 40 gm butter, softened at room temperature
• 7 gm milk power
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp evaporated milk
• 1 tsp condensed milk
• a bit less than 1/4 tsp edible ammonia powder, available at Asian stores
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

To make buns:

1. Combine all dry ingredients: flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl. Make a well in the center. Whisk and combine all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong, then add into the well of the dry ingredients. When all ingredients get together, knead in the softened butter. The dough is quite sticky and messy at this stage. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not sticky and elastic. Shape dough into a ball. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a wet towel or cling wrap. Let it proof till it's doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
2. Transfer the dough to a clean floured surface. Deflate and divide into 12 equal portions. Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, make the topping, refer to the directions below.
4. Knead each little dough portions into ball shapes. Let them complete the 2nd round of proofing, about 35 minutes, doubled in size.
5. Preheat oven to 210°C (410°F). When the dough portions are doubled in size, remove topping paste from fridge, cut into 12 equal portions and roll in balls. Cover by a film wrap and press each portion into a flat disc. Place on top of the small dough. Repeat this step with the rest. Brush the top with whisked egg yolk and bake in a preheated 210°C (410°F) for 5 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 180°C (356°F) and bake for another 15 minutes.

To make topping:

1. Cream softened butter with an electric mixer over medium speed until smooth. Add sugar and continue to beat until fluffy.
2. Add milk powder, egg yolk, evaporated milk, condensed milk, baking powder, combine well. Sift in flour and ammonia powder and incorporate well. The mixture is quite moist and sticky. Use a piece of film wrap to roll into a log. Chill for 30 to 40 minutes. When it becomes harder, it’s ready to use and shape it.

Notes：

• As for the amount of ammonia powder, don’t go over 1/4 teaspoon of it when using 125 grams of cake flour to make the topping. If you use less or more flour, please adjust the amount of ammonia powder accordingly.

Other tangzhong bread recipes:

• Japanese Style Bacon and Cheese Bread (with detailed steps of making tangzhong)
• Japanese Style Coconut Custard Buns
• Hong Kong Style Sausage Rolls
• Apple Custard Buns
• Japanese Green Tea Bread with Red Bean Fillings
• Nutella Cream Horns
• Hokkaido Milk Toast (Japanese style)
• Pai Bao (排包 Hong Kong Sweet Buns)
• Braided Raisin Walnut Bread (Tangzhong Method) 
• Hot Cross Buns (Tangzhong Method) 
• Tangzhong Wholemeal Loaf