I have always enjoy Chinese style bakery buns for breakfast. It then became a comfort home food for me when our family immigrated to Canada. I remembered I was really happy to be able to buy these buns in Canada (even though they aren't that great in Edmonton), it gives a warm, fuzzy, comfort food feeling... a piece of home and heritage in a foreign place.
When I get older, now when I think of pineapple bun I remember Danny's happy face with his favourite pineapple bun with butter (菠蘿油) lol. Though I never thought of making these buns myself. The task seem so daunting! Making bread is not an easy task! With yeast doubling at the right room temperature, the lengthy waiting time, and finickiness of buns not being poofy and moist... the list goes on! Especially I failed multiple times with making cinnamon buns and anything with yeast. Kudos to Freddy for his adventurous personality to initiate the task and the most important piece of equipment - the stand mixer. I'd like to thank Freddy here, his stand mixer has made many, many of my dreams come true. Thank you Freddy! Also Haley's extra warm room temperature (23oC) may have been the success to the buns!!
Here it is!
Ingredients
yields a dozen very large buns
To make pineapple buns, you'll need:
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast (not the instant one!)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup milk
- 3 eggs, slightly beaten
The topping for the pineapple buns is made separately using:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
Procedure
- Mix together 1/2 cup flour, sugar, yeast, and salt
- Melt the butter, then add oil and milk to the butter and warm it
- Pour the butter/oil/milk mixture into the flour mixture
- Add the eggs to the flour mixture, and stir well to combine. Then beat mixture for 3 minutes
- Add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough is formed
- Dust the counter-top and knead the dough on it. Add dough little by little if it's too sticky.
- Place the dough in a large bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Let it double in size, which will take roughly 1.5 hours. While the dough is rising, prepare the pineapple bun topping following the recipe further below on this page).
- After 1.5 hours, punch the dough down and let it rise again for another 1.5 hours
- Divide the dough into 12 equally sized balls, then flatten them to round, flat buns. Place them on lightly greased baking sheets and cover with a slightly damp towel for another 45 minutes so that the dough can rise a bit more.
- Take the prepared pineapple topping and roll it to a thickness of about 1/2 a cm
- Brush the buns with a small amount of water, and place the pineapple topping on top of the buns. The water will help the topping stick to the buns.
- Take a knife and lightly score the toppings with a criss-cross pattern, kind of like grill marks on a steak.
- Lightly beat 1 egg yolk and brush the buns and toppings with it. The egg yolk will provide the buns with a nice rich yellow colour.
- Bake the buns at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes on the middle rack.
Pineapple Topping Procedure:
- Beat the butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy
- Add egg yolk, baking soda, and milk together, and mix well.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into the butter mixture, and mix by hand until it's smooth and not sticky. Be careful not to manipulate it too much as it will form gluten.
- Wrap the topping in plastic and refrigerate it for an hour and a half minimum.
Thoughts
- The pineapple buns are so delicious!!! I'm so proud of the team that made it happen! The recipe took like 7-8 hours to complete but the result is so WORTH it.
- I would use more beaten egg yolks to brush the pineapple topping, it wasn't quite yellow enough.
- I would probably double the pineapple topping next time, I find the topping to bun ratio not high enough.
- Serve with butter inside the bun is the best way!!
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