Chinese Pineapple Bun (Bolo Bao) Recipe
This is by far the best Chinese Pineapple Bun recipe we’ve discovered to date. Chinese Pineapple Bun (菠蘿包/Bolo Bao [BLB] in Cantonese) is hands down our favourite pastry to get whenever we go to Chinese bakery stores (probably next to Chinese Egg Tarts). Whenever we go to Lucullus Bakery in Markham, we always wait for their staff to bring out the freshly baked Pineapple Buns (BLBs) and we end up fighting off old Chinese ladies for the first pick once they hit the shelves. It was totally worth it.
Ever since Ontario declared a State of Emergency, we haven’t been able to get our hands on these delicate pastries. I made these before in the past but decided to explore different recipes to see if I can find another one that I liked. I stumbled across two different pineapple bun recipes that I really liked so I decided to combine the two. One was from Healthy Nibbles that was known for the bun’s great texture and flavour. The other recipe was from Lady and Pups that was known for their dark, golden, and flavourful “Pineapple” cookie crust topping.
This pineapple bun recipe does require quite a bit of work as it requires you to prepare 2 separate recipes – one for the bun, and the other for the topping. However, I do find it worthwhile if you’re really craving this dish. Otherwise, I’d definitely just go out and buy this at the bakery for the sake of convenience. Regardless, we still think these buns came out pretty good. It has a nice chewy texture and it is very fluffy in the middle, especially after they come out of the oven. I ate this alongside some Hong Kong Milk Tea and I instantly felt like I was back at an HK Cafe.
What is a Pineapple Bun?
For those of you who are not familiar with what a Pineapple Bun is, it is a very popular Cantonese/Hong Kong style pastry often sold at Chinese bakery stores. Despite its name, there actually isn’t any pineapple in this recipe. The reason for its name is due to its signature golden, crumbly, and crackled cookie crust topping which resembles pineapple skin. Underneath this buttery cookie crust is a soft and fluffy bun 🙂
Tips & Tricks for Success
1. The Importance of Bread Flour
Yes, you can make this pineapple bun recipe with all-purpose flour if you can’t find Bread Flour. However, over the years, I’ve learned what a difference using the right type of flour can make when it comes to baking.
For those that are not familiar, bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour. Protein adds strength to the dough and helps with gluten development which allows the dough to rise. Gluten is the stringy strands that give bread dough its stretch and elasticity, and baked bread its characteristic chew.
2. Using Custard Powder for the “Pineapple” Cookie Crust
I’m not sure how to describe this but custard powder yields a particular flavour/taste that is difficult to replicate with other popular substitutes such as dry milk powder. Lots of Chinese Pastry Recipes (e.g Salted Egg Yolk Custard Bun aka Liu Sha Bao) also call for the use of Custard Powder in their filling. These can typically be found in the baking section of your grocery store – we got the brand below (Bird’s Custard Powder). If you can’t find them there, you can always get it on Amazon 🙂
3. Using the Tangzhong Method to make the dough
If you’ve ever made Asian Bread before, you may be familiar with this method. Tangzhong is an Asian technique for making soft, fluffy yeast bread which involves cooking a portion of the flour and water in the recipe into a thick slurry (i.e. roux) prior to adding the remaining ingredients. It also supposedly extends the bread’s shelf life!
How To Make the Dough
Prepare the Tangzhong
In a microwaveable bowl, whisk together flour and water. Then, microwave the mixture in 15 second intervals, whisking in between, until the mixture has thickened and leaves ribbons behind the whisk (refer to Tangzhong image above). The bowl and mixture should be warm to the touch, not hot – you don’t want to overcook it. Set aside and allow to cool before incorporating into the rest of the dough.
Activate the yeast
If you’ve seen our other bread recipes, you’ll be familiar with this step. In a Pyrex measuring cup (or microwavable bowl), heat your milk up until it is 110-115F as measured by an instant read thermometer. For me, this was about 30 seconds but this depends on the power setting of your microwave. Add the sugar and dry active yeast into the milk and stir to combine. Allow to sit for 5 minutes to give it time to ‘activate’. Once you see it getting foamy, you’re ready to go!
Prepare the Dough
In a stand mixer equipped with a dough hook and large mixing bowl, add your bread flour, salt, condensed milk, egg, melted butter, and yeast slurry mixture from above. Knead on low speed for approximately 10 minutes or until the dough comes away from the bowl cleanly and it has a smooth and supple texture. Be sure to pause the mixer and re-adjust the dough every few minutes to ensure the dough is evenly kneaded so there’s no dry spots left. You can also do this process by hand if you don’t have a stand mixer but it may get a bit tiring 🙂
When done, place the dough in a large bowl and drizzle with neutral oil (we used canola oil) to completely coat the bottom of the bowl and the dough to prevent it from drying out. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow to proof/rise for about 1-1.5 hrs or until doubled in size. If you want to have this fresh in the morning for breakfast, you can also proof this in the fridge overnight (more on this later).
Shape the dough
The dough should have doubled in size during the proofing period.
Remove the dough from the bowl onto a flat surface and punch down the dough to remove all excess air. Then, divide the dough into 10 even pieces. I weighed my dough first and divided it by 10 to get the individual weight of each dough piece. For me, it was roughly 91g each. Shape each dough into little dough balls by tucking all sides of the dough to the bottom and pinching it in the centre (refer to image below).
Set on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Allow to proof for 35-45 minutes until 1.5x in size. Our dough went from 2 inches in diameter to 3 inches.
Prepare “Pineapple” cookie crust
While the dough is going through a second rise, prepare the cookie crust. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the softened butter, egg yolk, cream, cake flour, powdered sugar, custard powder, baking soda, and baking powder on medium-low speed until it’s combined into a dough. Shape it into a long log and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour until firm.
To shape the cookie crust, divide the dough log into 10 even pieces. Shape each dough piece into a ball. Then, place that dough ball between two pieces of plastic wrap and press down firmly with your palm. This should form a circle. I like my crust a bit thicker but feel free to make yours disc thinner.
If not using right away, cover them in plastic wrap and place in fridge to keep them chilled. Otherwise, the high butter content in this dough will make them more difficult to handle later.
Assembling the Pineapple Bun
The moment you’ve been waiting for – assembly! First, prepare your egg wash by whisking together 1 egg, 1 tbsp of cream, and 1 tsp of water.
Then, gently placed your cookie crust on top of the proofed dough balls and press down on the edges so that it conforms to the shape of the bun. Apply a generous layer of egg wash using a pastry brush.
Bake your buns in a 400F oven for approximately 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from oven, cool, and enjoy immediately!
Let us know how yours turned out in the comments below or tag us @cookingwithteamj on instagram!
If you enjoyed this recipe, you may also enjoy our other Chinese recipes:
Pineapple Bun (Bolo Bao) Recipe
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- 20g (2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
- 75g (1/3 cup) water
Dough
- Any neutral oil for greasing bowl (e.g. Canola or Vegetable Oil)
- 145g (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) whole milk
- 18g (1 1/2 tablespoon) granulated sugar
- 7g (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
- 490g (3 1/4 cups) bread flour
- 3g (1 teaspoon) kosher salt
- 80g (4 tablespoons) sweetened condensed milk
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 55g (4 tablespoons) butter, melted
The “Pineapple” cookie crust
- 60 grams of unsalted butter, soften
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tbsp (15 grams) of heavy cream
- 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp (110 grams) of cake flour
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (90 grams) of powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp (15 grams) of custard powder
- 1/4 tsp (1 gram) of baking soda
- 1/4 tsp (1 gram) of baking powder
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 1 tsp water
Instructions
Make the Tangzhong
- 1. In a small bowl, whisk together flour and water. Microwave in 15 second intervals, whisking in between bursts, until the mixture has thickened and leaves thick ribbon behind. It should look like a paste (refer to image in blog post above).
Prepare the Dough for Buns
- 2. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the milk for about 40 to 45 seconds or until it reaches between 110ºF to 115ºF. Mix in the sugar and yeast into the milk to activate the yeast. Let it sit for 5 minutes or until the yeast begins to foam – this means your yeast has been activated.
- 3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the bread flour, salt, condensed milk, egg, melted butter, tangzhong and the foamy milk/yeast mixture.
- 4. Fit the mixer with the dough hook. Mix the dough on low for approximately 10 minutes or until the dough no longer sticks to the bottom or sides of the bowl. You will need to readjust the dough a few times during this kneading process to ensure all the flour has been incorporated into the dough so check in on it regularly.
- 5. After 10 minutes, scrape the dough out of the bowl onto an oiled surface and knead it several times until dough is no longer sticky and is smooth on the surface (refer to image in above blog post).
- 6. Shape the dough into a ball and place inside a large bowl greased with vegetable/canola oil (you can cover the dough with oil too to prevent it from drying out). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm area for about 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes until the dough doubles in size. We kept our dough inside an oven with just the light on.
Making the “Pineapple” Cookie Crust
- 7. Using a stand-mixer/handheld-mixer, cream the unsalted butter on high speed until pale and creamy (approx 2-3 min). Add the large egg yolk and cream and whip until thickened. Slowly add the cake flour, powdered sugar, custard powder, baking soda and baking powder in batches and mix until everything comes together into a cohesive dough (refer to image in blog post above). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
Shape the Buns
- 8. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper/silpat.
- 9. Once the dough has doubled in size, punch down the dough to release the excess gas. Turn the dough onto an oiled work surface divide into 10 even pieces. We weighed the total mass of our dough and divided it by 10 and this turned out to be about 91g each.
- 10. Take each piece of dough and knead it several times to get rid of any air bubbles. Then, shape this dough into a ball and transfer it to the lined baking sheet, seam side down. The dough should be about 2 inches in diameter. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
- 11. Cover the dough balls with plastic wrap and let them rise in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes, until they increase to 1.5 times its size (about 3 inches in diameter). Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400F to preparing baking the buns.
Prepare “Pineapple” Cookie crust
- 12. While the buns are proofing, remove the cookie crust from the fridge and divide dough into 10 pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
- 13. Take each dough ball and place it between in the centre of two pieces of plastic wrap. Lightly flatten the dough out with the palm of your hand to form a circle. Roll out the dough until it is thin and can cover the top of your proofed dough balls. Do this for all 10 cookie crust dough balls. If your bread dough isn’t done proofing yet, place them in the fridge to chill until they’re ready to assemble.
Assembling and Baking Pineapple Buns
- 14. In a small bowl, prepare the egg wash by whisking an egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of milk and 1 teaspoon water.
- 15. Place the cookie crust toppings over the proofed dough balls and gently press down on the sides so the topping slightly adheres to the top of the dough ball.
- 16. Brush the tops of the buns with egg wash. Wait 5 minutes, and then re-brush another layer of egg wash.
- 17. Bake the buns for 14 to 16 minutes or until the tops are lightly golden.
- 18. Let the buns cool on the baking sheet for several minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
- 19. Enjoy the buns while they’re still warm! That’s when they are the tastiest.
