I was first introduced to Bolo Bay several years ago and it was nothing short of love at first bite! So much so, that every time I go to a dimsum restaurant it is the first thing I ask for. But most of the time, I am met with disappointment as they either do not offer on the menu -- or sell out as they only make a certain number that day.
So...what's a girl to do!?
During Shelter in Place and not wanting to drive great distances to enjoy these delicious buns, you guessed it: we test, test, test, and taste, taste, taste, and finally offer up this delicious recipe so you can savor at home!
The challenge I had was finding one recipe that incorporated the custard AND the baked milk bun -- but fear not, I got you! This recipe is a mash-up from Lisa Lin (Healthy Nibbles) and Edwina (Cooking with Chinglish) so you get the best of both worlds: creamy sweet custard encased in a crunchy-topped, pillowy soft milk bun!
The challenge I had was finding one recipe that incorporated the custard AND the baked bun -- but fear not, I got you! This recipe is a mash-up from Lisa Lin (Healthy Nibbles) and Edwina (Cooking with Chinglish) so you get the best of both worlds: creamcyh ysweet custard encased in a crn
Pineapple buns (bolo bao in Cantonese) have become one of my favorite pastries from Chinese bakeries. Although the pastry does not contain any pineapple, the name comes from the way that the topping looks when it’s baked.
I wanted the buns to have that characteristic soft texture that you find in pastries from Chinatown bakeries. This recipe uses a milk bread recipe as the base, with one key ingredient to making the bread soft: tangzhong. Tangzhong is a Chinese technique of heating flour and water into a paste that is then added to the bread dough. This will give the bread a lighter, more feathery texture.
This recipe uses ingredients that you can easily find in any supermarket -- along with several tips in the Notes below that you can reference to make these delicious pineapple buns.
Here's what you will need:
Custard
2 large Eggs
1/3 cup Sugar (or more based on your taste)
2 tablespoons Cornstarch
2 tablespoons Cake Flour (if you don't have, see Note section to make Cake Flour)
1 1/4 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
Tangzhong
2 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
1/3 cup Water
Dough
Safflower or any neutral oil for greasing bowl
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons Whole Milk
1 1/2 tablespoon Granulated Sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
3 1/4 cups Bread Flour
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
4 tablespoons Sweetened condensed milk (if you do not have, see Note for substitution)
1 large Egg
4 tablespoons) Butter, melted
Topping
4 tablespoons Butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup Superfine Sugar (see Notes section)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Egg Yolk
1 tablespoon Whole Milk
3/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/8 teaspoon Turmeric
Egg Wash
1 large Egg
1 tablespoon Whole Milk
Making the Custard:
In a heat proof mixing bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, corn starch and cake flour together until well combined.
Heat milk in a sauce pan until it's steaming. Pour half into the egg mixture, whisk to combine before pouring in the rest and whisking it all together.
Pour the egg and milk mixture back into the sauce pan, cook with medium low heat and whisk slowly constantly.
Once it starts to get thicker (it starts to stick on the whisk), then whisk it quicker until it all thickens up.
Remove the pan from the heat and continue to whisk quickly for another 30 seconds, this will ensure you end up with a smooth custard.
Add vanilla extract and butter; stir to combine.
Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge.
Now, let's make the Dough!
We need to make the Tanzhong first. Mix the flour with 1/3 cup of water. You can either heat this mixture in the microwave or in a saucepan until it forms a thick paste. Place the bowl into the microwave, and heat the flour and water mixture for 20 seconds on high. Take the bowl out of the microwave, stir everything and check the consistency of the mixture. Continue heating the mixture at 5 to 6 second intervals, stirring in between, until you get a thick paste. If using a small saucepan on the stovetop, heat on medium low and stir continuously while cooking until thickened. Place Tangzhong in a bowl to cool and set aside.
Time to activate the yeast. Heat up 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons milk in the microwave on high for 40 to 45 seconds. Then, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar into the heated milk and check the temperature. It should be somewhere around 110ºF to 120ºF. Once you confirm that the milk is at the right temperature, stir in the yeast. You don’t want the milk to be too hot because it can kill the activity in the yeast.
After about 5 to 8 minutes, the yeast should foam up. If the milk still looks flat, it can mean that the yeast is out of date or the milk was too hot and you will need to start again with fresh yeast or correct temperature of milk.
While the tangzhong is cooling, and the yeast is activating, gather all the other ingredients for the dough and place in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. Because of the amount of liquid in this dough, I highly recommend using a stand mixer to mix the dough.
Once Tangshong has cooled, add to flour mixture along with the yeast and milk mixture. Mix the dough on low for 10 minutes in the stand mixer. Although you can crank up the mixing speed, the mixer will shake quite vigorously. The large amount of dough combined with the speed of the mixer will cause the bowl to clatter against the mixer constantly. To make things easier on the mixer, and mix the dough at a low speed.
Once you have kneaded the dough for 10 minutes, turn the dough over a work surface and knead it several times by hand. The dough shouldn’t be sticky, so you won’t need to flour the surface. Shape the dough into a ball and place it into a large, lightly greased bowl and cover it with a damp towel, silicone lid, or plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes, until the dough doubles in size.
In the meantime, let's make the topping. The turmeric gives the topping a beautiful and natural yellow hue. To make the topping, simply mix all the ingredients in a stand mixer and let the topping sit at room temperature until you are ready to shape the buns.
Time to get rolling!
You can make 16 small buns or 12 medium buns, depending on how generous you want to be with the custard.
Once the dough has doubled in size, take the dough out of the bowl and place on a board. Divid it in half placing half of the dough in the refrigerator while you shape and proof the first batch of buns. Putting the dough in the refrigerator slows the activity of the yeast so that the dough doesn’t overproof. Once the first batch of buns are in the oven, start on the second batch.
With the dough that you have on the work surface, divide it into 6-8 equal pieces. Knead each piece of dough several times to get rid of any air bubbles. Then, shape them into balls and roll out into a circle.
Carefully place 2 teaspoons of the custard in the middle of the dough circle (being careful not to get any custard on the outside edges of the dough, otherwise, it will be difficult to seal the dough ball properly to keep the custard contained inside the bun).
Quickly, but gently, bring the outside edges together and pinch firmly so that any seams are sealed and the custard does not ooze out.
Place the filled dough ball, pinched side down, onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat for the remainder of the dough balls. Space the balls so that there is 2-3" between each ball.
Then, cover the dough balls with a towel. Let the buns rise again for 30 to 45 minutes, until they expand to 1.5 times its size (they’ll be about 3-4 inches in diameter).
10 minutes before the end of the second proof, preheat the oven to 375ºF.
After the second proof is done, divide the topping dough into 12-16 equal pieces (the number should match the number of dough balls you have). Then, shape each piece of dough into a small ball. Take one of the balls topping dough and roll it out into a circle between 3.5-3.75" in diameter. I like to roll out the topping between 2 sheets of plastic so that the topping is easy to remove. To get the plastic sheets, I cut up a plastic storage bag. Alternatively, you can use parchment paper or plastic wrap, but these tends to crease so you will need to flatten out after each roll out.
Carefully cover each bun with the topping. Then, brush the tops of the buns with egg wash. The egg wash enhances the look of the crackling effect once the buns are baked.
Time to bake -- you are almost to the finish line to enjoying these baos!
Bake the buns at 375ºF for 14 to 16 minutes. If you want the top to look darker, bake them at 385ºF for 14 to 16 minutes, until they are golden at the top.
Let buns remain on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer the buns onto a cooling rack.
Enjoy the buns while they’re still warm! That’s when they are the tastiest.
Notes:
Cake Flour called for for the custard. If you do not have cake flour, you can make a small batch by measuring one cup of all-purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons of the flour and then add the flour to a small bowl. Add in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and whisk well to combine. Voila! Store extra cake flour in air tight container or jar.
Sweetened Condensed Milk substitution: I use it to give the dough a sweet, milky flavor. You can substitute it with 2 tablespoons instant milk powder and 3 tablespoons of sugar. If you don’t have either sweetened condensed milk or milk powder, just use 3 tablespoons of sugar instead.
Superfine Sugar is merely more finely ground granulated sugar. I am using it for this recipe because it dissolves easier and it gives the topping a nice crunch. Some brands label this as “ultrafine sugar.” If you can’t find any, you can blend regular granulated sugar in a food processor until the sugar is more finely ground or use bakers sugar. While you can use powdered sugar, the topping won’t be as crunchy. Furthermore, the powdered sugar topping goes completely soft the next day, whereas the superfine sugar topping retains a lot of its crunch.
Make the custard beforehand - Spreading out the work will make the entire process a lot easier. You can make it up to 3 days ahead.
Using an ice cream scoop or piping bag to place the custard in the center of the dough to prevent it from touching the edge. If the custard touches the edge, it will be very hard to pinch the dough together.
Rolling the dough out wider and stretching the edge of the dough just before quickly pinching it together makes it easier to successfully form the bun and avoid any custard related mishaps.
For the best results, I like to fill in as much custard as I can, but If you are new to making stuffed buns, try adding less custard first and put the extra custard on top of the buns (or serve with fresh fruit!)
Make sure to seal the dough tightly to prevent it from exploding.
If forming a round bun is too challenging, try rolling the dough out into an oval to ultimately form a half circle shaped bun. The trick is to lift up the top part of the dough and stretch it out before quickly folding down and pinching the edge together tightly. Basically you want to do it fast enough so that the custard won't get chance to flow to the edge.
CAN YOU PREPARE PINEAPPLE BUNS OVERNIGHT? Yes! You can proof the dough for the buns and the topping overnight if you want to break up the work. Place the bread dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic. Next, shape the topping dough into a flat disc before wrapping it in plastic. On the following day, an hour before you are ready to shape the buns, take out the topping dough and let it sit on your counter. The topping is easier to roll out when it is at room temperature. You don’t need to let the bread dough reach room temperature before shaping. However, the chilled dough will take longer to rise. To speed up that process, preheat the oven to 170ºF and then turn it off immediately. Then, place the shaped buns on a baking sheet and into the warm oven. Let the buns rise for 10 to 12 minutes, until they expand to 1.5 times its size. Take the buns out of the oven, add the topping and egg wash, and bake as usual. Note that the buns are more delicate after this speeded up proofing process, so be careful not to deflate the buns when you add the topping.
The buns taste the best within a day, if you want to keep it longer, the best way is to freeze it and thaw/bake it before enjoying.
Store in an airtight container for a day -- if more days, place in refrigerator.
Reheat by microwaving for 5-10 seconds or toast on low to heat and get that crunchy top.
Enjoy!