Hong Kong Pineapple Bun Bo Lo Bao

Hong Kong pineapple bun, also known in Cantonese as Bo Lo Bao is a very classic bread pastry. This bun is very popular and iconic in Hong Kong bakeries and is a perfect delight for a Fika time. Fika is a Swedish tradition for a coffee moment accompanied with cake or cookies that can serve upto seven kinds of cookies on a tray. However, Fika is not really relevant in my recipe but since my partner is Swedish, I’m using the terminology Fika all the time for every Coffee &  Pastry moment 😊.

Bo Lo Bao is soft and lightly sweet and it’s topped with a golden-brown sweet crumbly crust. The softness of the bread is created by the Chinese Tangzhong (water roux) technique of heating flour and water into a gel paste that is then added to the bread dough. This will improve the texture of bread in making the dough softer and fluffier.  

Despite the name, Bo Lo Bao does not contain any pineapple nor flavours. The name rather refers to the look of the characteristic topping crust which resembles the skin texture of a pineapple. It may sound unlogic if you can’t see the image resemblance….. me neither but just take that as historic food story.

Let me know how your Bol Lo Bao baking turned out and enjoy your Fika moment!

Baking time: ~3 hours, time includes about 2 hrs in rising the dough. Serving ~16 buns

Ingredients & Tools

  • Kitchen scale
  • Saucepan
  • Whisk
  • Small bowl for cooling down Tangzhong
  • Plastic wrap
  • Kitchen towel
  • Big bowl for mixing the bread dough
  • Big bowl for mixing the topping
  • Small bowl for egg wash
  • Mixer for dough and topping
  • Baking paper
  • Baking brush

Tangzhong roux

  • 25gr patent flour
  • 125gr water

Dough

  • 360gr patent flour
  • 70gr sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 25gr fresh yeast or 7gr instant yeast – I used fresh yeast
  • 120gr milk on room temperature
  • 1 large egg on room temperature
  • Tangzhong roux
  • 30gr softened unsalted butter

Topping

  • 125gr patent flour
  • 90gr sugar powder
  • 50gr softened unsalted butter
  • 15gr custard powder
  • 1 egg yolk on room temperature
  • 1 Tbsp milk
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp baking powder

Egg wash

  • 1 egg yolk to brush the topping for a golden-brown crust topping

What to do?

  1. ————- Prepare Tangzhong ————-
  2. Add 25gr patent flour in saucepan and slowly add 125gr water while stirring.
  3. Heat over medium-high and constantly keep stirring until mixture turns into a thick gel paste
  4. Transfer the gel paste into a small bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. This is to prevent the paste getting dry.
  5. Let the Tangzhong cool down to room temperature.
  6. ————- Prepare Bread Dough ————-
  7. In a big bowl, put 350gr patent flour + 70gr sugar + ½ tsp salt.
  8. Dissolve the fresh yeast block by crumbling in the saucepan with 120gr milk and stir on low temperature until lukewarm. If you use instant yeast, you can just pour it into the big bowl mixture.
  9. Then, add the egg and Tangzhou into the big bowl
  10. Mix the mixture on low speed for ~5min until everything is combined.
  11. Add 30gr butter into the mixture and mix on medium speed for ~5min until a soft dough forms. If the dough is too sticky, then add a bit more flour at a time.
  12. Finish the dough off by kneading the dough by hand, then shape it into a smooth big ball.
  13. Re-use the big bowl or take a clean one. Sprinkle some flour in the bowl and place the dough ball in and cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Let the dough rest and rise on a warm spot, in a sunny or room temperature spot for 1 hour.
  14. ————- Prepare Bun Topping ————-
  15. In another big bowl, put 50gr butter and mix it until the butter turns into a creamy consistency
  16. Then, add 90gr sugar powder and mix until it turns into a creamy consistency.
  17. Then, add 1 egg yolk + 15gr custard powder + 1 Tbsp milk and mix all together.
  18. Then add ¼ tsp baking powder + ¼ tsp baking soda + 125gr patent flour and mix until it turns into a thick paste
  19. Put the paste in a plastic wrap and shape it into a small log, like a sausage
  20. Let the topping rest until the dough is ready after 1 hour rise.
  21. ————- Start making the buns ————-
  22. The dough should have risen. Punch a finger into the dough and it should slowly bounce back
  23. Take the dough out of the bowl and divide in equal pieces. Personally, I like smaller buns especially mini sizes. The smaller it is, the tastier it gets with an equal balance of the crunchy sweet topping 😊
  24. Gentle shape every piece into a ball and cover with a kitchen towel and let it rest for 15min.
  25. After 15 minutes, softly knead each piece and shape it into a smooth ball. See short video on the technique used in shaping the dough into a ball
  26. Put each ball on a baking sheet with space in between to let it rise for another 40 minutes.
  27. During the last 10min, pre-heat the oven on 175°C fan function. I use fan function as I have two trays I want to bake in the oven at the same time. If you only have one tray, pre-heat the oven on 190°C on upper & lower heat function.
  28. Then, cut the topping in equal pieces as the number of buns. Don’t throw away the plastic, I prefer to re-use it rather taking a new sheet of plastic.
  29. Shape each piece into a ball.
  30. Wrap each ball, piece by piece in the plastic and flatten into a round shape and cover it on top of each bun
  31. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk and brush the top of the bun. This will bring a gold brown crust in the baking process
  32. Bake the buns for ~15min but do check a bit before as you don’t want them to be burnt or bake it a bit longer if you like to have your buns more gold brown.
  33. For next day consumption, heat the bun short on low heat in the oven or microwave.

Let me know if there are any improvements can be made. Thank you & bon appetite 😊

Share this:

General Tso chicken

General Tso chicken is a very popular Chinese American dish and was invented by a Taiwan based chef who moved to New York in the 70’s. He named this dish as an homage to his Hunan heritage and their beloved general Zuo Zongtang. However, the name of this dish has no connection to general Zuo nor it’s known in China Hunan province. If you like to know more about the history of General Tso chicken dish, you can read this on Wikipedia.

The chicken is crunchy deep-fried yet still juicy and tender and has a sweet spicy flavour. My method of deep-fried chicken is slightly different than the original recipe and is mainly different in the batter. I also like to cook my choice of vegetables together with the sauce and chicken to serve it as a main (bowl) dish accompanied with steamed rice.

Cooking time: approx. 45 minutes for 2 persons

Ingredients & Tools

  • 300gr chicken thigh filet
  • 1tbsp cooking rice wine
  • Maizena or potato starch
  • Sunflower oil to deep-fry
  • 15cm Dutch type cucumber
  • 8x cherry tomatoes
  • Optional to add: 150gr bimi, broccoli or bell pepper – yellow bell pepper would bring a nice colour pallet)
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • Salt
  • Garnish: roasted sesame seeds
  • Steamed rice to accompany the chicken dish

For the sauce:

  • 2tbsp light soya and 1tbsp dark soya – or just 3tbsp light soya
  • 1tbsp white vinegar
  • 1tbsp ketchup (Heinz)
  • 1tbsp white sugar
  • 0,5 tsp white pepper
  • 2x small garlic clove fine grated or 1x big clove
  • 1x chili
  • 1tbsp fine grated ginger (~3cm)
  • 1x deep fry pan
  • 1x big fry pan
  • Sieve and/or wooden chopstick to get the chicken out of the deep-fry pan
  • Kitchen paper
  • Very fine grater
  • 1x medium bowl to marinate chicken
  • 1x big bowl to powder chicken or use a 3-5L plastic bag
  • 1x big bowl
  • 1x small bowl for the sauce
  • 1x small cup for maizena mix

What to do?

  1. ————- Marinate chicken ————-
  2. Remove fat and cut the chicken in bite size pieces and put in medium size bowl.
  3. Marinate the chicken with 1tbsp cooking rice wine.
  4. ————- Prepare sauce ————-
  5. Use a small bowl to prepare the sauce.
  6. Put 2 Tbsp light soya and 1 Tbsp dark soya in bowl. Or just 3 Tbsp light soya if you don’t have dark soya. Dark soya has a stronger flavour of saltness.
  7. Put 1 Tbsp white vinegar in bowl.
  8. Put 1 Tbsp ketchup in bowl. Personally, I prefer using Heinz.
  9. Put 1 Tbsp white sugar in bowl
  10. Put ½ tsp white pepper in bowl and mix all the ingredients.
  11. ————- Remaining sauce preparation ————-
  12. Put below ingredients separately on the side (not in the sauce bowl) as these will used to get aromas when we heat the oil in the pan.
  13. Grate 2x small garlic cloves.
  14. Grate 1xtbsp ginger.
  15. Chop 1x chilli fine.
  16. Use a small cup to prepare maizena mix: put 1tsp maizena and 2tbsp water and mix it well.
  17. ————- Cut vegetables ————-
  18. If you do not like cucumber skin, you can peel this off. Then slice the cucumber lengthwise in 4 and remove the seeds.
  19. Then cut cucumber in bite pieces.
  20. Cut cherry tomatoes in half.
  21. Cut optional veggie of choice in pieces. Wash beforehand if needed.
  22. ————- Deep-fry chicken ————-
  23. Powder the chicken in maizena or potato starch. There are 2 easy ways to do this. Put all the chicken in a big bowl and mix the powder bit by bit in the chicken until the meat is lightly covered. Don’t use too much maizena. Or put all chicken in a 3/5L sandwich plastic bag and sprinkle a bit of maizena in and shake the bag. Repeat this until the meat is lightly covered by the powder.  
  24. Bring the oil on heat in the deep-fry pan (stand 7). The oil is ready when you see tiny bubbles coming up on the surface.
  25. Depending on the size of your deep-fry pan, you may need to fry the chicken in batches. The chicken will not deep-fry well if the pan it’s too full.
  26. Put the chicken piece by piece slowly in the pan and fry for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, put kitchen paper in another big bowl. This is to absorb the oil from the chicken after deep-frying.
  27. Fish the chicken out the pan with a sieve and/or wooden chopsticks and put in the paper bowl.
  28. Fry next batch for 3 minutes. Repeat the process if you have a lot of chicken.
  29. Once all chicken has been fried, a second round of 3 minutes deep-fry is required. This will give the chicken a crunchy texture and keeps the tenderness. The chicken should have a golden-brown colour.
  30. Let chicken rest in the kitchen paper bowl
  31. ————- Pre-stir-fry optional bimi or brocolli ————-
  32. Heat the stir-fry pan with 1 tbsp frying oil from pan or olive oil.
  33. Stir-fry the veggies for a bit. If you like the crunchiness, then only stir-fry for about max 2min.
  34. Sprinkle a pinch of salt, stir and scoop the veggies on a plate.
  35. ————- Start cooking sauce & blend ingredients ————-
  36. Continue with the same stir-fry pan. Put 1tbsp sesame oil and heat the pan on medium (stand 6).
  37. Fry the grated garlic until it’s yellow-ish.
  38. Add the grated ginger and chili in the pan, and fry for about 30 seconds.
  39. Pour the sauce mix in the pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes and keep stirring the sauce.
  40. Then re-stir the maizena mix well and add in the pan while stirring the sauce until it gets thick
  41. Add all the vegetables in the sauce and keep stirring in the pan
  42. Then add the fried chicken and stir all well in the sauce for a short time and switch of the heat.
  43. ————- Finishing touch ————-
  44. Scoop steamed rice in a bowl or plate.
  45. Scoop General Tso chicken on top of the rice or on the side.
  46. Garnish your dish with roasted sesame seeds on top.

Hope you like this dish and don’t find it too much work. You may agree it’s worth the effort after you have tried it 😉

Share this: