Cocktail buns ... perfect Hong Kong Style

This one looked and tasted like store bought!

Looking great

 

Finished products

Here is the recipe:

Hokkaido Tangzhong Cocktail Buns or Pineapple Cocktail Buns … by the Yans

Yield: 24 buns

Ingredients of buns:

Ingredients:                                                                                    Half Portion

• 540 gm bread flour                                                                      270  gm
• 86 gm sugar                                                                                    43  gm
• 8 gm salt                                                                                           4  gm
• 10 gm full cream milk powder                                                       5  gm
• 12 gm instant dried yeast                                                               6  gm
• 86 gm whisked egg  (~ 2 eggs)                                                      43  gm  (1 egg)
• 60 gm whipping cream or cooking cream                                  30  gm
• 54 gm milk                                                                                     27  gm
• 184 gm tangzhong  (cook 38 gm bread flour + 3/4 cup water until it turns into paste and let cool first )                              92  gm
• 50 gm unsalted butter, melted                                                     25  gm

Fillings:

§  180 gm butter, (softened at room temperature)                              90 gm

§  80 gm sugar                                                                                        40 gm

§  50 gm cake flour                                                                                25 gm

§  100 gm milk powder                                                                          50 gm

§  40 gm condensed sweet milk                                                             20 gm

§  90 gm desiccated coconut                                                                  45 gm

 

Toppings:

§  40 gm butter, (softened at room temperature)                             20 gm

§  20 gm sugar                                                                                    10 gm

§  35 gm cake flour                                                                            18 gm

§  sesame seeds for sprinkling on top, to taste

Method:
The secret ingredient in this recipe is Tangzhong 湯種 . This ingredient will help keep the bread moist and soft for quite a few days.  Once you made it, let it cool down to room temperature.  Put Tangzhong in your mixer, add all the ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, powder milk, instant yeast, whisked egg, whipping cream, and milk), using the mixer to knead all ingredients into a dough form, then add the melted butter to finish kneading.

continue kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. The time of kneading is about 25-30 minutes. Let the dough complete the 1st round of proofing, about 90 - 120 minutes.  If your oven have a proofing cycle, it might take about 60 – 90 minutes OR until double in size.

If you want to make Pineapple Cocktail buns, you would divide the dough into 24 rounds, put the filling inside, form the bun in round shape and then put the following topping and egg washed it before baking after it rises for 15 mins.

Toppings for Pineapple buns (Bolo Bao): 

55 g (4 Tbs) butter at room temperature

135 g (2/3 C) sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

1 Tbs milk

120 g (3/4 c) all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

Egg wash:  1 large egg + 1 tbsp milk/water 

This is what it should look like:

Baking time is the same; 15 to 20 mins at 350, depending on how dark you want the topping looks.

I hope you have just as much fun making them as we have!  Enjoy!