How to Make Hong Kong Style BBQ Pork Pineapple Bun 叉燒菠蘿包

菠蘿包 aka pineapple bun is a classic Hong Kong pastry. You can find these in any bakeries in Hong Kong and actually in any Chinatowns around the world. And despite its name, there's actually no pineapples in there. It's just referring to the topping that supposedly look like pineapples. I don't see it. I really don't see it. I'm like, okay, maybe, but no. Do you see it? Let me know in the comments below. Usually these buns can be eaten by itself or in the Hong Kong 茶餐厅, which is like a diner, they would put a big slab of butter in there, like this big, like a centimeter thick. These are called 菠蘿油 and I think the most extravagant 菠蘿油 that we've had was in Macau, where they put in a... That was really good. I didn't even explain what it is yet. I know what you're gonna say. I know because that's the best one we've ever had. Where they put in a slab of 粉糕 inside instead of butter and that is indulgent. So today we're going to be making one of our favorites, which is 菠蘿叉燒包. It's 叉燒, which is Hong Kong style barbecue pork stuffed inside a pineapple bun. The 叉燒 that we're using is from our first episode ever. It's the sous vide barbecue pork. If you haven't done so already, watch that video and please subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell. So the first thing that we need to do, which is kind of different from western baking, we're going to make the 汤肿, which is kind of like a wet roux. This method is used in a lot of like westernized Chinese buns. So this wet roux keeps the moisture inside the bread, so it has a longer shelf life. And you can find a similar method in Japanese milk breads. That method is called 打粘 method. So you want to just heat the pan a little bit. We're going to add our bread flour and a little bit of water to get this going. This is on medium low heat and just keep stirring. Needs to be a gloopy paste consistency. Something like this. Once you reach that, you put it in the bowl and set it aside to cool it down. Yeah, it's very important to cool this down because if you don't cool this down, it's hot. You put it in the mixer with the yeast, it's going to kill all the yeast. The 汤肿 is now nicely cooled. One thing you need to do is, and we forgot to mention this earlier, is to cover it. Otherwise, it'll get dry and stuck. So let's get started with this. We're going to put in bread flour, sugar on this side, yeast, and salt. Now we add in the 汤肿. So what we made before, there might be a little bit extra. So make sure to measure it out before you add it in. So the egg goes in. Milk and heavy cream. Speed two. Now the next step is to add in the butter, the softened butter. Make sure it's room temperature. Room temperature. We're going to throw those two pieces in. So the mixer is done. We're going to take this out. You have a nice little ball here. It's going to be a little sticky. It all comes out. We're going to try and get this into a ball, a nice smooth ball. So what we do is we roll it back and it's going to pull it tight. Okay, we give it a little turn, roll it back. And we just keep doing this till we have a nice, nice ball going. Okay, so you want to maintain pressure on the bottom portion. It's nice and smooth now. So we put it in a greased bowl. Yep. And let it rise for 45 minutes until it doubles in bulk. And we should do that while it's covered. While the dough is resting, we're going to make our barbecue pork filling. First, let's heat up the pan. Yep. We're going to cook down one whole onion, diced. And make sure you cook the onion down till it's about transparent and aromatic before you add the barbecue pork. Otherwise, the barbecue pork would dry out before the onions are cooked. And because the barbecue pork already cooked, sous vide to perfection. Don't forget that. We have the barbecue pork, which we diced till it's about half a centimeter, one centimeter cubes. We have some oyster sauce. Some dark soy to give it color. And quite a bit of sugar, actually, because barbecue pork buns, the filling is usually quite sweet. And you make sure you mix all three of these together before you cook it. Because if you don't do that, then it might burn some of the ingredients. Okay. So when that's ready, put it in a larger bowl. The next part is quite interesting. We're going to make a little roux. So let's add some oil in there first. Some all-purpose flour. Once this goes in, we have to stir immediately. So this acts as the thickener for the sauce. Yeah, it's kind of like making a western gravy, right? Yep. The sauce mix that we did before, make sure you add the water in as well. Mix it all together. Mix it, Kevin. So once we are about here, we're going to just cook it down till it's nice and thick. It's almost there, as you can see. When you're ready, then we put this inside the meat. We're going to mix it and make sure it's nicely incorporated. So when this is done, you put it aside to cool, because you can't use this hot filling in the dough. It'll kill the yeast. The dough is done. So we're going to take this out. I'm going to weigh it because this recipe makes 10. So I'm just going to divide it evenly for 10. So 560. So 56 grams each. All right, so we're going to push the air out. Okay, I'm going to bring it back. Back to more of the original size. So we're going to break off, and then we're going to make this 56 grams each. Pretty close. So we do the same thing we did before. All right, so we got them back up to this size. I'm going to put them onto our tray. So we have to proof this again for another 45 minutes to an hour. Yeah, and if you don't have one of those silicone sheets, you can just use parchment paper. I'm just going to use a sheet pan and cover it on top. All right, on to the pineapple topping. The part that doesn't make sense. No, this is the best part. So we have some melted butter. We're actually doubling the recipe because we are making extra batches for ourselves. And we promised some other people some char siu bottle. To make this show, we call in a lot of favors. So we have to pay people back. And most of them, we pay back in food. That's how it works. We're going to add our liquid ingredients in first. We have the vanilla extract. Our whisked egg. Sugar. So normally, this would be made with lard. We're using butter instead. For Chinese baking, they use this thing called chou fan. It already sounds bad. Chou is smelly, so smelly powder. But it's actually just ammonia powder. I've never tried this stuff before. I don't know if it actually smells. It's actually a very difficult ingredient to find. So instead, we're going to use baking soda and baking powder. So next, we're going to add the dry ingredients together. This is cake flour. We're going to put baking soda. And now we put in our baking powder. Healthy pinch of salt. All right. And now this all folds into there. You want to mix this until it's a dough-like consistency. It's actually quite heavy. We're going to cover it up. The next part is to put in the fridge. It's going to take about 30 minutes to an hour. You don't want to use this until it is completely chilled. Otherwise, it's going to fall apart when you try and put it onto your bun. So our buns have risen. And now we'll roll it out. The edges should be thinner than the middle, okay? And the reason why we do this is because if once we fold it, if the edges are thick like the middle, one side is going to be really, really, really thick. So now for the hard part. Place a good amount of filling in the middle of the bun, but make sure to avoid the edges because the oil will make it almost impossible to close. Pull together the opposite edges and pinch together. Go around the bun, pulling and pinching the opposite ends until it's closed. Push the filling down if required. Pinch it off and roll it into a ball. I've rolled them all. Some of them might work. Some of them might not work. But you can tell we were not pro because we still have some leftovers in here. But it's okay. We have a second batch, so we'll use it in that. Basically, do as much as you can, okay? If you're not confident, put less. If you're confident, put a little more. Don't go too chintz, but you know, it's all good. This is a pile of filled topping that we put into the fridge. Okay, so we're going to roll this out. We're going to now cut them up into smaller bits and roll them up into nice circles and place them on top. So the easiest way to do this is over a saran wrap. We put it down. We make the ball. We squeeze it out. We just flip it on top. And that's it. For this size, we did about 30 grams. Yep, the pineapple tops are on. The trick is not to make them too thin and, you know, have a little bit of crust there. So the next step, I'm going to score them a little bit. Okay, I'm using the back of a knife. I'm just going to give it a little, what is this? Hashtag or pound key. This is the pineapple shape. It also works if you don't score it. It'll just break however it wants to break, but this allows it to break on the lines. You should put your nuts and crosses. What do you call it? Nuts and crosses. That's weird. I've never heard of that. What do you call it? X's and O's? Nuts and crosses. It's a nut. Not, this is not O. I've never heard of that. Has anyone else ever heard of nuts and crosses? And then this is a very important step. Don't forget to put an egg wash on it. Otherwise, it will not turn out right. Preheat your oven to convection at 365 degrees Fahrenheit. And if you don't have a convection oven, then 375 on non-convection. We're going to put this in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how big you made your buns. You'll know they're done when the tops are nice and cracked and golden brown. Should we try one? Yeah, I'm waiting for it. It's pretty crusty. It's nice and golden brown. Do you see the pineapple shape? I don't see a pineapple shape here, guys. Give this an open. My skill level is not that high. I would have liked more stuffing. This is quite full already. It's not bad for an amateur. Right? Bun cheers? Bun cheers. The crust formed really nicely. It tastes like an almond cookie on top, right? The pork is very flavorful. Yeah. Is it worth the effort? Yeah, definitely worth the effort. I know what goes into it now. The reason why it's not completely like bright red, because there's no food coloring inside. The bun itself is very soft as well. That's probably from the tangzhong. This is our barbecue pork bun. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments below. And check the descriptions for more details. Pineapple bun? Why? Stand closer to the table. I'll take a step back. No, that would make me sadder. Oh, sorry. I take a step closer. You take a step back. What the hell?