Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Chocolate Polo Buns (可可菠萝面包)

Oh my...has it already been a month? Gosh, I do apologies for my long silence. I guess I got a little carried away with my break and lost that momentum in blogging. :P With the family vacation, then the marathon and then a short illness. :P Well all is not lost! I'm back! Hopefully with more good stuff to share with everyone! And not forgetting it's December! Always an exciting month for us bakers, well at least for me...Christmas log cakes and alcohol-infused fruit cakes and Christmas cookies, yummy! Anyway, before I get carried away again, let's get back to today's post...my usual comforting bake, bread of course, haha! And it's Chocolate Polo Buns (可可菠萝面包) this time. ;)
This is my first time baking polo buns. I got this recipe from one of the book I bought in my holiday. "Handmade breads 手感烘烤;台式经典面包". This book is filled with new and fun ideas on shaping buns and exiting polo buns flavors. ;) Do look for this book if you are a bread baker fanatic like me. ;) By the way, if you are puzzled why these buns are called polo buns, here is what I understand. Polo buns are made popularized in Hong Kong. And the word "polo" means "菠萝" pineapple in Cantonese. And the "polo" refers to the buttery crunchy crust on top of the buns. Yums!
Ehh...if you are wondering why my polo buns are all crackly and separated...well it's my bad. I didn't read the instructions properly. I was suppose to let the buns proof first before topping the polo crust topping, instead I topped it and let it proof...*sigh* :P Well, the one you saw above is the nicest one, hahaha! No matter! It still taste good! :P

I made slight changes to the original recipe, mainly the amount of sugar used. Here is my version for reference:

Ingredients for Chocolate Polo Buns (makes 15-17 buns)
Main Dough
400g Bread flour
100g cake flour
100g caster sugar
5g salt
20g milk powder
5g instant active dry yeast
1 whole egg
100ml fresh whole milk
150ml water
50g unsalted butter, room temp
  • In a large mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients except the butter. Stir and mix till everything comes together to form a pliable dough.
  • Continue kneading till the  dough becomes elastic and pulls away from the side of the bowl and not sticky anymore.
  • Add in the butter and continue to knead till it reaches window stage. 
  • Place the dough into a greased bowl and cover to let proof for 1.5-2hrs till it doubled in size.
  • Divide the dough into 15 equal portions or 60g each portion. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 175C.
Polo Topping
100g unsalted butter
90g powdered sugar
1 whole egg
10g milk powder
250-275g bread flour
10g cocoa powder
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and powder sugar together till light and creamy.
  • Add in the beaten whole egg slowly as the mixer is till going.
  • Add milk powder and 250g bread flour to the butter mixture and mix well. If the mixture seems a little too oily and soft, add in another 10 to 25g more of the bread flour till it is easier to handle. Lastly add in the 10g cocoa powder and knead it well till well combine. And not to over knead the mixture too which will also result in a hard polo crust.
  • Divide the polo mixture into 15 equal portions or 30g each.
  • Roll each portion till it is big enough to cover the whole top of the proofed buns.
  • Gently place the polo top over the bun and make checkers markings. Repeat till all the dough and polo portions are used up.
  • Brush the polo buns with egg wash and bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes at 175C, then reduce the temperature to 160C and bake for another 6 minutes till golden brown.
  • Remove from oven when done and let cool completely before serving.
A look at the soft fluffy interior. ;) With the chocolaty buttery crust is a perfect match. ;)

Traditionally the polo buns are left plain with no filling which explains why the higher amount of sugar used in making the main dough. However in this recipe book, it does have recipes which uses different buttercream filling, meat floss and even cheesy red bean buttercream"鲜奶油起司红豆馅" (sounds weirdly inviting, haha!) Hopefully I will have the chance to show you all these great recipes. ;))

Okay all, got to go. Hopefully I will be back real soon! 
Cheers all!


19 comments:

  1. Hi Bee, welcome back and how's the marathon?

    The bread looks like tortoise shell but it sure looks yummy. :)

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    1. Hi hi Chef! Thanks for your warm reception, hehehe! The marathon was ok I guess, lucky I made it through in one piece, lol! I just realize you did the 10km run with your wife just like me wif my hubs! Thumbs up!!

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  2. Hi Bee,

    I'm becoming a little lazy too coming back from Nov holidays. A bit of recharge is always good. Glad that you are with a great bake :D

    Zoe

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    1. Zoe, I'm definitely more lazy, haha! I still see so many wonderful posts from u lately! But I promise myself to put up more posts in Dec! Just put up a linky post with "cook like a star" with Martha Stewart too!

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  3. I think the texture of your buns look so soft and fluffy, so never mind the look. By the way, hope you've fully recovered by now; and good to have you back.

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    1. Thanks so much for your concern Minty! Appreciate it! I'm actually much better today, no more fever. :))

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  4. The recipe and end result looks so nice but where do you add the chocolate part? Is it chocolate powder, melted chocolate, etc?

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  5. welcome back! me too always feel lazy to update blog when came back from holidays, hehehe..where did you go?
    The texture of this bread look so fluffy and good!

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    1. Haha, looks like its a norm! It's ok, I know you are super woman, already saw so many yummy posts from ur blog!

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  6. Your polo buns looks soft and fluffy inside. Never mind how it looks, most important is the texture is good.

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  7. Welcome back bee bee, hope you are feeling better now. The polo bun looks so good, I like to sandwich with thick cold butter like in hong kong, so delicious

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    1. Thanks Jess! Actually horr, I did stuff something inside the buns, haha! Small pieces of chocolate truffles! I didn't mention it because the recipe didn't state so, hehe!

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  8. i like the texture of the buns, looks soft and flufy too! GUess you had a terrific time in tw with all that shopping..and food! saw that in fb.i think you missed out the choc/cocoa ingredient in your crust recipe.

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  9. Haha, you saw all those pics I posted in FB so you know la! Yeah yeah...had a great time in Taiwan. :) thanks for telling me for the misout! I actually wanted to update but kept pushing it cos too busy, lol!

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  10. Hi Bee, the texture of the bread looks amazing. I always have problems with bread making and my bread texture is quite dense most of the time. I couldnt figure out why as I use the exact amount of the ingredients that recipe called for.

    Could it be yeast problem? I use instant yeast too. Do we need to mix the yeast with warm water first before mixing with the rest of the ingredients?

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    1. Actually if you did really follow the recipe closely or exactly then I really don't know how to help. As I can't really diagnose where went wrong. All i can imahine is you either overknead or added extra flour.
      if your dough rises then your yeast shouldn't be a problem. I always add my yeast together with all the rest of the ingredients. If yours have been in the cupboard for months, then u might need to do the step of checking is it still alive. Good luck again in baking the bread.

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  11. Thank you Bee for the reply. Might be the yeast problem then. Cos it has been sitting in the cupboard for quite some time already...

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