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!