Pineapple surprise

It's been a while since I last baked anything, I know. Real (i.e. non-baking) life has been a little bit hectic this past term and I've been busy, mostly with teaching. But it's the Easter weekend and I've got some free time, so I'm going to bake! Now, this is pineapple surprise in the classic joke sense - there's no pineapple involved anywhere in the recipe. Eh? Have I lost my mind? Very possibly, but as it happens, this is a sweet Chinese bread that's called pineapple bread because the appearance of the baked bun is reminiscent of the outside of a pineapple. More importantly though, I quite like it and I've got hold of a recipe. So enough waffle (ooh, that's an idea - I should try making waffles at some point), on to the baking!

Pineapple Buns
Ingredients
For the bread

• 380g Strong bread flour
• 1 Whole egg
• 1 Egg white
• 1 sachet Fast-action powdered yeast
• 90g Caster sugar
• 3tbsp Milk
• 100ml Warm water
• 40ml/35g Light olive oil
  

For the topping

• 100g Plain flour
• 60g Caster sugar
• 60g Butter
• 1tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tbsp Condensed milk
• 1 Egg yolk
• Few drops vanilla extract
• 1 Whole egg

Method

1. Sift the strong flour into a large mixing bowl.
2. Lightly beat the egg and egg white and add with the remaining bread ingredients into the bowl.
3. Combine the ingredients and knead until shiny and smooth.
4. Return to the bowl, cover and leave to rise until the dough has (roughly) doubled in size.
5. Knead for a further 10 minutes, divide into small bun-sized portions, shape and leave to prove for an hour on a lined baking tray.
6. Melt the butter and mix along with the rest of the ingredients for the topping except the whole egg.
7. Spread the topping over each bun.
8. Beat the egg and brush over the buns.
9. Bake at 190C for ~15 minutes until the top is light golden.

Incidentally, for anyone else who observes the Nestlé boycott, you might like to know that Carnation, the most famous brand of condensed milk in the UK, is owned by Nestlé. Luckily though, there are alternatives!

Here's the dough after kneading (end of step 3). The dough seemed much less smooth than a normal bread dough, and I struggled to develop the gluten - the dough was still slightly sticky at this point (when I gave up). I don't know if that's due to the recipe or the flour that I used though.

Here are the shaped buns ready for proving (partway through step 5). I know they're a bit close together, but I figure all that will happen is they might stick together a bit in the oven.

The buns with the topping applied (end of step 7). The topping is rather a lot more solid than I had initially expected.

After 10 minutes in the oven - they look perfect! Unfortunately, I cut one open and, unsurprisingly, it wasn't even remotely cooked, so back in the oven they go...

So back they went. In the end, it took 40 minutes in the oven in total, although I did have to turn the oven right down to make sure I didn't burn the crust. But here's the final result - I think they're pretty darned successful myself!