Hong Kong Polo Bun, Baked without oven, Air-Fried method

Whenever I go Hong Kong, I never missed this for breakfast and afternoon snacks. It was best paired with milk tea. Love this bun a lot and I can't find any good one near my area. Few years back there was a stall in Raffles Place near my office selling this bun, that was good but it's too far for me to drive all the way from east to central just for a polo bun. So I decided to make it by myself. 

I used water roux (tang zhong) method to make the bun. The whole process takes about 4 hours, but it's worth the effort and time spent because it's really really really yummy! I had been craving for this for so long since my last trip to Hong Kong... Now, I can enjoy this yummy bun whenever I want....what a great satisfaction. 

For oven baked Plain Polo Bun, refer Hong Kong Polo Bun recipe
For Cute Pork Floss Polo Bun, refer Cute Little Turtle Pork Floss Polo Bun recipe

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To prepare TangZhong/ water roux: 
25g Bread Flour
1/2 cup or 120ml Water/ Milk

1. Put the flour into a saucepan. Stir in water/ milk, mix well until no more lumps.

2. Cook with low heat, continuously stirring until it's thickened and when stirring with the spoon to the bottom, the line appeared, as shown in the picture below.

3. Remove from heat. Transfer to a bowl and cover with cling wrap. Set aside to cool. This will make about 120g of TangZhong.

To Prepare Polo Crust Dough: (For 6 buns)
30g Butter (Cold, cut into small cubes)
35g Icing Sugar (can be increased to 45g for a sweeter crust)
60g Cake Flour
2 tsp Milk Powder
12g Egg (Lightly Beaten)

1. Sift icing sugar, cake flour and milk powder into a bowl.
2. Add in cold butter cubes, mix with hand.
3. Add in egg, form a dough. DO NOT over-knead the dough.

4. Shape into a flattened ball, wrap with cling wrap, chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. The weight of the dough is about 125g-130g.

To Prepare Bread Dough: (Make 6 buns)
(A)
175g Bread Flour
40g Castor Sugar
2g Salt
5g Milk Powder
1 tsp Instant Dry Yeast
(B)
28g Egg (lightly beaten)
60g TangZhong/ Water Roux
63ml Milk

15g Unsalted Butter (Softened to room temperature)

Method:
1. In a mixer bowl, mix (A) ingredients. Make a well, add in (B) except butter. 
2. Mix all ingredients. When all ingredients come together, knead in butter. Continue kneading until the dough passes the membrane test.

The dough is 'elastic' at this stage

3. Cover with cling wrap and let it proof double in size. About an hour.

4. Deflate and divide the dough into 6, about 60g each. Let it rest for 15 minutes. Knead each dough into ball shapes. (Optional: add some butter in the dough for a more buttery bun). 
5. Remove the crust dough from the fridge. Divide into 6, cover with cling wrap, use a plate, flatten the crust dough and place the crust dough onto the bread dough. Use a pizza cutter/ knife, slit some pineapple pattern on top. 

6. Let it proof double in size, about an hour. Egg wash.

7. Preheat Ninja Foodi Bake/ Roast mode, 160'C 3mins. Place the bread dough onto the Cook & Crisp Basket. Bake 130'C 15mins, 160'C 3mins. 

Hong Kong Polo Bun/ Pineapple Bun made without an oven and stand mixer. 
👉🏻Knead the dough using Ninja blender and baked using Ninja Foodi OP300 

 

If you do not have an oven at home, I highly recommend you to get Ninja Foodi which is so versatile and the price is reasonable for a multi-function cooker that can bake/ roast, air-fry, pressure cook, slow cook, steam, grill, sear/saute, sous vide, yogurt, dehydrate and keep warm. The cooker heats up fast and the heat is distributed evenly as good as an oven. 

Ninja Foodi and Ninja blender can be purchased from Ninja Kitchen Official Website. Cart out with Promo Code: MIKISNSG to get a 10% discount for any Ninja-Shark products via their website. If you're in Malaysia, you can purchase Ninja Foodi via Ninja Shark Official Website. Cart out with Promo Code: MFAOP300 to get the lowest price deal.

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