Pineapple buns, Bo Luo Bao, 菠萝包

The pineapple buns, more well known as the Bo Luo Bao (菠萝包) does not contain any pineapple at all. This popular Cantonese bun has a golden, sweet, crunchy topping which resembles the pineapple due to the crackling patterns on the topping caused during baking when ammonia powder is used. As I prefer not to use the ammonia powder, I scored the top pastry with a knife to make crisscross pattern instead. This bun is one of the Hongkongers favourite breakfast bun and I believe most of us would not give this tim sum a miss when we go for Yum Cha (饮茶) too .