Pineapple and curd cheese buns

I remember when I first came to the UK, just after finishing university. One of my culinary discoveries at the time was pineapple cottage cheese – a combination that seemed wonderfully exotic to me ;). Today, I happily revisited those flavours, this time in soft, fluffy sweet buns. Delicate, pillowy yeast dough, creamy curd cheese filling and juicy pieces of pineapple make a truly delicious combination. The buns stay soft and fresh the following day too. You really must try them!

Makes about 13.

Ingredients for the yeast dough:

• 525 g strong white bread flour
• 10 g dried yeast or 20 g fresh yeast
• 250 ml lukewarm milk
• 110 g butter, melted and cooled
• 80 g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ tsp salt

Mix the flour with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, prepare a yeast starter first). Add the remaining ingredients and knead, adding the melted butter towards the end. Knead for long enough to achieve a soft and elastic dough. Place in a lightly floured bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1½ hours).

Briefly knead the risen dough. Divide into 13 pieces, each weighing about 80 g. Shape into round buns and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving plenty of space between them. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise again until doubled in size (about 40 minutes). After this time, use a glass with a wide base to press a deep, shallow well in each bun, almost down to the baking tray. Fill each indentation with about 1 tbsp of the curd cheese filling (recipe below), then arrange a few pieces of pineapple on top, enough to cover the filling. Brush the exposed dough around the filling with beaten egg mixed with 1 tbsp of milk.

Bake at 190°C for about 20–23 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Ingredients for the curd cheese and pineapple filling:

• 250 g curd cheese, ground at least twice
• 1 egg yolk, from a large egg
• 2 tbsp butter, at room temperature
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod
• 1 large tin of pineapple, fruit thoroughly drained of syrup and blanched with boiling water*

Beat the curd cheese, egg yolk, butter, icing sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer until smooth. Cut the pineapple into small pieces.

Additionally:

• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk, for brushing

Method for bread machine users:

Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.

*You can use ripe fresh pineapple, but it should first be briefly simmered in hot water, blanched with boiling water or heated in the microwave to prevent it from leaving a bitter aftertaste in the buns

Enjoy!