Chocolate Matcha Pineapple Bun Toast Recipe

My chocolate matcha pineapple bun toast recipe is perfect if you're craving a fresh, warm pineapple bun, but don't have any Asian bakeries nearby or the time to make one from scratch.

I call it pineapple bun toast because I've been familiar with this name from my Chinese background, but on the internet, it's known as melon pan toast – melon pan being the Japanese name for pineapple buns. There is neither pineapple nor melon in the original buns. But both names both come from the diamond pattern that's scored in the crunchy biscuit layer of the bun. So whether you call this matcha pineapple bun toast or matcha melon pan toast is up to you.

The beauty of this recipe is it's simplicity: all you need is a handful of ingredients for the pineapple bun topping, and some ready-made sliced bread.

I used brioche for the richest, butteriest result, but Japanese shokupan or Chinese tangzhong milk bread work superbly well too. In a pinch, you can use regular sandwich bread too – just make sure the slices are small to medium-sized, rather than from one of those bigger loaves, so that there's enough pineapple bun topping per serving.

You can just make this with a couple of slices of bread and the matcha melon pan topping. But I went a bit further and made real chocolate sandwiches before adding the topping, so you end up with a gorgeous molten chocolate filling.

You can also watch me make this on my YouTube channel:

Ready? Let's go.

(Makes two servings.)

Ingredients:

25g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
25g icing sugar
25g plain flour
1 level tsp matcha
Tiny pinch of salt
4 slices of brioche
4 squares of good chocolate (dark, milk, white or your favourite)

Method:

1. Preheat 180°C and line a baking tray with some baking paper or foil.

2. Stir the butter, sugar, flour, matcha and salt together in a bowl until it forms a very soft dough.

3. Place two slices of brioche on your baking tray next to each other, and place two squares of chocolate side by side in the middle of each. Place remaining slices of brioche on top to make two sandwiches.

4. Divide the matcha dough into half, and evenly flatten out and spread out each portion on top of your sandwiches with your hands. Using a blunt knife or palette knife, score diamond marks deeply into the top of each.

5. Bake for 10 minutes, or until puffy and only just starting to go slightly golden brown, and let them cool for a minute or two before eating.

Enjoy, and have fun.