Pineapple Cream Cheese Buns are a twist on pineapple upside down cake.
Pineapple and coconut bring a touch of the tropics to your breakfast or brunch table.
And – you get your ‘cinnabon’ fix as well since the cream cheese filling has lots of cinnamon in it as well!
These are quite filling so they make a nice breakfast treat. The colours remind me of Easter so that is why I was drawn to making them now.
These buns are inspired by an award winning recipe on the King Arthur Flour site.
I have adapted the recipe to work in your bread machine.
Pineapple ‘topping’ 
Rolled out dough 
Cream cheese/cinnamon filling 
Dough rolled up 
Buns have risen 
Fresh out of the oven 
Inverted buns 
Ready to eat
Having made these a few times I would suggest you lean toward baking them in a rectangular pan. The round pans are pretty but you have extra steps to make sure the center bun is thoroughly cooked. It is a bit tricky to ensure the center bun is properly baked without the outer buns getting overly brown.
Either pan shape you are safest to use an Instant read thermometer and check for 190 degrees internal temperature in the middle of your pan.
You can freeze the buns for future baking after you cut the dough into slices. Don’t let them do the second rise. When ready to bake, thaw the buns, allow them to come to room temperature and rise to double their size. This will take a few hours. Bake the same as for fresh buns.
Equipment
- Bread Machine
Ingredients
Dough
- 1/4 cup warm water 57 grams
- 1 cup milk 227 grams
- 4 Tbsps unsalted butter, melted 57 grams
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup sugar 50 grams
- 1 tsp salt
- 5 cups all purpose flour 602 grams
- 2 tsps instant dry yeast
Topping
- 1/2 cup large flake coconut, unsweetened 30 grams
- 20 oz drained crushed pineapple (reserve juice) separate 1/4 cup pineapple for filling.
- 4 Tbsps unsalted butter, cold 57 grams
- 2 Tbsps corn syrup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed 106 grams
- 1/4 tsp salt
Filling
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed 106 grams
- 2 tsps cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsps unsalted butter, room temperature 28 grams
- 2 tsps lime juice
- 1/4 cup large flake coconut, unsweetened 15 grams
- 4 oz cream cheese
Instructions
Dough
- Reserve 1/4 cup of the flour to use on your work surface when you roll out the door.
- Combine the water, milk, eggs and melted butter.
- Combine the flour, salt and sugar.
- Add the ingredients to your bread machine in order recommended by manufacturer. Mine is wet, dry and then yeast on top.
- Set bread machine to Dough cycle.
- Manual- sprinkle the yeast over the water. Reserve 1/4 cup of flour for work surface later. Mix the remaining dough ingredients and add them to the water/yeast mixture. Cover and let mix rest 15 minutes then turn the dough out to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and supple. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Topping
- While dough is rising Butter 2 8" round pans or a 9 X 13". Sprinkle the coconut evenly over the bottom of the pan(s). Measure out the 1/4 cup of pineapple that will be reserved for the filling and then spread the remaining pineapple over the bottom of the pan(s).
- Cook the pineapple juice in in a saucepan over medium heat until it reduces to a syrup. (Will coat the back of a spoon). Add the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt and cook until the brown sugar dissolves. Pour the syrup evenly over the bottom of the pan(s).
Filling
- Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and salt in a bowl. Mix in the butter and cream cheese to form a paste, then add the lime juice, the 1/4 cup reserved pineapple and coconut.
Assembly
- When the dough cycle is finished (or dough has risen), deflate it and roll it out on a lightly greased/floured surface to a 12 X 18" rectangle. Spread the filling over the dough leaving a 1" strip bare along the long side.
- Start with the long side of the dough that has the filling right to the edge. Roll the dough and press the bare strip well to close the roll up. Cut the dough into 1 1/2" slices. You will have 12 slices.
- Add the slices to your pan(s), cover and let rise another 45 – 60 minutes until dough is very puffy. (If you want to freeze some for future add the slices to the pan, do not go through the second rise, seal in plastic and freeze at this point.)
- Preheat the oven to 350°. If using a rectanglular pan bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Rolls should reach an internal temperature of 190° F.If using a round pan bake 30 minutes at 350°, reduce oven to 300 and bake 15 minutes more. Check that the center bun has reached 190° internal temperature. If you are concerned the out buns are getting too brown lay a strip of foil around the outside rolls during the last 10 minutes.
- When removing from the oven, let the rolls cool 15 minutes in the pan. Then invert the pan on to platter to finish cooling.
- Delicious while room or at room temperature. Seal in plastic and store a room temperature for 1-2 days. Freeze for longer storage.
- To bake from frozen – defrost buns and allow them to come to room temperature. Allow them to rise 1-2 hours (they won't be quite as puffy as they are fresh). Then proceed to bake the same as the fresh dough.
Nutrition
