London bakery unveils Milo Dinosaur Stegosaurus Bolo Bun

Cantoast Bakery has added a new item to its menu: the Milo Dinosaur Stegosaurus Bolo Bun, a pastry that combines the Hong Kong bolo bun with Milo, the malted chocolate drink. The bun is available now at the bakery near Paddington, which specialises in Asian-inspired baked treats for customers looking to explore more than one regional food tradition.

The bolo bun, also known as a “pineapple bun”, is a staple of Hong Kong bakeries and cha chaan teng tea houses. Despite its name, it does not contain pineapple – it’s a soft, enriched bread roll topped with a sweet cookie crust that cracks during baking in a pattern that looks like the surface of a pineapple. Cantoast has retained the basic structure and introduced Milo at several stages of the recipe. The bun is filled with Milo chocolate cremeux and topped with a Milo cookie crust; it is then dusted with Milo powder and finished with piped Milo cremeux in ridges for the plates along the back of the stegosaurus. It’s a nod to the Milo Dinosaur, a drink served at hawker centres and coffee shops throughout Singapore, in which a glass of iced Milo is topped with an additional spoonful of undissolved powder. Cantoast recommend ordering it to wash the bun down with.

Manufactured by Nestlé, the powdered malted chocolate drink was developed in Australia in the 1930s and became a staple across Southeast Asia, both hot and iced. In recent years it’s been used in more desserts and baked goods, especially at bakeries in the region and in diaspora communities.

Cantoast’s wider concept is part of a trend of reworking East and Southeast Asian recipes for local markets in the UK. Over the past decade, products such as milk bread, custard buns and matcha-flavoured pastries have become increasingly common in independent cafés in London and other UK cities.

The Milo Dinosaur Stegosaurus Bolo Bun arrives in time for the school summer holidays, perfect for little dino lovers. But they needn’t worry about it going away – it’s on the menu long term, and joins the bakery’s permanent range of Asian-inspired goodies.

Food Desk

The Milo Dinosaur Stegosaurus Bolo Bun is available now at Cantoast Bakery, 21-23 Nutford Place, London W1H 5YH. For further information, visit the bakery’s Instagram here.