Homemade Hawaiian bread you guys! This Hawaiian bread is our family’s favorite bread out of all the recipes we’ve tried. It’s a pretty darn close copycat of the famous Kings Hawaiian bread – similar to the texture and flavor of the store bought kind. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1 large egg
• ¹⁄₃ cup milk
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons coconut extract
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₃ cups sugar
• ¹⁄₂ cup potato flakes (dried instant mashed potatoes)
• 3 ¹⁄₂ cups bread flour
• 2 ¹⁄₄ teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. Bring all cold ingredients to room temperature (pineapple juice, egg, milk, butter) if preparing right away — if your bread machine doesn’t have a setting where it does the waiting for you.
2. Add wet ingredients to the bread machine in this order: pineapple juice, beaten egg, milk, butter – cut into 1 tablespoon slices, coconut extract.
3. Add dry ingredients to the bread machine in this order:
   1. ground ginger
   2. salt
   3. sugar
   4. potato flakes
   5. bread flour.
4. Make a small well in the top of the flour mound, and pour the yeast in the well, keeping the yeast from touching any wet ingredients.

If you have a bread machine:

1. Run your machine on light regular bread.
2. Remove basket from machine immediately upon completion.
3. Let rest for 5 min before turning out.
4. Let cool at least 5 min before slicing. The bread is super soft (and difficult to cut) when warm.

If you are making rolls:

1. Run your bread machine on the dough cycle to knead the dough.
2. If your dough setting does not include rising time, let the dough rise until doubled in size – about 1 hour.
3. Grease a 13″x9″ pan or use parchment paper.
4. Divide the dough into 12-15 rolls and place next to each other in the pan, touching each other. Try to keep the balls equal size. I use a big knife or bread divider to cut into half, then cut those halves in half, etc.
5. IMPORTANT: Dough will be sticky to handle – this is okay! Do NOT add more flour! Grease your hands with oil if needed.
6. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled in size – about 1 hour – in a warm place. (If you don’t allow them to rise you will get a denser but still delicious bread but more like a biscuit.) Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
7. Bake rolls in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden on top.
8. Immediately upon removing the rolls from the oven, brush the tops with butter if you prefer.
9. Let cool in the pan until the rolls are cool enough to handle. Then remove from pan.
10. TIP: to cool, cover the rolls vented so the moisture doesn’t make them soggy. Leaving them completely open will make the rolls crusty. Keeping them in a vented bowl until they are completely cool is very important for obtaining soft rolls! Once the rolls are completely cool, seal the container. I use a tupperware.

Can I freeze my dough?

Absolutely! After the first rise, cover your dough with parchment paper or saran wrap and put it into a ziploc bag, into the freezer. When you need it, just pull it out a few hours before and you will be ready to roll and rise before baking.

Pro Tips for Making and Saving Homemade Hawaiian Bread

• The first time I made it I was overzealous and didn’t let the dough balls rise a second time before baking and they turned out more dense like biscuits but still delicious. After I followed the actual recipe and allowed it to rise once again before the final bake, it made a huge difference in the lightness of the bread.
• Make multiple batches and put the dough into the freezer for use later.
• Roll out individual balls and freeze those, then pull them out as you need and rise and bake. Would be great for hamburgers or when you don’t want to eat the entire batch in one sitting. Eating the entire batch is a real a possibility with how good these are!
• When refrigerating leftovers: the rolls will seem hard when you pulling them out of the fridge, but just toast/warm them. It’ll warm the butter in the bread and they will be soft again. Toasting them so they are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside is so yummy.
• Enjoy just like you would any other bread – except it’s better because it’s both sweet and salty. Great with preserves, cheese, whipped cream and strawberries, as pork sliders, grilled chicken, hamburgers, as hot dog buns… you name it, it works.

References

This recipe is based on the one here from Genius Kitchen with some modifications: https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/hawaiian-sweet-rolls-bread-machine-436332