Sink your teeth into these pillowy Chinese bakery-inspired coconut buns. These milky soft buns are laced with fragrant ribbons of coconut and vanilla flavor. They’re delicious with a cup of tea or coffee!
This Chinese bakery-inspired coconut bun recipe has been a long time in the making. My initial inspiration came from a sliced coconut bread that Mama Lin used to buy from Chinese bakeries. The bread was like Japanese milk bread with ribbons of sweet coconut running inside and on top of the loaf. It was one of my favorite treats and I wanted to recreate that nostalgia at home.
However, trying to develop a recipe for that bread has proven to be more difficult that I imagined. Although I baked one loaf successfully, I haven’t been able to replicate that success. The loaves constantly cave inwards during the cooling process, probably from the weight of the filling.
Street Style Thai Coconut Ice Cream
For now, that recipe is on the back burner. Instead, I reconceptualized the coconut bread and turned it into 6 twisted coconut buns. The buns deliver a lot of fragrant flavor without being too sweet. The bread has hints of milky flavor. You also get coconut flavor from Bob’s Red Mill’s Unsweetened Shredded Coconut and rich vanilla notes from vanilla bean paste.
One quick note before I get to the recipe: these coconut buns are not the same as Chinese cocktail buns (雞尾包). The filling in cocktail buns are usually more moist and sweet. Also, the filling doesn’t usually have vanilla flavor.
For the dough, you’ll need Bob’s Red Mill’s Artisan Bread Flour. If you are familiar with my Asian bread recipes, you’ll know how much I love using Bob’s Red Mill’s flour for my bakes. The texture of my breads are consistently good when I use Bob’s Red Mill’s flours. Moreover, their flours are usually easily accessible in grocery stores. Here are several other bread recipes that I developed using Bob’s Red Mill flours: Japanese milk bread, pineapple buns (bolo bao), and baked scallion bread.
Cocktail Bun (雞尾包) Chinese Coconut Bun
In addition to bread flour, you’ll need whole milk, sugar, active dry yeast, powdered milk, melted unsalted butter, and an egg. I prefer whole milk because it gives the bread richer flavor and the fat content helps make the bread soft. The powdered milk enhances the milky flavor of the bread. In my other bread recipes, I’ve used condensed milk instead of powdered milk and sugar. Many people have asked me for a dough recipe that doesn’t use condensed milk. That’s why I developed this version using powdered milk instead. Plus, leftover powdered milk is easier to store for a long time.
The first step in making the dough is activating the yeast. To do that, pour the milk into a microwave-safe bowl or a measuring cup and heat on high for about 30 seconds. The milk should be warm but not scalding hot, somewhere between 100ºF to 115ºF. In previous recipes, I said that the milk should be between 110ºF to 120ºF. Having baked more of this style of bread, I’ve found that it’s okay if the milk is slightly cooler.
Once you heat the milk, add 35 grams (3 tablespoons) of sugar and the yeast to the warmed milk and stir together. Technically, you don’t need to use all that sugar to activate the yeast. However, I can be forgetful and will omit the remaining sugar later on if I don’t deal with the sugar at once. Let the milk and yeast mixture sit for 5 minutes. After the resting period, the yeast develops a thin foamy layer at the top (see photo above, right), which is an indication that the yeast is active. If you don’t see any foaming activity at all, your yeast may have expired or your milk may be too hot or cold.
Coconut Buns (chinese Cocktail Buns) 雞尾包
If you are using instant yeast, you do not need to activate it. In other words, you do not need to heat the milk and mix the yeast with the milk. Simply add the instant yeast along with the other ingredients for the dough into the bowl of your stand mixer. Then, start mixing and kneading the dough. Note that if you used milk straight out of the fridge, the dough might not rise as high because the dough is colder.
When you have measured and prepared all the ingredients for the dough, add them into the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix the dough on low until you don’t see any loose flour on the sides of the bowl. This should take 30 seconds to 1 minute. If you start out using a high speed to mix the flour, the flour will fly out all over your counter.
Next, increase the speed to medium-low and work the dough for 8 minutes. The dough will wrap around the dough hook. Once the dough has mixed for 8 minutes, it should feel supple and lightly moist. However, the dough shouldn’t stick to your fingers when you squeeze it and let go.
Coconut Buns With Sweet And Milky Coconut Filling
Even though I provide weighted measurements for the ingredients, I know we all work in different kitchen conditions, which can affect the hydration levels of the dough. If the dough feels very sticky when you squeeze it with your fingers, add another tablespoon of bread flour and work the flour into the dough. Then test the texture of the dough again with clean hands. If the dough is still very sticky, add another tablespoon of flour and work it in. Conversely, if the dough is dry (and you can tell because the dough isn’t wrapping around the dough hook consistently), add 1 tablespoon of milk and work it into the dough.
Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a surface and knead a few times. I don’t usually flour the work surface because the dough doesn’t stick to my hands or the work surface. If the dough is still feeling sticky, lightly dust your work surface and knead the dough several times.
Shape the dough into a ball and place the dough inside a greased mixing bowl (photo above, left). Cover the bowl with a damp towel (or a silicone lid) and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, until the dough doubles in size (photo above, right).
Chinese Coconut Buns (cocktail Buns)
If you have made my other Asian bread recipes, you’ll know that I generally use tangzhong, a paste made of water and flour heated together. Tangzhong gives bread a soft and pillowy texture.
When I tested this coconut bun recipe, I noticed that the tangzhong-based dough puffed up too much during the second rise and while the buns baked. As a result, the twisted knot in the coconut buns would unravel or lose its definition. That’s why I decided to omit the tangzhong here. To ensure that the buns are soft, I’ve included adequate amounts of fat from the butter and whole milk.
The filling consists of Bob’s Red Mill’s Unsweetened Shredded Coconut, sugar, ground turmeric, melted unsalted butter, an egg yolk, and vanilla bean paste. I love the way the texture of the shredded coconut contrasts with the soft texture of the buns. To enhance the yellow color of the filling, I added a trace amount of ground turmeric to the filling (1/16 teaspoon). However, you can omit the turmeric if you don’t like it. I also wanted a strong vanilla flavor in the buns, so I used vanilla bean paste for the filling. If you don’t have vanilla bean paste, you can use vanilla extract instead.
Pan De Coco
After you mix the ingredients for the filling, chill the filling in the fridge for 20 to 25 minutes. It’ll make the bun shaping process less messy later. The filling can harden in the fridge if you leave the bowl uncovered for a longer period (over an hour). If it hardens, let the filling sit out at room temperature for 20 minutes or so to soften it slightly. You can also cover the bowl, which helps to keep the filling from stiffening.
Line a large sheet pan (13×18 inches or larger) with parchment paper. If you have another baking sheet of the exact same size, I recommend stacking it underneath the lined baking sheet. When you stack 2 baking sheets of the same size, the rims of the sheets will touch, but there will be a gap between the top and bottom sheets. The gap helps to keep the bottoms of the buns from overbrowning.
You can see from this experiment I did with my baked Chinese BBQ pork buns the difference the sheet stacking makes. The bun on the left was baked on stacked sheets while the one on the right was baked on a single sheet.
Vietnamese Coconut Banana Bread Pudding (bánh Chuối Nướng)
Take the chilled filling and divide it into 6 equal pieces of about 25 to 28 grams each, about 1 1/2 tablespoons. I usually use a medium cookie scoop to divide the filling.
Punch down the risen dough to remove excess air. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces of about 112 to 115 grams each. Shape the dough into an oval. Cover 5 pieces of dough with a
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