Coconut buns, or “cocktail buns” are a beloved bakery favorite among locals in Hong Kong and Chinatowns everywhere. It combines the soft, buttery milk bread ubiquitous around Asia, with a sweet, rich coconut filling.
Often, the filling ends up baked in a big hunk in the center of the bun. When you eat it, you can rip off pieces of bread along with bits of filling so you can get both in each bite. But that got us thinking…what if everything was all evenly distributed to begin with? We decided to try making these “Inside-Out” Hong Kong Coconut Buns to do just that. They’re so pretty when baked–a swirl of soft bread and sweet coconut. They’re also surprisingly easy to make!
You can also try the more traditional Chinese Bakery Coconut Cocktail bun recipe which is really popular, amazingly good and you can make that at home too!
UPDATE: You can still use this recipe for the bread dough, but you also have the option to use our new Milk Bread recipe, which is considerably easier (and, truth be told, softer). Find our milk bread recipe here.
Here’s what you need:
For the buns:
- 6g active dry yeast (about 2 teaspoons)
- 3 tablespoons warm water
- 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
- 5 tablespoons castor sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 500g bread flour (about 3 ½ cups)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons softened butter (55 grams)
- egg wash (1 egg, beaten with a tablespoon of water)
For the coconut filling:
- 1 ¼ cups sweetened coconut flakes, plus 2 tablespoons
- 1/4 cup non-fat dry milk powder
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons softened butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 1/2 tablespoons milk
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, beat together the milk, sugar, and egg. In a large mixing bowl or mixer with a dough hook attachment, combine the flour and salt. Add in the yeast and milk mixtures.
If using a mixer, knead with a dough hook on low for a minute, and then high for 2 minutes. Then add the softened butter and knead on a medium high setting for 13 minutes. Yeah…adding the butter at this stage is kind of gross. Just trust us…knead it well, and you’ll get a smooth, soft dough.
If kneading by hand, knead for about 8 minutes and add the butter. Then knead for another 25-30 minutes (you may want to switch on the TV or something). Basically, you need to knead and develop the gluten until you can stretch a piece of dough really thin without it breaking.
Cover the bowl with a damp towel and allow the dough to rise for 50 minutes. After it’s proofed, punch out all the air and divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Let it rest for 15 minutes while you make the filling—just mix all the filling ingredients together in a bowl.
To shape the coconut buns, simply roll each piece out into a long rectangle, about 10 inches long. Spread a layer of filling onto each…
…and roll it up lengthwise like a cigar. Cut the cigar in half lengthwise, leaving it attached at one end, so it kind of looks like a long pair of pants.
Split them pants apart (we tried really hard to somehow not make that sound inappropriate and obviously failed), so you kind of just get this really long rope.
Curl up the rope like a snail to make the buns, with all the little lines of dough and filling facing up.
Place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover with a damp towel, and let rise again for another hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and brush the coconut buns with egg wash.
Bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Eat your Inside out Hong Kong coconut buns warmed with a nice cup of tea and coffee!
- 6g active dry yeast (about 2 teaspoons)
- 3 tablespoons warm water
- 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
- 5 tablespoons castor sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 500g bread flour (about 3 ½ cups)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons softened butter
- egg wash (1 egg, beaten with a tablespoon of water)
- 1 ¼ cups sweetened coconut flakes, plus 2 tablespoons
- ¼ cup non-fat dry milk powder
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 2½ tablespoons milk
- In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, beat together the milk, sugar, and egg. In a large mixing bowl or mixer with a dough hook attachment, combine the flour and salt. Add in the yeast and milk mixtures.
- If using a mixer, knead with a dough hook on low for a minute, and then high for 2 minutes. Then add the softened butter and knead on a medium high setting for 13 minutes.
- If kneading by hand, knead for about 8 minutes and add the butter. Then knead for another 25-30 minutes (you may want to switch on the TV or something). Basically, you need to knead and develop the gluten until you can stretch a piece of dough really thin without it breaking.
- Cover the bowl with a damp towel and allow the dough to rise for 50 minutes. After it’s proofed, punch out all the air and divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Let it rest for 15 minutes while you make the filling—just mix all the filling ingredients together in a bowl.
- To shape the buns, simply roll each piece out into a long rectangle, about 10 inches long. Spread a layer of filling onto each, and roll it up lengthwise like a cigar. Cut the cigar in half lengthwise, leaving it attached at one end, so it kind of looks like a long pair of pants. Split them pants apart (we tried really hard to somehow not make that sound inappropriate and obviously failed), so you kind of just get this really long rope. Curl up the rope like a snail to make the buns, with all the little lines of dough and filling facing up.
- Place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover with a damp towel, and let rise again for another hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and brush the buns with egg wash. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Liane says
I have made ALL your baked Chinese bakery recipes with the milk bun recipe and I just have to say thank you, thank you and thank you! This base recipe is a no fail and everything turns out so beautifully and definitely yummy. The HK egg tart was a super hit with family and the bbq pork puffs just superb. Always love to get the email indicating your new recipe posts and I’ve tried so many of them. Thanks Bill, Judy, Sarah & Kaitlin!
Sarah says
You’re welcome, Liane!
Bob says
True this inside out HK coconut buns recipe and it turned out pretty good considering I had to make some substiutions due to what I had available:
1) used all-purpose instead of bread flour.
2) used raw and brown sugars instead of castor and white sugars, respectively.
3) I didn’t have any dried milk powder.
Will DEFINITEY make it again with ALL correct ingredients to make it more fluffy. I’m tryouts g to replicate the coconut buns from JJ’s Bakery in Arcadia, CA….and these were definitely close!!
Thanks!!
Question – do you have a hand-pulled noodle recipe you can share? I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE to be able to make these at home. Thanks!!!
Sarah says
Hi Bob, thanks for sharing your findings/results on the coconut bun recipe. We don’t have a hand-pulled noodle recipe yet, but we do have a biang biang noodle recipe here: https://thewoksoflife.com/2017/01/cumin-lamb-biang-biang-noodles/. They’re wider and flatter than hand-pulled noodles, but it’s a start!
Kathy says
These turned out so much better then I expected due to some changed I had to make. I used unsweetened almond milk for all the milk. (dough and filling). I didnt have any milk powder, so I used 3 Tbsp. cornstarch, 3 tsp. vanilla extract, and added an extra Tbsp of (Almond) milk to the filling to a total of 3 1/2 Tbsp total of milk in the filling. Will be making again real soon. Thank you for this recipe.
Sarah says
Thanks for sharing your experience, Kathy!
Judie says
I have been looking for this recipe. I grew up eating Chinese bakery in San Francisco. Golden Gate Bakery had a coconut roll similar to this. It’s not a spin off of the cocktail bun. I love it. Thank you for the recipe. But I think, I’m going to make, rolling the dough like an American cinnamon roll. This will give it the look that I remember.
Sarah says
Great idea, Judie!
Emily says
I tried out your recipe because the buns look amazing, but when I tried to stretch out the dough it doesn’t look as smooth as yours in the picture despite kneading it for over 30 minutes. Do you have any suggestions as to what I’m doing wrong?
Sarah says
Hey Emily, the only thing I can think of is that it might be too dry to be elastic? It could have to do with the way you measured the flour (it shouldn’t be “packed” into the measuring cup), or perhaps the climate in your kitchen!