Filipino Pan de Coco Recipe (2024)

Ingredients

First, gather your ingredients. You’ll need pantry staples like milk, sugar and all-purpose flour. A few key things to remember:

• Dry yeast – in this recipe, I use active dry yeast as opposed to instant yeast — more on that below.
• Coconut milk – we use this for the filling. Make sure you’re getting milk, and not coconut cream.
• Shredded coconut (or desiccated coconut / grated coconut) – I’ve used both sweetened and unsweetened coconut for the filling and didn’t see that much of a difference. Use whatever you have on hand.

Other than these, you’ll need mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons, and baking pans.

How to make the buns

(1) In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir warm milk, sugar and yeast until combined.

(2) Let stand until bubbly (about 10 minutes).

(3) In a large bowl if mixing by hand, or using the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, stir yeast mixture, flour, sugar, salt and egg until combined, the dough sticks together in a ball and becomes smooth and elastic. Add more flour a little at time if your dough is too sticky, but no more than ¼ cup.

(4) Take the dough from the bowl and gently shape into a ball. Transfer into another bowl that’s been greased with canola oil. Cover and allow to rise until double in size (about 1 hour).

(5) When ready, punch air out of the dough and turn into a lightly oiled surface.

(6) Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.

(7) Roll each piece into a ball.

(8) Then flatten no thinner than 2mm.

(9) Place a heaping tablespoonful of coconut filing.

(10) Fold dough over filling and pinch to seal. Reshape if needed.

(11) Place each roll, seam side down, on a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan and allow to rise a second time (about 30m).

(12) Preheat oven to 350F, brush the pan de coco with egg wash and bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Best served warm.

How to make the filling

I usually make the filling while my dough is rising.

(1) Bring coconut milk to a simmer.

(2) Add brown sugar and stir until dissolved.

(3) Add shredded coconut and salt and cook on medium heat.

(4) Cook until thickened considerably (10-15m). Stir so it doesn’t burn. Also remember that the coconut filling will thicken as it cools so you don’t want to overdo it.

Working with yeast when baking bread

You know that lovely freshly baked bread smell? That’s yeast! In addition to making dough rise, yeast also gives bread its “bready” smell.

There are two main kinds of yeast you’ll find in stores — active dry or instant rise (sometimes also called quick rise or rapid rise).

Active dry yeastneeds to be bloomed in lukewarm/warm water (about 100 to 110F) ; instant dry yeast can be added directly to dry ingredients like as flour.

I almost always use active dry yeast. I like how by blooming it in water I can guarantee that the yeast is still active.

Here’s more information about yeast that’s very helpful especially if you want to substitute one for the other.

How to proof yeast without a thermometer

If you don’t have a thermometer, you can tell if the milk (or water, if your recipe calls for that) is warm enough for the yeast by dabbing some of it on your wrist.

It should be warmer than your body temperature but not hot.

When making bread, I usually prefer mixing and kneading by hand because there’s less chance of overworking it.

However, when I’m making pan de coco, I start stirring by hand then switch to the dough hook attachment of my stand mixer because the dough is on the sticky side.

Pan de coco is supposed to be soft and fluffy so I watch my mixture like a hawk and stop as soon as I get that smooth and elastic texture. Over-kneading results to hard, dry or dense bread and we don’t want that.

Not sure what “kneading until smooth and elastic” means? Here’s a great resource that talks all about it.

Between you and me, I really don’t care all that much if bread and rolls are perfectly shaped. And so what if the filling flows over? They’re still delicious.

But if you want perfect rolls, here are some things you can do:

• Weigh your dough and divide into pieces of equal weight — this is when that kitchen scale comes in handy

• Measure each piece with a baking ruler as you flatten it to ensure they are of equal size

• Don’t flatten each piece too thinly (try not to go thinner than 2mm) or the filling will seep through

• Don’t get carried away with how much filling to put. You should be able to fold the dough over it and have enough space to pinch and seal.

Also, remember that practice makes perfect so the more bread you bake, the better you’ll get at it.

How long does it take for bread dough to rise

Storage

Filipino Pan de Coco Recipe

Pan de coco is a sweet and fluffy Filipino bread roll that’s filled with sweetened coconut and then baked until golden brown. So good!

Nutrition

Calories: 281kcalCarbohydrates: 43gProtein: 6gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 3mgSodium: 213mgPotassium: 178mgFiber: 3gSugar: 17gVitamin A: 34IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 42mgIron: 2mg

Nutritional information are estimates only.

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