Sweet buttery coconut buns made with a soft yeast dough and sweet coconut filling. These are popular in China, and they should be popular everywhere! Slightly chewy, not too sweet, you can have them anytime of day!
The original recipe (which I modified) and tutorial is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx2DP9HxxQ0
Ingredients:
330-350 g bread flour; or All-purpose flour (2 1/3 to 2.5 cups)
6 g instant or active dry yeast (2 tsp.)
225 g milk (about 1 cup minus 1 Tbsp.)
25 g water (2 Tbsp.)
45 g sugar (1/4 cup minus 1 tsp.)
4 g salt (1/2 tsp. + 1/8 tsp.)
40 g room temperature salted (or unsalted) butter (3 Tbsp.)
Filling:
100 g fine unsweetened, desiccated coconut (1 cup)
60 g room temperature salted (or unsalted) butter (4 Tbsp.)
60 g sugar (1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp.)
1 large egg (50-55 g)
Egg wash: 1 egg yolk, 1 Tbsp. milk
Directions:
To make tangzhong (optional): This is an optional step, proceed to step 2 if you don’t want to make a tangzhong. Use 20 g of the flour (2 Tbsp.), 25 g water (2 Tbsp.), and 50 mL (3.5 Tbsp.) of the milk to make tangzhong. To make it, bring the flour, water, and milk up to low-medium beat, stirring constantly until thickened. It will look like sticky mashed potatoes when it is ready. Immediately remove to a heat-safe bowl to cool to room temperature.
In a mixing bowl, add the warm milk (and water if not making a tangzhong), about ½ tsp. sugar, and the yeast. Mix together and let rest for 5 minutes.
Add in the rest of the sugar, salt (and cooled tangzhong if using) and mix in. Lumps are okay. Begin adding flour, about ½ a cup at a time, and add less and less as you get closer to 330g (just in case it needs more or less flour).
Take out onto a clean surface and knead for about 5 minutes. If using a stand mixer mix on speed 2 for 2-3 minutes.
If mixing by hand, mix in the butter all at once. If using a stand mixer, add about 1 Tbsp. At a time with the mixer running on low.
Once the butter is mixed in and the dough is smoother, you can knead by hand until soft and elastic (about 10 minutes), or with a stand mixer on speed 2 for 5 minutes.
Place the dough in a butter greased bowl, cover, and rise until doubles in size, about 1 to 1.5 hours.
While the dough rises, make the filling. Mix the sugar, soft butter, and coconut together. Add just enough egg until it is like a sticky thick consistency (but not wet). It needs to be firm enough to shape into balls. I used about half an egg. Cover and set aside.
Note: you can just shape and cut these buns like cinnamon rolls, which is an easier process. But, if you do want to try the swirl buns: see the YouTube video linked above for guidance.
Take out and divide into 8 pieces. Shape into balls. Cover with plastic wrap so they don’t dry out.
One at a time, flatten each ball into a disk, place about 2 Tbsp. Filling inside reach one, and wrap it up, like a dumpling, to encase the coconut filling.
Cover again and let rest about 15 minutes.
Roll each ball out into a large oval, about 4 mm thick. Cut 5-7 slices lengthwise in each, leaving about a ½ inch uncut on both ends.
Grab the uncut ends and twist it up, then swirl it onto itself, tucking the other end under itself to make a swirl bun. Repeat with the other buns.
Place on a parchment lined baking it tray, lightly brush with egg wash and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Let rise one more time, until doubled.
Preheat the oven to 355°F.
Brush with egg wash once more, don’t be too generous.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway, until golden all over, or 200°F internally.
Let cool on the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, cover in an air-tight container.
Leftovers can be stored at room temperature up to 3 days.
The ingredients I used.
The start of the tangzhong, flour, milk, and water mixed together.
After cooking, it sort of looks like mashed potatoes and thickened a lot.
Remove and let cool.
Mix the warm milk (and water if not making a tangzhong), sugar, and yeast together.
And rest about 5 minutes.
Then add the rest of the sugar and the tangzhong.
And mix together, lumps are okay.
Then begin adding flour, mixing between each addition.
After adding about 330 g flour it was pretty stiff. So time to start kneading!
Take out onto a clean surface.
And knead until it is smoother.
Then add the butter. And mix it in.
First it will get messy.
Then it will get smoother once the butter is all mixed in. Next we need to knead it some more.
After kneading until smooth and elastic. It's ready!
Place in a greased bowl, and it will be covered before the first rise.
Meanwhile, you can make the coconut filling.
my coconut was somewhat small, but I wanted to get it a little finer...
So I pulsed it a few times in a food processor, until it looked like this
Then add the fine coconut, sugar, and soft butter to a mixing bowl.
And mix together.
Then add some of the egg, not too much.
And mix in. It should still be a little firm, but sticky (basically, rollable consistency).
The dough after rising. It rose a little slowly, so I poked it a little to make sure it was okay.
Divide into 8 pieces and roll gently into balls.
Take one dough ball at a time.
Flatten it, and place the coconut filling inside.
Then wrap it up like a dumpling, encasing the coconut filling.
And once you're done with them all let them rest, covered, for 20 minutes.
The next part is tricky, if you decide to go with this shaping method.
Take one doughball at a time, and roll it out.
Cut some lines into it, leaving the ends intact.
Then twist it up and swirl it, tucking the end underneath (the Youtube Video linked above shows this better than I can in photos)
Lightly brush with egg wash, cover and let rise.
After rising and brushing again with egg wash. Ready to bake!
After baking, mine did not brown super easily, but that is probably because rotating the pans in the oven. I might have been able to squeeze them all on one pan for better results.
Remove to a wire rack to cool. And enjoy!