Pan de Coco Recipe (Coconut Bread Recipe)
Who loves sweet coconut bread? We do! This recipe is sure to make your whole house’s mouths water.
Why I love this Recipe:
- It makes the house smell AMAZING while it’s baking
- Freshly baked rolls go with just about everything
- They are soft, fluffy and delicious!
- I love bread
Pan de coco, coconut bread, is popular along the Carribean coast of Honduras where many Garifuna or “Garinagu” live. The Garifuna people are descendants of West African, Carib and Arawak people, and they live in coastal communities of Central American.
In Honduras, the Garifuna music, food and culture have a very strong influence in all of the country, but it is most pronounced in the region on the North Coast where I lived. Coconut milk and coconut oil are both prominent features of food in this region, and Pan de Coco has both. Typically this bread is made with freshly pressed coconut milk, but the recipe below uses canned coconut milk for convenience.
Pan de Coco Recipe
Ingredients
1 can coconut milk (full fat) + enough water to equal a total of 2 ½ Cups of liquid*
3 Tbsp sugar
4 tsp yeast
1 ½ tsp salt
4 Cups flour (more or less, depending on climate)
* if using freshly pressed coconut milk, replace all liquid with it and add 1 Tbsp of coconut oil to the recipe
Directions
- Warm the coconut milk, water and sugar until it reaches 105 – 115 F (warm but not hot)
- Stir in yeast and set aside until it dissolves becomes foamy (about 10 minutes)
- Add this mixture to a stand mixer with a dough hook (or a bowl with strong spoon or dough whisk) and slowly add flour a little bit at a time until dough is elastic and still a bit sticky
- Using hands well greased with coconut oil, remove dough and form into a round. Place in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled in size (to use IP, press yogurt button, then the adjust button until “less” is selected, which is the lowest temperature setting)
- Punch down dough and form into 12 balls; place each ball in a greased 13X9” pan
- Set pan on top of oven while it preheats to 400 F
- Once balls have doubled in size, place pan in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown
- Right after taking it out of the oven, brush the tops with melted coconut oil
How to serve:
My kids and I love to eat these plain while they are still warm. We slather them with vegan butter and just eat half the pan right away. These rolls don’t ever last more than one day in my house. They go nicely with soups, chilis or really any meal that you would accompany with dinner rolls.
Thank you to our contributor Karin Martinez for our newest recipe obsession!