Similar to the cocktail buns seen in Chinese bakeries. They contain a coconut cream filling within. Yum!
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 25 mins |
| Servings: | 32 |
| Yield: | 32 buns |
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup softened butter
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 egg, beaten (Optional)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, or more if needed
- ¼ cup softened butter
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ cup nonfat dry milk powder
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup finely grated fresh coconut
- 1 egg (Optional)
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, for garnish (Optional)
Instructions
- Place 1/3 cup sugar and milk in a small saucepan, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add 1/4 cup softened butter, and gently warm the mixture until the butter melts and the mixture is warm but not hot (no warmer than about 100 degrees F (40 degrees C). In a large bowl, stir together the yeast with 2 1/2 cups flour until well blended, and pour the milk mixture into the flour-yeast mixture. Stir in 1 beaten egg, and mix until the mixture forms a sticky, wet dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and knead for about 10 minutes, gradually kneading in 1 cup of additional flour or as needed to make a smooth, elastic dough. Form the dough into a round ball, place into an oiled bowl, and turn the dough around in the bowl a few times to coat with oil. Cover the bowl with a cloth, and allow dough to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
- Cream 1/4 cup softened butter with 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy, and stir in dry milk powder, 1/2 cup flour, and the coconut until the mixture is smooth and well blended. Set the filling aside.
- Working on a floured surface, punch down the dough, and cut into 2 equal pieces. Cut each piece into 8 equal-sized pieces (16 pieces total). Form each piece into an oblong bun, and flatten the bun with a floured rolling pin. Scoop up about 1 tablespoon of filling with a spoon, and place in the center of a bun. Pull and pinch the edges of the dough together to enclose the filling in the bun. Repeat with all dough pieces, and place the filled buns, seam sides down, onto the prepared baking sheets. Cover the buns with a cloth, and allow to rise in a warm place 1 hour.
- Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- For a glossy coating, beat 1 egg in a bowl, and brush each bun with a little beaten egg. Sprinkle each bun with a few sesame seeds.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the buns are golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.
- Cook’s Notes
- Recipe makes 16 large buns or 32 small buns.
- For bread to rise, warm oven to 150 degrees F (70 degrees C). When oven is warm, turn it off and place the covered dough into the oven for 1 hour to rise.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 129 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 19 g |
| Cholesterol | 20 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 39 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 5 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
The filling is SUPPOSED to be crumbly! If your using the pudding then its not a traditional Chinese cocktail bun its bread rolls with pudding. Also I divide the filling up equally first using a cookie scoop and sheet of parchment that way they are “almost” all equal. If you want perfectly identical buns/filling you could weigh the dough and divide accordingly and do the same with the filling. These are AWESOME traditional Chinese buns! Most of the time I use powdered coconut milk instead of the powdered reg milk for more coconut flavor and its cheap usually $1 or $2 5oz packet. I save the rest for more buns later or coconut curry chicken. Usually I sub some coconut cream for some of the butter in the filling if I have it. Store in an air tight container a day or 2 max!! Best if eaten the same day or reheated in the microwave. You can use this same recipe for coconut CREAM buns. Make the buns without filling. After they are cooled slice down the middle without cutting all the way to make a groove then fill the groove in with sweetened whipped cream w/coconut extract piped with a star tip. I make these ALOT! Traditionally Chinese cocktail buns were filled with blended day old buns from the day before to save money and waste! Thats probably where the crumbly filling came from. Most bakeries don’t do that anymore but its still traditional to have a crumbly filling. LOVE THEM
I’ve tried many recipes for cocktail buns. This is the first time buns have come out perfect. And delicious! Thank you for the recipe!
I was craving for this and was looking for the recipe. First, I checked the reviews and see what they said about it. Quite convincing, and did give it a try making. Sure enough this recipe is great. I made it and my family loves it. Thank you for sharing. Blessings
They came out great and tasted right. I halved the recipe without any issue and got 8 large buns
great recipe! buns turned out great, super fluffy. the filling tasted really good. i had to add more butter and a small amount of milk to the filling as it was very dry ( added about 1/4 cup of melted butter, and 1 tablespoon of milk)
You bet!
This was yummy! I let it rise at room temp (its been pretty hot out though) and it rose just fine. I also filled it with a pretty large heaping tablespoon. Very good recipe. Thanks!
These turned out really great! I made half the recipe as it was just for the hubby and me. I didn’t want to pay $10 for powdered milk I was never going to use so I took the suggestion of another reviewer and used instant pudding and they turned out great! Will make again!
Excellent recipe… just needed extra butter for the filling. We used 3/4 cup instead. Definitely will make again.
It was very easy to make and I have them a few more times. The only modification I made to the original recipe is I added an extra 1/2 cup of butter to make the filling easier to handle and less dry.
WOW! So easy and they came out perfect!This made 16 and there are 5 left and its only been 10 minutes..I have 2 small boys and a husband who are very picky and these buns taste exactly like the ones at the T&T market. Thank you for such an amazing recipe!!
I tried this recipe with taro inside. It still tastes pretty good.
These are really very good. Buns were soft & filling was the right consistency (it is supposed to be crumbly). I really wanted to give it 5 stars, but like another reviewer said, it seems to lack salt. Although, looking at a couple other recipes for cocktail buns, none of them had salt in the filling. Perhaps I needed to use salted butter and not unsalted? I didn’t change a single thing from the instructions. I’ll try to add a little salt next time and hopefully I can come back and give it 5 stars! I think that if I’ve never had “professional” versions of these, I might’ve given this 5 stars. But the filling just wasn’t quite right flavorwise. Also, this is the first time I’ve tried to open & grate a fresh coconut. Holy cow, that part alone took me an extra hour and I nearly worked my arm off! Next time I will buy some pre packaged coconut flakes instead.
This recipie I had to do for an assignment I thoughht it would not taste so good and i thought it had actual achohaul in it but it doesn’t, and it tastes really good. Also appropret for school.
These came out awesome. Just like the ones from the Chinese bakery. I know some reviewers were commenting that the filling were crumbly but that’s how I always got them from the bakery. Love the recipe, thanks for sharing!
Just made them and extremely impressed with how they turned out! Taste exactly how the Chinese bakeries make ’em! Instead of making them oblong shape, I made them round and put black sesame instead. Also, I followed the other reviewer and used milk and vanilla pudding instead of the dry milk (great substitute!)
These were delicious and easy to make. They were quite popular at a Chinese New Year’s celebration dinner. They all disappeared within minutes. One fresh coconut was perfect for doubling the recipe.
Wonderful dough for any sweet thing. I made these buns and cinnamon rolls with the same dough. It also freezes beautifully. After I put it back in the fridge to use the next day, I didn’t get to it for a few days AND it still rose and baked BEAUTIFUL cinnamon rolls. BUT… There is only one thing that’s missing and that’s salt. It is a bit bland without adding salt. Maybe it was accidentally forgotten in the original recipe.
The bun came out just perfect. Everyone liked the filling. Will try red bean paste filling next time!
This is a revision of my original review… torn now between 3 and 4 star (original was 4 star), but will give 4 star for benefit of the doubt. The buns were hard after sitting for several hours. This time though the dough did not deflate when I put on the egg wash. Anyone else have problems with the filling? Mine comes out still all crumbly and flaky. The recipe shows says makes 32 buns, but the recipe says it makes 16? I made 16, and I think there was so much of the filling that there was at least 1/4 cup of filling (if not more) in each, and still had a little left over. This was my 2nd attempt at this recipe. Although I gave it 4 star (for benefit of the doubt), I don’t know if I would make this again.
I just made these today and they turned out delicious, just like the bakery (see pic I added)! My husband was even impressed. I used dry whole milk instead of non-fat and it tasted great. Next time I will try and use different fillings, like custard or milk-n-raisin. This recipe is a keeper! The dough recipe itself is just like the Hawaiian sweet rolls. Great recipe, thanks Liang!!