These Lemony Hong Kong-Style Inside Out Sourdough Coconut Buns, are soft milk buns with a moist and sweet shredded coconut-based filling.
My coconut buns are naturally leavened and feature lemon zest in the dough and filling for a delightful lemony-coconut flavor. I also used a portion of home-milled whole grain einkorn flour for good measure.
Aparna, of My Diverse Kitchen, chose these delightful Inside Out Coconut Buns as the bake of the month for the Bread Baking Babes. She adapted her recipe from this one https://healthynibblesandbits.com/coconut-buns/
Inside Out Coconut Buns represent a twist on a theme
These inside out coconut buns are a non-traditional take on Hong Kong Cocktail Buns, which are small sausage-shaped sweet buns with dough-piped stripes and sesame seeds sprinkled on top.
These sweet buns are referred to as inside out because once the dough is rolled out and spread with filling, it is sliced, and then twisted to reveal the coconut filling on the outside.
Shaping these Sourdough Inside Out Coconut Buns
Coconut buns can be formed into a variety of different shapes. I want to try all of the different shaping methods, but for this post, I went with the twisted round buns.
Here are some videos that demonstrate different ways to shape the coconut buns:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7MjKtnPBeo for plain snail buns
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rMUF9ltuyI for twisted round buns
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yykpk1KjDQk for heart-shaped buns
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWs3QT8LvhI for twists
Double the filling for these Sourdough Inside Out Coconut Buns
The only thing I would change when I make these coconut buns again is to make more filling and spread it over the entire rolled out bun instead of just one side.
I like the method that Sarah utilizes on The Woks of Life. She spreads the filling over the entire bun, rolls it up into a log, then slices it lengthwise. This way, you get more filling, and based on her photos; it shows up more prominently on the outside.
What Sarah says about her Inside Out Coconut Buns
“Coconut buns are a beloved Chinese bakery favorite, but the coconut filling is often lumped in the middle. This “inside out” version has coconut filling evenly distributed throughout the soft bun!” Sarah Leung of The Woks of Life blog”
Using Baker’s Percentages to Create Sourdough Inside Out Coconut Buns
Recently, I’ve been experimenting with naturally-leavened enriched dough so I felt fairly confident these buns would perform well using a sourdough starter instead of dried yeast.
I started by converting the ingredients to baker’s percentages. Fortunately for me, Aparna provided both the weight and volume measurements which made it easy to get the percentages.
In my experiments, I’ve been using varying amounts of sourdough starter. For these buns, I went with a 12% starter-to-flour ratio. This amount of leavening requires a longer ferment on the counter; but produces a sweet dough without the sour notes from the starter.
I fed my starter the evening before using my typical cadence of 30 grams starter to 65 grams of water and 65 grams of flour, and let it rest on the counter overnight until it was active and bubbly; about 8 hours.
Baker’s Percentages for the dough for Sourdough Coconut Buns
Total flour weight
= 360 grams / 100% (including flour used in starter)
- All-purpose flour – 74%
- Whole Grain Einkorn Flour – 20%
- Sugar – 8.3%
- Sea Salt – 1%
- Milk Powder – 2.7%
- Coconut Milk – 43%
- Sourdough Starter (100% hydration) – 12%
- Large Egg – 13.8%
- Lemon Zest – 1.6%
- Butter – 13.9%
Lemony Hong Kong-Style Inside Out Sourdough Coconut Buns
- Yield: 6 Buns 1x
Description
These Lemony Hong Kong-Style Inside Out Sourdough Coconut Buns, are soft milk buns with a moist and sweet shredded coconut-based filling.
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 266 grams all-purpose flour, 2 1/8 cups (measured with spoon & sweep method)
- 72 grams whole grain einkorn flour, 1/2 cup + 1 scant tablespoon
- 43 grams sourdough starter
- 155 grams coconut milk (or regular milk), 2/3 cup
- 30 grams sugar, 3 tablespoons
- 10 grams powdered milk, 2 tablespoons
- 4 grams fine sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon
- 50 grams unsalted butter, melted, 3 1/2 tablespoons
- 1 large egg (50 grams)
- 4 grams / 2 teaspoons Lemon zest (Zest of 1 large lemon = 1 Tablespoon / 6 grams)
For the Coconut Filling:
- 50 grams, unsweetened shredded coconut, 1/2 cup
- 45 grams sugar, 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon
- 45 grams unsalted butter, 3 tablespoons, melted
- 1 egg yolk, from a large egg, 19 grams
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste/ extract, 4.2 grams
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 2 grams
For Brushing:
- Egg Wash or milk
Instructions
Make the Dough:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all of the ingredients except the lemon zest.
- Mix on low until you have a soft, smooth and elastic dough, 2-5 minutes. Adjust liquid and flour, in small increments, if required to reach this consistency.
- Add 2 teaspoons lemon zest and mix on low for 1-2 minutes, until thoroughly incorporated throughout the dough.
- Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a surface and knead a few times. Ideally, your dough should pass the “window pane” test. Or, you can perform a couple of stretch and folds at 30-minute intervals during the first hour of the bulk ferment.
- Shape the dough into a ball and place in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp towel or bees wrap, and let it rise for 3-4 hours, until the dough doubles in size.
Make the Filling:
- Using a spoon, mix together in a bowl all the ingredients for the filling, till combined.
- Cover and refrigerate the filling for about 20 to 30 minutes to chill. The filling should still be of a spreading consistency when you take it out. Do not let it harden.
Shape Twisted Round Buns:
- Gently knead the risen dough to degas it. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. (My total dough weight was 674 grams / 6 pieces = 112 grams per bun.) Work with one portion at a time and cover the other pieces of dough with a towel.
- Take the chilled filling out of the refrigerator and divide it into 6 pieces as well. Each portion should be equal to about 1 ½ tablespoons of filling.
- Roll out one piece of dough into a rectangle about 10 x 4 inches long. Take one portion of the filling and spread it over half of the rectangle, along its length. Fold the other side over the filling and press lightly to seal the edges. You should now have a long and thin rectangle.
- Using a sharp knife, make 2 or 3 cuts along the length inside the rectangle, leaving about 1/4 to 1/2 inch at the short edges intact. Holding the short edges with your hands, pull very gently to stretch the dough, then twist the dough a few times. Fold into a knot. Tuck both ends under. The filling should show up in layers on the outside of the shaped dough.
Final Proof and Bake the Coconut Buns:
- Transfer the knotted dough to a lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Cover the coconut buns loosely with a towel or bees wrap and allow them to rise till double in size, about 2 ½ -3 hours. When ready. Brush the tops with egg wash or milk. (I used the leftover egg white from the filling and added a splash of water.)
- Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Bake the buns for about 25 minutes till they’re a beautiful golden brown in color. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
- These buns are best consumed while they’re still a little warm. They will keep for 2 or 3 days. Refrigerate or freeze them if you live in warmer climates. Warm them up before eating.
- Category: Sweet Coconut Buns
- Cuisine: Chinese
Who are the Bread Baking Babes?
We are a group of bread bakers who get together every month and bake bread! We have a Facebook group if you’d like to bake along. New recipes are posted every month on the 16th.
Aparna, of My Diverse Kitchen, is the host kitchen this month. If you want to bake along with us as a Buddy, check out her blog for details on how to participate. She’ll send you a Buddy badge, and feature you in the round-up. Deadline to get your e-mail to her is August 29th.
Check out the different variations for this month’s bake:
My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna (Host Kitchen)
Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
Bread Experience – Cathy
Feeding My Enthusiasms – Pat
Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy
blog from OUR kitchen– Elizabeth
Thyme for Cooking – Katie (roundup)
Happy Baking!
Cathy
More filling, now why didn’t I think of that! You’re right, I definitely like doing the mini babka treatment to twist them up, so pretty and inside-outy! Your sourdough twists are gorgeous.
I wish I had thought about adding extra filling when I made these. I do like the twists.
I love the addition of lemon zest! What a nice twist (no pun intended)!
The lemon zest was a nice twist.
The lemon is such a great idea. I’m not sure about extra filling…I had enough trouble with the filling I had, but it would certainly taste good, especial with lemon-coconut!
Working with the filling was a bit tricky with this particular method. Next time, if I add more filling, I will try a different shaping method. They taste great so perhaps I don’t need those extra calories anyway.
Oooh – Lemon. I love lemon. I’m coming to your house
You’d better hurry because they are almost gone.
You made them with sourdough starter! You are brilliant. So are the buns. I really like the idea of lemony filling. Like you, I also wanted more filling. What a good idea to use Sarah’s Woks of Life method for filling and twisting. (Silly me; I used that method to make Banana Cinnamon Ring Bread in 2012. Too bad I forgot. Duh.)
Actually, I didn’t use her method. I found it after I had already made the buns, but I really like the way she shaped them so I will try it next time.
Banana Cinnamon Ring Bread sounds divine.
The Banana Cinnamon Ring Bread was delicious! I really don’t know why I haven’t made it again. It’s so so so good!
Before turning it in to ring bread, I had made banana cinnamon buns basing them on a recipe in the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown, notes about the recipe from Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks, and shaping by Petra (Chili und Ciabata). The shaping for the buns is really pretty too…. However, the recipe in the Tassajara Bread Book is insanely hard and frustrating to follow. It’s one of those books that on page 53, tell you to make the dough for the bread on page 14, adding the ingredients on page 54, and follow the method on page 19. Or something ridiculous like that. (I made up those page numbers. I neglected to record them in my scrawled notes taken after reading a library copy.) For my website link, I inserted the link to our revised recipe – in volume measures only. I made the bread before we had a reliable scale. I think you neeeeeeed to make this ring bread.
Duh again. I used Sarah’s Woks of Life method when we made Russian Roses in October 2012 too.
Banana cinnamon buns. Oh my! I definitely need to try that sometime.
I know what you mean about some recipes in cookbooks being hard to follow. I understand why they do it though. But it can make it tricky for the end users – or end readers.
I need to look at the ring bring for sure. I also need to revisit some of the bakes the BBBs did over the years. So many breads, so little time.