Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Chinese Cocktail (Coconut) Buns





I have been dying to try my hand at making some Chinese baked goods. They seem so ethereally light and fluffy and considerably less sweet than North American baked goods. Whenever I go to Chinese bakeries I always buy the Cocktail buns.

The cocktail bun, a specialty of Hong Kong originating in the 1950s, is a bun stuffed with a filling made of sugar and shredded coconut. The shiny golden-brown exterior color comes from a combination of a light egg wash and/or sugar glaze. The chewy interior is bread-like with the coconut filling. The exterior also often has some swoosh mark made from the coconut filling and may have sprinkled sesame seeds (Wikipedia).

The recipe was really easy to follow and the filling is to die for. I would consider my buns to be somewhat successful. Definitely edible but could use some work. For the filling I although I used brown sugar instead of white because I kinda felt like being different. White sugar is probably a better choice though. I also didn't do the egg/honey wash as I was pressed for time. I am not used to working with feather-light doughs like the one and it felt like I was kneading air!

If you want to try making these, and I highly reccommend it, the recipe is from Company's Coming (Chinese Cooking) found on the About.com website at this link: Chinese Cocktail Buns

4 comments:

Deborah said...

Wow, that is ambitious! I still haven't made the cheese pennies! Love the recipes and the photos. Keep it comming!

Tia said...

Aww... thank you! You're so sweet Deborah.

Cathy said...

I regularly skip across the street (yes skip....I'm a happy gal) to the asian market for these buns. I'll have to give them a whirl at home now :)

glamah16 said...

Im always fascinated by Chinese pastris. I need to try this.