Gai Mei Bao - Chinese Coconut Buns/Cocktail Buns

Cocktail buns aka Chinese Coconut buns has its origins in Hong Kong which is a sweet bun,filled with a buttery, milky sweet coconut paste. This bun was created some time in the 1950's in Hong Kong, when the owners of a local bakery were left with quite a few unsold but perfectly good buns.Then the owners  ground them up with sugar to make a filling which was put into freshly baked buns the next day. While the original buns were made with filling made only from left over buns and sugar, some more creative bakers eventually added more flavour to the new buns by adding coconut, butter and milk to the filling. This has now become the accepted filling for these Chinese Cocktail/ Coconut Buns.

These Buns are typically topped with two stripes (though i topped with three stripes) and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. While they are quite easy to make, you need to make sure that the filling is sealed well inside the dough. Otherwise, the seams will open up when the buns rise and the butter in the filling will leak out during baking. Some recipes call for these buns to be brushed with a sugar or honey glaze as soon as they come out of the oven. If you want to use the glaze, mix together about half a tablespoon each of caster sugar and hot water for the sugar glaze or a tablespoon of honey and half a tablespoon of water for the honey glaze. But i didnt made the glaze and left it, this delicious Coconut buns goes to this month's We knead to Bake, a baking event by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen.

Recipe: The Woks Of Life

Bread Dough:

2cups All purpose flour

1+1/2tbsp Corn starch

1tsp Instant yeast

3/4tsp Salt

2/3cup Warm milk

1no Large egg

1/4cup Sugar

For Filling:

1/8cup Milk powder

1/3cup Grated coconut

1+1/2tbsp All purpose flour

50grams Butter (room temperature)

1+1/2tbsp Sugar

For topping:

2tbsp All purpose flour

2tsp Sugar

25grams Butter (room temperature)

Milk for brushing

1tbsp Sesame seeds

Take all the ingredients for the bread dough in a bowl and knead everything well until you get a soft and smooth dough. If the dough is sticky, knead in little more flour.

Shape it as a ball and place in a greased bowl, wrap it and let it rise till the dough, double in volume atleast for 2 hours.

Meanwhile prepare the filling, mix together all the ingredients into a paste and keep aside.

Mix all the ingredients for topping in a bowl, transfer this mixture to a piping bag and keep aside.

Once the dough doubled the volume, punch down the dough and divide the dough into six equal sized dough balls.

Knead the dough ball well and roll it roughly as a oval shaped disc, drop enough filling (a tablespoon of filling), then pinch together the two long edges of the dough over the filling, seal it well by tucking the ends to form a smooth oval shaped buns with round ends.

Make sure the buns been sealed well or else the filling will leak while baking.

Place the buns on a lined baking tray and let it sit for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet over a baking tray, keep aside.

Brush the buns with milk, now cut the tip of the piping bag and pipe two or three lines across the length of the buns. 

Sprinkle some sesame seeds on the top of each bun. Bake for 20-25minutes till the buns turns golden brown.

Serve warm or at room temperature with a cup of tea or coffee for snacks.