Panipopo

Ingredients

The dough

• 600 gplain flour
• 80 gsugar
• 250 mlwarm milk
• or coconut milk
• 60 gbutter, melted
• 1egg
• 10 gdried yeast
• 1 teaspoonsalt

The coconut sauce

• 800 mlcoconut milk
• full fat
• 150 gsugar
• 2 tablespoonscornflour
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoonvanilla, optional

To bake

• a deep baking dish
• buttered
• room for the sauce

To serve

• warm, with the sauce
• on a Sunday morning

Directions

1. Use full fat tinned coconut milk. Light versions give a thin watery sauce. Shake it or stir it back together. Use the whole of the tin of it. That makes it both soft and rich.
2. Warm all of the milk very gently. Stir the yeast and a spoon of sugar in. Let it stand there for ten minutes. The yeast should foam visibly. Discard it and start again if not. Mixing the dry is the next step. Put the flour in a large bowl. Add the sugar and the salt to it.
3. Stir them all together thoroughly. Add the yeast milk, egg and butter. Bring it together into a soft dough. It should be soft and slightly tacky. Knead it for about ten minutes. It becomes smooth as gluten develops. Keep going through the sticky stage. Put the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover it and leave it somewhere warm. Give it about ninety full minutes.
4. Divide it into twelve equal pieces. Roll each one into a smooth ball. Roll each under a cupped hand. Butter a deep baking dish well. The dish must hold all the sauce.
5. Use something with real sides. Set all the balls in the dish. Leave small gaps between them. A small gap to start is enough. Cover the dish and leave them to rise. Give them about forty-five minutes. Whisk the cornflour into a little coconut milk. Cornflour lumps if tipped in dry.
6. Mix it with cold liquid first. Combining it is straightforward enough. Whisk that into the rest of the coconut milk. Add the sugar and the salt to it. Add the vanilla if you are using it. It stops it from tasting flat. Warm the sauce gently to dissolve the sugar. Do not let it come up to a boil.
7. Warm it only enough to dissolve. Stir it constantly as it warms. Heat the oven to one hundred and eighty degrees. Pour the sauce carefully around the buns. Pour it around rather than over them.
8. Pour it slowly down the side of it. The sauce should come partway up. Bake them for about thirty-five minutes. The buns need to cook through. Let them stand for ten minutes. They are easier to serve warm than hot. Lift them out with their sauce. Spoon extra sauce over all of them. Do not serve them dry at all ever.

Technique

• The buns bake sitting in the coconut cream rather than being baked and then sauced: the bottoms soak it up and go soft and saturated while the tops stay above it and brown, and that contrast is the whole point. Pour the sauce around rather than over the risen buns, since pouring over deflates them, and bring it only about a third of the way up so the tops stay clear.
• Use full fat tinned coconut milk — light versions give a thin watery sauce and the fat is what makes it rich. Shake or stir the tin first, since it separates into thick cream over thin liquid, and use the whole tin.
• Warm the sauce only enough to dissolve the sugar and never let it boil, since boiling coconut milk can split it. Mix the cornflour with a little cold coconut milk before adding it, since it lumps if tipped in dry.

Substitutions

• Coconut milk stands in for dairy milk in the dough as well.
• A pinch of salt in the sauce sharpens the sweetness and stops it tasting flat without making it salty.

Variations

• Pani comes from the English bun and popo is coconut in Samoan, so the name is exactly coconut buns and records the borrowing directly.
• Use a deep dish with real sides, since a shallow tin overflows — the buns sit in liquid throughout.
• Test a bun with a skewer in its upper part rather than the bottom, which is wet from the sauce.

History

Sweet buns baked sitting in coconut cream, which thickens into a sauce; a Sunday-morning staple sold outside churches.

Frequently asked questions

What is Panipopo?

Panipopo is a bread & pastry from Samoa: soft buns baked in a sweet coconut cream sauce. Sweet buns baked sitting in coconut cream, which thickens into a sauce; a Sunday-morning staple sold outside churches.

How long does Panipopo take to make?

Panipopo takes 30 minutes plus rising of preparation and 35 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes 12 buns. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Panipopo?

Yes, within limits. Coconut milk stands in for dairy milk in the dough as well. A pinch of salt in the sauce sharpens the sweetness and stops it tasting flat without making it salty.

What is the most important thing to get right in Panipopo?

Use full fat tinned coconut milk. Light versions give a thin watery sauce. Shake it or stir it back together. Use the whole of the tin of it. That makes it both soft and rich.