Very fluffy and with a unique flavor, these buns are good to accompany stews and chilis, make sandwiches, brunch, or with afternoon tea. They keep for several days and can be frozen.
I love homemade small buns and regularly make these simple bread rolls with beer to eat with meals.
These are not so neutral but more on the sweet side. Not exactly the usual Hawaiian rolls from the supermarket, though they can be used as such.
We love coconut and though we usually use them for sweet bakes like chocolate coconut cake or coconut lime cake, coconut buns are just sweet enough and very popular.
They're sweeter and have the crunch of ground macadamia nuts, that you can omit if you just want to make coconut buns.
- Coconut: use the shredded unsweetened type. Unless you want very sweet buns, then you can use sweet coconut.
- Macadamia nuts: they go great with coconut, but walnuts or pecans can also be used.
- Bread flour: it has more gluten than all-purpose flour and lends a more rustic texture. So it's always the first choice when making this recipe. But you can use all purpose if that's all you have and you'll get very good results.
It's a straight dough which means we use dry yeast, and involve making a sponge first. The dough is easy to work with and can be made in the stand mixer with the dough hook if you don't want to involve ten minutes of arm muscle kneading them by hand.
Resting the dough
Homemade bread usually involves a lot of resting or proofing time, where the bread dough rises and the yeast creates a structure together with the gluten that developed during kneading.
Respect these times and make sure the dough doubles or rises as specified in the recipe. This will ensure fluffy, well baked rolls.
This recipe is adapted from a wonderful bread book that has nothing but lovely recipes and pictures. The whole wheat mountain bread also comes from it.
And now you trust this recipe is every bit as good as the other two. In case you didn't notice in the list on the right side of this blog, the mountain bread is my #1 ranked recipe ever.
The nice part of this bread is that it's savory with some crunch and unexpected flavors. Or hints of flavors. The macadamias and coconut are an aftertaste, very present but not completely there at the same time.
I'm thinking some thinly sliced pork tenderloin with chutney, or grilled pineapple with ham would go wonderfully with them. Or the carnitas recipe I'm cooking right now, which will be ready in about two hours.
Related recipes you might like:
Let me know in the comments below if you made this recipe and loved it and if you had issues so we can troubleshoot together. I love to hear what you think, always. Thanks for being here. It's much appreciated.
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Macadamia Coconut Buns
Very fluffy and with a unique flavor, these buns are good to accompany stews and chilis, make sandwiches, brunch, or with afternoon tea. They keep for several days and can be frozen.
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 18 buns
Ingredients
For the sponge:
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- Pinch of sugar
- 1 ½ cups bread or all purpose flour
- 2 cups warm water (not hot)
For the bread:
- 4 to 4 ½ cups bread or unbleached flour
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cups chopped toasted macadamia nuts
- ¾ cups shredded coconut (you can lightly toast it before adding it, make sure it's at room temperature)
Instructions
For the sponge:
- In the bowl of the stand mixer (or large bowl if doing this by hand), put water and sprinkle sugar and yeast over. Add flour and mix well with a wooden spoon until most lumps are gone. Some will remain. You can do this with the paddle attachment, but I think it's too much trouble.
- Cover with a clean, dry kitchen towel and let stand until bubbly and puffed, about 35 to 50 minutes.
For the bread:
- To the sponge, add 1 cup flour, oil, salt, coconut and macadamias.
- Attach to the mixer and, using the dough hook, starting mixing everything, adding 2 ½ more cups of flour, ½ cup at a time. The dough will never be very smooth because of the nuts, so check with your finger after 3 or 4 minutes of kneading. It should be soft but not sticky. If needed add ½ to 1 more cups flour. But don't end up with a dry dough. I used 4 cups total in my recipe.
- If kneading by hand, do so for 5 to 7 minutes on a clean surface, lightly flouring as necessary after the dough comes together.
- Transfer dough to a greased deep bowl, turn to grease on all sides, cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place until doubled, about 1 ½ to 2 hours.
- Dump the whole thing onto a lightly floured counter, and divide into 17 or whatever amount of pieces you want. You can also weigh the whole dough and weigh each piece to have very even buns; I never bother to do that.
- Shape each piece into a sort of ball, and then cover it with the palm of your hand, and moving your hand clock wise to your right, shape them into balls, as tight as you can.
- Grease a pan, and put the dough balls next to each other, barely touching. Cover with a clean, dry towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 30 to 40 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF about 20 minutes before baking.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until tops are dry and golden, and buns sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
- Let cool on wire rack.
Notes
- Use walnuts, pecans, or cashew nuts instead of macadamias.
- Freeze baked buns well wrapped up to a month.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Resting time: 2 ½ hours
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: International
Adapted from Bread for all Seasons, by Beth Hensperger
Tal Hason says
Looks amazingly tasty!
macadamia nuts
Marissa | Pinch and Swirl says
Beautiful! I'm thinking these would be great as little buns for fish sliders at a BBQ...
Laura@bakinginpyjamas says
The flavour's in these roll are very summery indeed. Great idea!
mireia badia says
Que bien que al final, aunque no a la primera, te saliesen asà de bien los buns, tienen una pinta genial como siempre Paula!!
Lail | With A Spin says
Great buns. Love anything with coconut.
Alice @ Hip Foodie Mom says
Paula!!
Wow! the fact that this is your 3rd time baking for this post, makes me love these more. . and omg!!! These look perfect and delicious!! I was wondering why you changed from Hawaiian Rolls. . 🙂 love this . . I could eat bread and butter all day. . adding this to my 12-page "must bake" list! 🙂 LOVE!
Natalie G says
Wow what an awesome recipe, I bet the smell and taste is unreal!!
Laura Dembowski says
I absolutely love eat street. Of course, I love most food shows. These buns look great and have such unique flavors. It seems like you made a great comeback from the failures.
Cocoa and Lavender says
What an unusual combination! They sound amazing, Paula! Oh, I am so sorry about your trials to get to this batch! Do you want to scream when this happens? I do - I made this beautiful crostata one day and when it was almost finished baking I heard a lour pop from the oven. Wondering what it was I opened to find the tart pan had cracked in two, and the middle of the crostata was headed for the oven floor. A sticky, gooey mess. I screamed. And pouted. You are probably better behaved than I. ~ David
knitstamatic says
Oh boy, bread on the floor, socks in the shower...what a day! In the end this recipe looks fabulous and I can almost smell the wonder of macadamia nuts and coconut baked into bread, yum!
Angie Barrett says
I would eat an entire pan of those! yum!
Rhu Sam says
Me encanta este pan que se divide en bollitos individuales! Me parece una idea genial para compartir. Además tienen pinta de estar muy esponjosos, ummm con un buen aceite me comÃa los 12!
Medeja says
These buns sound interesting, I would have imagined that macadamia and coconut buns would be sweet 🙂
Andrea_TheKitchenLioness says
Paula, I have never seen "summer buns" before but this recipe sounds so amazing - I am so curious how these macadamia coconut buns taste like! So, I guess I will just have to bake these beauties myself then!
Have a lovely Wednesday!
Lori @ Foxes Love Lemons says
These are so pretty! If I knew the first thing about baking bread, I'd already be out in the kitchen making them. I seriously cannot get enough coconut lately. I think I could inject it directly into my arm, and still want more. too graphic? haha.
The Ninja Baker says
Intriguing indeed how the buns have a savory flavor and only the sweet of the coconut /macadamia mix later.
My hat is off to you Paula for your diligence in getting the bread perfect for post....With social media, e-mails, telephones and technology buzzing all around, it's a wonder any of us stay mildly sane =)
Beautifully done, Paula <3
Lyn @LovelyPantry says
Oh yes, I can totally relate to having days that that. At least you can have a nice laugh about it after the fact 🙂 These buns look gorgeous and so intriguing to me. Such unusual pairing of the macadamia and coconut...brilliant. I love breads like this. 🙂