A recipe for authentic Jamaican Coco Bread – the most delicious sandwich bread ever – and a delicious recipe for a snapper sandwich on coco bread with jerk mayonnaise 
Whoever invented coco bread must have been trying to come up with the perfect sandwich roll – firm on the outside, tender on the inside.
And best of all – it’s constructed with buttery layers that can be opened and then folded perfectly around the sandwich filling, making a neat and delicious package.
Have you ever been on a week-long vacation and ordered the exact same thing for lunch, day after day? I have. A grilled snapper sandwich on freshly made coco bread with lettuce, tomato and jerk mayonnaise. Our family has a favorite destination in Jamaica – a small hotel called Rockhouse. We’ve gone there several times during the kids’ February vacation.
It’s set on a cliff by the ocean, and we basically sit and read and take in the view all day, with an occasional break for snorkeling. Lunch is cooked nearby, in a little open prep kitchen with picnic tables set up in front and a barbecue grill off to the side.
Once the grilling begins, it’s hard to concentrate on reading as the delicious scents of charred jerk spices start wafting over.
Year after year we all concur on how delicious the sandwiches are and say we should really get the recipe for coco bread. Well finally I did! Chef Warren at Rockhouse generously shared his recipe for coco bread and also explained how to make the grilled snapper sandwich. Now I can make it at home and so can you!
HOW TO MAKE JAMAICAN COCO BREAD
Coco bread is quick and easy. All the dry ingredients go into the mixer. The wet ingredients are added. After five minutes of kneading the dough ball is formed.
Cut the dough into ten pieces.
Roll each piece into a ball and leave the balls to rise for five minutes.
Now comes the part that makes Jamaican coco bread so special and so perfect for sandwiches:
Roll each ball into a thing pancake, brush with butter, and fold in half.
Brush with more butter and fold in half again.
Place the little triangles of dough on a greased baking tray.
After a ten minute rise, use the tips of your fingers to make four light impressions in each triangle of bread.
This step is essential for keeping the bread from puffing up too much in the oven.
After 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven, you have coco bread!
I’ve also included chef Warren’s recipe for the delicious grilled snapper sandwich that I just can’t seem to get enough of. He uses gray snapper, a tender, flaky fish that’s more abundant than over-fished red snapper.
If you can’t find gray snapper, you can substitute red snapper, mahi mahi or tilapia.
And if you’re not in the mood for fish, try making your favorite sandwich using delicious homemade coco bread.
While we’re on the topic of bread, at some point you also might want to check out this delicious recipe for no-knead olive bread.
Now here’s the recipe for Jamaican Coco Bread. If you try this recipe I hope you’ll come back to leave a star rating and comment. I’d love to know what you think!
PrintJamaican Coco Bread
Jamaican Coco Bread is perfect for sandwiches and especially good with a simple piece of grilled fish and some spicy mayo.
Recipe adapted from Rockhouse Hotel chef Warren Rowe’s recipe.
- Prep Time: 40 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: jamaican
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 packs active dry yeast or 4 ½ teaspoons
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- Wet Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups milk, warmed (not more than 120º F)
- ¼ cup water, warmed (not more than 120ºF)
- 2 tbs softened butter (at room temp) plus more for brushing
- 2 tbs coconut oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Mix all dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer with the hook attachment. Add butter, coconut oil, milk and water. Mix at low speed for 5 minutes. Dough should be a ball that can be removed from the bowl.
- Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface. Cut into 10 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Allow balls to sit for 10 minutes.
- Place a small bowl of softened butter (about 3 tablespoons) and a pastry brush on your work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll each ball flat (about 7 inches diameter and 1/4-1/8 inch thick). Rub a thin layer of softened butter over the surface of each piece of dough, using a brush or your fingers. Fold dough in half. Rub a layer of butter over the top surface. Fold again. Place onto a lightly greased jellyroll pan. Repeat with remaining pieces.
- When all the balls are rolled, buttered, shaped and on the pan, let them sit for 10 minutes. After a ten minute rise, use the tips of your fingers to make four light impressions in each triangle of bread. It keeps the bread from puffing up too much in the oven.
- Bake them in the center of the preheated oven for 15-20 mins, until they are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and brush the rolls with a bit more butter. Serve warm or allow to cool and store in an airtight container for a day or two. (They are best served fresh)
- See notes below for Jerk fish sandwich recipe.
Notes
Make Jerk Fish Sandwiches on Coco Bread (serves 5) Mix 1/2 cup mayonnaise with 1 teaspoon store-bought jerk spice. Brush grill grates or cast iron grill pan with oil and preheat to medium-high. Brush 5 6-oz snapper, Mahi-mahi or tilapia fillets on both sides with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Grill fish 3-4 minutes per side, until cooked through. Open the coco bread and spread jerk mayo on the inside bottom and top, add a lettuce leave, a tomato slice and the fish. Enjoy!
Keywords: homemade coco bread, authentic coco bread
This recipe turned out wonderfully! We used some for jerk shrimp sandwiches and the kids ate the rest as snacks. They are already looking forward to the next time we make it!
★★★★★
Jamaican coco bread is folded once, never twice. It is always good to keep the authenticity of the product if you are putting the label of Jamaican (any country) on it. Several other Caribbean countries have this recipe and they fold it twice … and they are usually called “butter flaps”. For e.g. Guyanese butter flaps.
Thanks so much for your comment. I do try to keep it authentic when posting a recipe from another country. When I change or adapt a recipe, I’m always forthright about it. However in this case I learned the recipe from a Jamaican chef when I visited Jamaica. He called it Jamaican coco bread so I assumed it was authentic. Thanks for calling my attention to this matter. I’ll look into this further.
Sorry for not being clear. It is definitely called coco bread in Jamaica but it is never folded twice.
In Jamaica, traditional Coco Bread from my grandmother’s childhood days, was always folded twice. Modern bakeries started folding the dough once to make it easier to fit around a patty for our favorite lunchtime meal.
I tried it and my bread came out great and tasted great with the exception of it not raising enough. So when I try this recipe again today, I will ise coconut milk instead of regular milk and instead of 10 minutes aside i will leave my dough to activate for 1hr minimum. Will let you know how it turns out.
Thank you for posting this recipe. I love coco bread. 😁
I’m glad you enjoyed. Keep me posted on the next batch!!
Do you know what quantity of fresh yeast to use? Also would I not activate it first with the liquids? Thanks
This recipe deserves the 5 star rating. My coco bread was soft, fluffy, and buttery. The only thing I would do differently is to use coconut milk to add more flavor but otherwise, it’s a great recipe.
★★★★★
HI. I thought that Jamaican coco bread was supposed to taste like coconut. Or at least that is how I imagined it would taste. Could I substitute the regular milk with coconut mild instead?
★★★★★
I bet coconut milk would work well here. I haven’t tried it but I’m guessing it will be good. Let me know!
Just made these for the first time- easy and fun and absolutely DELICIOUS! Thanks Lisa xxx Sammy and Ben
★★★★★
Hi Sammy! I’m so glad you and Ben like the coco bread! It is a fun recipe – I agree! Thanks for coming back to leave a comment. xoxoxo
I made this for the 1st time yesterday and it came out so soft and fluffy, will definitely be making it again.
★★★★★
Great recipe just tried it yesterday because I’ve always wanted to try using active dry yeast. I noticed it was very soft in the beginning so i added more flour to it and it was perfect. I baked it longer than the recipe called for since i didn’t bake it in a jelly roll pan i baked mine in a rectangular deep dish cake pan but it turned out amazing. I wonder if i can substitute regular milk with coconut milk? Other than this I’m definitely sticking to this recipe because it was a hit in my house. I wish i could post a picture so you all could see how cool they looked.
★★★★★
I tried this recipe and it ultimately came out delicious. When mixing the ingredients it was more like cake batter. I added 1 3/4 cup more flour and that seemed to remedy the issue. The rolls came out so soft and fluffy. Thank you for the recipe.
Could the coconut oil be substituted with coconut milk?
I wouldn’t recommend that. Substituting coconut milk for coconut oil will change the texture of the bread. You can use butter in place of coconut oil.
I don’t have coconut oil what can i use í have coconut milk
You can use an equal amount of butter as a substitute for the coconut oil.
Delicious bread. I used coconut milk (added the yeast to that first) and both butter and coconut oil. Thank you for the recipe.
★★★★★
I gave a try at this wonderful recipe. My bread came out great only one problem my dough was too soupy like so I had to keep adding flour as it was extremely sticky, other than that it was absolutely delicious! Thank you for sharing. I use it to make my hubby bacon egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast. (For work)
Also, I noticed there’s no proofing or rise time noted other than the 10 minute rest after folding. Lastly, the recipe calls for active dry yeast, but there doesn’t seem to be a step for blooming the yeast, is it rapid rise yeast?
Heidi, this recipe comes directly from Chef Warren at the Rockhouse Hotel in Jamaica. It may not be the most conventional bread recipe, but it’s an amazingly delicious recipe. I hope you’ll give it a try!
This is the only recipe I’ve seen for coco bread that doesn’t contain eggs,,,
My coco bread opened up when baking. Any idea? Also, you left out the part about indenting the dough with your fingers in the recipe.
Lenie, I’m sorry to hear that your bread opened up. I apologize if my omitting that indenting part in the recipe caused your problem. I really appreciate you pointing that out – I made the change. I hope you’ll try the recipe again with the indents – I think that is the key to keeping the dough folded while cooking. Thanks so much for letting me know!
You should pinch down the fold of the bread just a bit. Usually we have to pry that end open to put our meat patty inside. 🙂
We have been to the rockhouse twice in the last 6 months. So glad I found this recipe thanks for posting.
Twice in 6 months!? Wow, I’m jealous. I love the place so much. So you know the pleasure of sitting out on the edge of the cliff, enjoying freshly grilled fish on freshly baked coco bread!
What type of flour? All purpose or Bread flour?
Hi Cynthia, yes – all Purpose flour. Thanks for asking – I’ll go back and specify that in the recipe.
Thank you! I will be using coconut milk too hope that is okay.
Hi Cynthia, I’ve never tried it with coconut milk. I bet it will be good! Let me know.
This bread was fabulous!!!! I made a couple minor changes and made it vegan but it is so delicious. So perfect and supple. It reminds me of the bread back home (New York).
Peace and Blessings & thank you for this awesome recipe guide. Ah how I’ve missed coco bread.
So glad you enjoyed it Ashley!
Recently in Seattle I ate at a small restaurant which specialized in food from Trinidad. I had a bread there that was UNBELIEVABLY delicious. Seriously—I had never tasted a bread anything like it. It is probably a good thing that I live 2 hrs away and part of that is a ferry ride or I would be eating that bread very day. This looks different, but looks unbelievably soft. I am not much of a bread maker, but your instructions do
look simple. I am going to give it a whirl. Albeit if it’s as good as the Trinidad bread, it might be best for my hips if I failed at making it. Laughing—-
So beautiful and looks so delicious. I can’t wait to try it–thank you for sharing.