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Home » Recipes » Bread

Jamaican Coco Bread

Published: Jun 11, 2024 · By Lisa Goldfinger · 50 Comments · This post may contain affiliate links

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8 fluffy golden brown coco bread rolls in a basket lined with a flowery cloth napkin.
pinterest pin: Jamaican coco bread

Coco bread might just be the world's most perfect sandwich bread. Unimaginably fluffy with delicious buttery folds that open to hold your favorite filling.

Use it for sandwiches or enjoy it warm from the oven, slathered with butter and jam. Anything you'd normally pair with regular rolls or sandwich bread will be even better on this delicious authentic homemade Jamaican coco bread.

8 fluffy golden brown coco bread rolls in a basket lined with a flowery cloth napkin.

A Jamaican Twist on Buttery Rolls

Coco bread is a unique twist on the buttery yeast roll - a beloved staple in Jamaica that is served everywhere from school cafeterias to outdoor food stands to upscale restaurants. In Jamaica you'll often find it stuffed with beef patty or other sandwich fillings.

The dough is typically made with flour, yeast, sugar, salt, butter and either dairy milk or coconut milk. Sometimes coconut oil is added. What truly sets coco bread apart is its unique folded construction. It can be opened, stuffed and then folded back over the filling to make a neat and delicious package.

The origin of the name coco bread is a bit of a mystery. Some claim it's because the original recipe called for coconut milk, others say it resembles a coconut that's brown on the outside and can be split open. 

5 jamaican coco bread rolls on a rimmed baking sheet fresh out of the oven.

How I found the Best Coco Bread Recipe

How many times have you come home from vacation wanting to recreate some of the amazing dishes you enjoyed on your trip? It happens to me all the time.

It was on a family vacation in Jamaica at the Rockhouse Hotel where I fell in love with a grilled jerk snapper sandwich. It wasn't just the delicious filling, but the incredible bread it was served on – a fluffy, pillowy bread that was unlike anything I'd ever seen or tasted before.

Despite all the other tempting items on the lunch menu (the Rockhouse is one of Negril's premiere fine dining destinations) I found myself ordering that jerk snapper sandwich on coco bread every single day.

Grilled fish sandwich made on a fluffy coco bread roll with lettuce, a slice of tomato and jerk mayo.

After several years of returning to Rockhouse, my love for that sandwich only grew stronger and I finally knew I had to have the coco bread recipe! I am so grateful to Executive Chef Warren Rowe for sharing his wonderful recipe with me.

It's a thrill to make delicious buttery coco bread at home!

Coco Bread Ingredients

Here’s an overview of what you'll need:

  • All-purpose flour
  • White sugar
  • Active dry yeast
  • Kosher salt
  • Whole milk
  • Butter
  • Coconut oil

How to make coco bread

Coco bread is quick 4-step process. Here's an overview:

  1. Mix up the dough in a stand mixer.
  2. Divide dough into 10 pieces, roll into 10 balls and leave to rise for 10 minutes.
  3. Roll each ball into a flat pancake, brush with butter, fold in half, brush with more butter, fold again and leave to rise, for 10 minutes.
  4. Bake for 20 minutes, brush with more butter, and enjoy!

Here's a more detailed step-by-step overview with photos of the process:

  • Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer: flour, sugar, yeast and salt.
  • Add the wet ingredients: butter, coconut oil, milk and water.
Flour, yeast, sugar and salt in the metal bowl of a stand mixer.
  • Mix until the dough forms a ball that can be removed from the bowl.
  • Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface.
A large ball of dough on a floured surface.
  • Form the dough into a long roll and then cut it into ten equal (ish) pieces.
ten slices of dough cut from a long roll of dough, on a floured wooden surface, with a knife.
  • Roll each piece into a ball and leave the balls to rise for ten minutes.
10 balls of dough on a floured surface

Now comes the part that makes Jamaican coco bread so special and so perfect for sandwiches:

  • Roll each ball into a thin pancake, brush with softened butter, and fold in half.
A pancake shaped piece of dough next to a rolling pin, a small glass bowl next to it filled with soft butter and a pastry brush leaning on the bo0wl.
  • Brush with more butter and fold in half again.
a small glass bowl filled with a piece of softened butter next to a rolling pin, a triangular piece of dough and a pastry brush, all on a floured wodden countertop.
  • Place the little triangles of dough on a buttered baking sheet and leave, to rise, for ten minutes.
10 folded dough pieces on a rimmed baking sheet with a pasty brush in the background.
  • Use the tips of your fingers to make four light impressions in each triangle of bread.
two fingers pressing into a piece of dough.

This step is essential for keeping the bread from puffing up too much in the oven.

Uncooked dough formed into folded triangles and on a baking sheet, ready to go into the oven.
  • Bake for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven and you have coco bread!
10 baked coco bread rolls on a baking sheet.

Make it dairy free or vegan

This recipe calls for (dairy) milk but you can substitute coconut milk. Whole milk and full-fat canned coconut milk are interchangeable in the exact same quantities.

To make vegan coco bread, use coconut milk in place of dairy milk and vegan butter such as Flora Plant Butter, in place of dairy butter.

How to eat coco bread

Coco bread is incredibly versatile and can be enjoyed in many ways. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Classic Jamaican: Pair it with a savory Jamaican patty for a satisfying lunch or snack.
  • Breakfast Treat: Warm it up and slather it with butter and jam for a delicious start to your day. Or stuff it with bacon, eggs and cheese.
  • Sandwich Base: The soft interior and slightly sweet flavor make coco bread perfect for a variety of sandwiches. Get creative with fillings like roasted vegetables and goat cheese, avocado and smoked salmon, or your favorite cold cuts with mayo and mustard.
8 coco bread rolls in a basket with a couple more in the background on a wire cooling rack.

For a taste of the Caribbean, check out the recipe card notes for my jerk mayo and grilled fish sandwich filling!

Here's the Jamaican Coco Bread recipe. You can also watch how to make it in our video below. If you make this, I hope you'll come back to leave a star rating and comment. I'd love to know what you think!

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Recipe

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8 coco bread rolls in a basket lined with a flowery cloth napkin.

Jamaican Coco Bread


5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 13 reviews

  • Author: Lisa Goldfinger
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 10 rolls 1x
Print Recipe

Description

(See video below) Coco bread is Jamaica's version of sweet, fluffy, buttery yeast rolls with a unique folded construction that makes them perfect for sandwiches. The folds can be opened to hold your favorite sandwich filling. Coco bread is also just plain delicious any way you serve it.

Recipe adapted from Rockhouse Hotel chef Warren Rowe's recipe.


Ingredients

Units Scale

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 whole milk, warmed (not more than 120º F)
  • ¼ cup water, warmed (not more than 120ºF)
  • 2 tablespoons softened butter (at room temp or melted) plus more for brushing
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC and arrange an oven rack in the center position. Grease a rimmed baking sheet with butter or cooking spray.
  2. Add dry ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer with the hook attachment and mix. Add wet ingredients and mix at low speed for 5 minutes or until dough forms a ball that can be removed from the bowl.
  3. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface. Form into a log, cut into 10 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Allow balls to sit for 10 minutes, for a short rise.
  4. Place a pastry brush and a small bowl of softened or melted butter (about 3 tablespoons) on your work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll a dough ball flat (about 7 inches diameter and about ¼ inch thick). Brush with a thin layer of softened butter and fold in half. Brush top surface with butter and fold in half again. Place on prepared pan. Repeat with remaining dough pieces.
  5. When all the balls are rolled, buttered, shaped and on the pan, let them sit for 10 minutes to rise. Then, with your fingertips, press down to make four light impressions in each triangle of dough. This step keeps the dough from puffing up too much in the oven.
  6. Bake for 15-20 mins, until puffed up and lightly browned. Remove from oven and brush 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)
  7. See notes below for the Jerk fish sandwich recipe.

Notes

  • How to make vegan coco bread: To make this recipe vegan, substitute an equal amount of full-fat canned coconut milk for dairy milk and the same amount of vegan butter for dairy butter.
  • Make Jerk Fish Sandwiches on Coco Bread (serves 5): Mix ½ 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 red snapper, gray 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 surfaces. Add a lettuce leaf, a tomato slice and a piece of grilled fish. Fold the coco bread back over the fish and enjoy!
  • Prep Time: 40 mins
  • Cook Time: 20 mins
  • Category: Bread
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: jamaican

Did you make this recipe?

If you make this recipe, please let me know how it turns out for you! Leave a comment below and share a picture on instagram with the hashtag #panningtheglobe

This recipe was first published on Panning The Globe on October 10, 2013. The recipe and post have been refreshed and updated with more pertinent information and a few new photos. The recipe has been improved with clearer directions and a recipe video has been added so you can watch how to make this.

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Filed Under: All Recipes, Barbecue, Bread, Dinner, Entertaining, Fish and Seafood, Lunch and Brunch, North America Tagged With: bread, fish

Reader Interactions

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    Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

  1. Kadia

    March 12, 2023 at 3:08 pm

    I am so happy I found this recipe. It’s so easy to follow and the taste is amazing! It doesn’t matter if it folded 6 times, the taste, texture etc is what is important. I even made rolls. Thank you so much for sharing this. I will not be trying any other coco bread recipes because this is it.

    Reply
  2. Bob Bylder

    July 29, 2022 at 11:31 pm

    Good stuff

    Reply
  3. Christopher

    May 23, 2022 at 7:18 pm

    Thank you for the wonderful recipe the bread was great me and my son made it with the grilled Snapper we did and it was wonderful a little lemon deal spread on top of it instead of the other one with lettuce and tomato perfect. It is now our go to sandwich when we go on long trips have them in the cooler stop on the roadside and we have it it's good cold are hot beautiful thank you again

    Reply
    • Lisa

      May 24, 2022 at 7:03 am

      Hi Christopher - I can imagine how nice it would be to break up a long road trip with a delicious snapper sandwich on coco bread. I'm so glad you and your son enjoy this recipe. Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave a comment.

      Reply
  4. JASCENTH

    May 05, 2022 at 10:13 pm

    This was the second coco bread recipe, I tried, I had been researching recipes for a minute. This one was super easy and the taste is perfection. My niece said it was like a 'buttery cloud in her mouth' and it is a hit with my entire Jamaican family. It is permanently on the list of go to treats. Next I will have to make the fish, we are a family of fish lovers.

    Reply
  5. Ccobe

    April 06, 2022 at 3:28 pm

    This coco bread recipe is so good! I have made it lots of times, sometimes with half spelt flour and half white flour and everyone raves about it. According to my Jamaican friend they need to be rolled larger to make a sandwich out of, but either way, they are the bomb!

    Reply
    • Lisa

      April 11, 2022 at 11:23 am

      I'm so glad you enjoyed!!

      Reply
  6. La’ Shell S

    January 25, 2022 at 2:56 pm

    Fabulous recipe. I have been making this sandwich for three years now. I try to stray away from bread I just can’t seem to stop eating this awesome sandwich. Thank you! Thank you! For this deliciousness.

    Reply
  7. restaurantthatdeliversnearme.website

    July 11, 2021 at 7:08 am

    Thanks for the Jamaican coco bread recipe.

    Reply
  8. Kathy Willis

    May 23, 2021 at 7:04 pm

    I just made a double batch for use in 3 days. Does this coco bread freeze well?

    Reply
    • Lisa

      May 23, 2021 at 7:28 pm

      I've never tried to freeze it Kathy but bread generally freezes well so I'm guessing this will too. I hope you enjoy!

      Reply
  9. Ashley

    December 19, 2020 at 2:17 pm

    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!

    Reply
  10. TAT

    October 10, 2020 at 8:45 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Lisa

      October 10, 2020 at 9:44 am

      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.

      Reply
      • tat

        October 15, 2020 at 10:42 am

        Sorry for not being clear. It is definitely called coco bread in Jamaica but it is never folded twice.

    • Andrea

      April 01, 2021 at 8:54 pm

      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.

      Reply
    • Val

      November 16, 2021 at 10:26 am

      Actually, where I live in Jamaica, it’s folded twice. I just bought five packs of them yesterday and they were all in that triangle shape. In fact, when I saw this recipe and that they were used for sandwiches, I wondered how you’d make a sandwich out of the ones I buy.

      Reply
  11. Tonya

    June 09, 2020 at 12:08 pm

    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. ????

    Reply
    • Lisa

      June 09, 2020 at 7:52 pm

      I'm glad you enjoyed. Keep me posted on the next batch!!

      Reply
  12. Chani

    May 16, 2020 at 3:51 pm

    Do you know what quantity of fresh yeast to use? Also would I not activate it first with the liquids? Thanks

    Reply
  13. Kemisha Clarke

    May 15, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    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.

    Reply
  14. Zulma Pena

    May 09, 2020 at 11:53 am

    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?

    Reply
    • Lisa

      May 09, 2020 at 12:18 pm

      I bet coconut milk would work well here. I haven't tried it but I'm guessing it will be good. Let me know!

      Reply
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