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 ¼-1/8 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 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 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
Christopher
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
Lisa
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.
JASCENTH
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.
★★★★★
Ccobe
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!
★★★★★
Lisa
I'm so glad you enjoyed!!
La’ Shell S
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.
★★★★★
restaurantthatdeliversnearme.website
Thanks for the Jamaican coco bread recipe.
Kathy Willis
I just made a double batch for use in 3 days. Does this coco bread freeze well?
★★★★★
Lisa
I've never tried to freeze it Kathy but bread generally freezes well so I'm guessing this will too. I hope you enjoy!
Ashley
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!
★★★★★
TAT
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.
Lisa
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.
tat
Sorry for not being clear. It is definitely called coco bread in Jamaica but it is never folded twice.
Andrea
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.
Val
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.
Tonya
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. 😁
Lisa
I'm glad you enjoyed. Keep me posted on the next batch!!
Chani
Do you know what quantity of fresh yeast to use? Also would I not activate it first with the liquids? Thanks
Kemisha Clarke
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.
★★★★★
Zulma Pena
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?
★★★★★
Lisa
I bet coconut milk would work well here. I haven't tried it but I'm guessing it will be good. Let me know!
Samantha Berman
Just made these for the first time- easy and fun and absolutely DELICIOUS! Thanks Lisa xxx Sammy and Ben
★★★★★
Lisa
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
Indira Jairam
I made this for the 1st time yesterday and it came out so soft and fluffy, will definitely be making it again.
★★★★★
mel
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.
★★★★★
Jill
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.
Tammy
Could the coconut oil be substituted with coconut milk?
Lisa
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.
Elsa O Cox
I don't have coconut oil what can i use í have coconut milk
Lisa
You can use an equal amount of butter as a substitute for the coconut oil.
Andrew
Delicious bread. I used coconut milk (added the yeast to that first) and both butter and coconut oil. Thank you for the recipe.
★★★★★
Kym
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)
Heidi
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?
Lisa
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!
Heidi
This is the only recipe I've seen for coco bread that doesn't contain eggs,,,
Lenie
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.
Lisa Goldfinger
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!
Lisa E
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. 🙂
adam
We have been to the rockhouse twice in the last 6 months. So glad I found this recipe thanks for posting.
Lisa Goldfinger
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!
Cynthia Spencer
What type of flour? All purpose or Bread flour?
Lisa Goldfinger
Hi Cynthia, yes - all Purpose flour. Thanks for asking - I'll go back and specify that in the recipe.
Cynthia Spencer
Thank you! I will be using coconut milk too hope that is okay.
Lisa Goldfinger
Hi Cynthia, I've never tried it with coconut milk. I bet it will be good! Let me know.
Ashley's Naturals
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.
Lisa Goldfinger
So glad you enjoyed it Ashley!
Carol at Wild Goose Tea
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----
Rocquie
So beautiful and looks so delicious. I can't wait to try it--thank you for sharing.