Categorized | Bits and Bites, Vegetarian

Coconut Bake A Classic Caribbean Bread.

Posted on 16 September 2011
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Yes it’s a bread, but we call it a bake. Just as the fry bake recipe I shared with you a while back, which isn’t really baked… we try our best to confuse the heck out of people with our food names. Walking into the house after school or on those days when in the rainy season it was customary to spend our evening playing football (soccer) in the muddy savanna down the road (I’m still a ball-hoe), and you would be hit with that lovely aroma of action taking place in the oven… immediate hunger would set in (even if you just raided someone’s mango tree).

If it was after football, you had to make sure and bathe before setting foot in the house and don’t ever let you mom see dry nashy skin.. so you had to grease down with baby oil or lotion… it’s amazing how fast we would go from pig to Sunday morning church clean. That fresh baked bread smell had a way of getting the best out of us. When it was coconut bake, it also meant timing it so as soon as it came out of the oven, you could have a piece with butter and/or cheese. I also recall our mom cooking a fry-dry curry shrimp to make sandwiches with the coconut bake. Good times!

Wanted to mention that though I can get dried coconut here if I look hard enough, I just didn’t feel like searching then grating etc, so I used dessicated coconut I found pre-packaged (Desiccated coconut is coconut meat which has been shredded or flaked and then dried to remove as much moisture as possible) at the grocery store. I would recommend (though I didn’t  this time) soaking it in the coconut milk to add back some life to it.

This recipe is a bit different than my mom’s or grandmother .. who BTW used a coal pot to make her’s, but you’ll find great pleasure as you rip through a steaming hot piece of this coconut bake.

You’ll Need…

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour or bread flour
1/4 cup butter or shortening (i used shortening)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon quick acting yeast
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup freshly grated coconut (I used dessicated coconut)

 

If you’re using freshly grated coconut , start by prepping that or as in my case I started with the dough. This would be the first time using our new food processor for making dough, but feel free to use your hands if you not as lazy as I am. In the food processor (or bowl) place the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and the butter or shortening and work till you get a sort of crumbs texture. I gave the food processor a few pulses and it was ready for the next step.

I then added the grated coconut and gave it another pulse, then I started to add the coconut milk and make the actual dough. You may notice that you’ll need some additional liquid, if that is the case add some water. You’re looking for a smooth and firm dough. Since I used the food processor (about 3-5 minutes), I then removed it onto a floured surface and worked the dough until it was firm and smooth as I wanted.

The next step is to cut it evenly into two pieces and and work it into the shape of the ‘bake’. You’ll need to have a flour dusted surface and a rolling pin ready. I believe I got mine about 1 inch thick and about 10-12 inches in diameter. I then used a fork to prick the surface a bit (always saw my mom do that), placed it onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Which I covered with plastic wrap and allowed to rest for about 2 0 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400F, then add the bakes (remove plastic wrap) on the cookie sheet and on the middle shelf for about 25-30 minutes or until they’re golden brown. You can always stick a toothpick in the center and if it comes our dry, it means the inside is fully cooked.

I forgot to mention that you should warm the coconut milk a bit before adding to the flour to make the dough. Day two would see us have slices of this with guava jam and tea for breakfast, before heading off to school… you felt as if you could take on the world when your belly was jam-packed with this lovey coconut bake.

Oye! before you go… Remember you can watch the cooking videos on the recipe channel and we’d love to interact with you on our Facebook fan page. There’s a few thousand of us already causing commesse on there… so do check it out.

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21 Responses to “Coconut Bake A Classic Caribbean Bread.”

  1. Kay says:
    September 16, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    Yum! Fresh out the oven coconut bake is the best! Made some a couple weeks ago (different recipe) and just about demolished half of it in one sitting. Never tried it with yeast though, just baking powder. Will give it a go next time, see if it makes for a fluffier bake. And you're right, it is very hard to explain what a "bake" is to some folks, but flatbread sounds about right…

    Reply
  2. Tuty says:
    September 17, 2011 at 10:35 pm

    Chris, have you thought of using frozen grated coconut? It is easily found in the Asian market. Some are from the Philippines, some from Vietnam or Thailand. I've been using the frozen grated coconut in my Indonesian recipes because I can't be bothered with grating the coconut myself. LOL. Of course, nothing beats freshly grated coconut.

    Reply
    • jumbieg says:
      November 11, 2011 at 1:52 pm

      Thanks for the tip. I'll have to give that a try.

      Reply
      • JinelR says:
        December 9, 2012 at 5:32 pm

        I HATE grating coconut also. My good friend from Guyana told me that after cracking the coconut and removing the husk, slice the nut into thin pieces. Then put them ( use 1 hand full of the sliced coconut with the water) in a blender/food processor and add just enough water to make them blend. I use the "Crush Ice" option.

        Strain the water out of the blended coconut and reuse that same water to blend the other pieces of coconut.

        This does the job in less than half the time it would take to grate a whole coconut, and because it's so fast, I would do 2 or 3 coconuts at once and freeze the excess.
        The texture comes out the same as grating and you can keep the coconut milk/water for baking to keep it in your recipe…just adjust for any extra added liquids you would have had to put in your recipe.

        You gotta love your American/Caribbean friends for their tips on efficiency!

        P.S. Thank you ever so much for this website….You have brought back the Trini out of me :)

        Reply
  3. carol says:
    October 5, 2011 at 11:14 am

    Hi Chris I always enjoy a hot slice of coconut bake anytime. It goes well with most sides. Thank you.

    Reply
  4. omar says:
    November 8, 2011 at 6:16 am

    chris can i make the dough lets say on saturday put it in the fridge and bake it the day after? or should it be baked immediately as shown above?

    Reply
  5. ILoveBosch says:
    November 15, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    I like trying new recipes and LOVE bread. This looks like a great recipe to try. Thank you for sharing

    Reply
  6. Guest says:
    January 5, 2012 at 6:10 pm

    I made this bread and it had a very bland taste, practically no taste at all to it. Is it supposed to taste that way. should it taste more like coconut?

    Reply
    • Caro says:
      August 30, 2012 at 1:32 pm

      its just like a type of bread, you have to eat it with a filling. in trinidad we eat it with cheese and or butter but you can eat it with any type of savory or sweet filling that you prefer. its not really meant to be eaten alone.

      Reply
    • sheldon says:
      October 14, 2012 at 12:23 pm

      Coconut Bake is meant to go with fillings but it should be tasty enough to be eaten on its own, I had the same issue, especially with the lack of coconut flavour, so I modified the recipe to get the taste I was used to. I punched up the salt to a full teaspoon, the sugar to two slightly rounded tablespoons, the grated coconut to 1&1/2 – 2 cups, and replaced 2 cups of white flour with whole wheat flour (optional, just my preference). For the coconut milk, instead of the canned version, I mixed in approx 2oz of "creamed coconut" (usually comes in red box in the grocery), with 1 cup warm water, it came out just like my Mom's. Thanks Chris, for all your great recipes.

      Reply
  7. Jennifer Valerie says:
    February 3, 2012 at 11:30 am

    I did a wholewheat version of it and posted it on FB. Thanks for posting it. I'm looking forward to supper tonight when we will enjoy it as a family.

    Reply
  8. Nicola says:
    June 19, 2012 at 3:01 pm

    Great Recipe…Thanks a million!!

    Reply
  9. uniqueDominicangrl says:
    July 14, 2012 at 7:20 pm

    Can't wait to try this one Chris…. Thanks

    Reply
  10. Amy says:
    October 11, 2012 at 10:16 am

    About to try this today… i will comment when its done

    Reply
  11. Anna says:
    December 31, 2012 at 9:55 am

    Thank you for the wonderful recipes Chris. Happy New Year to you and your family and God bless.

    Reply
  12. Resha says:
    January 28, 2013 at 9:12 am

    I tried this……..and I am "BOSS" at making coconut bake now……Yippee!!!!

    Reply
  13. shineka says:
    February 25, 2013 at 6:39 pm

    i love coconut bake and i wanted to know is it ok to use white sugar if not what kind of brown sugar light or dark

    Reply
  14. Tony says:
    April 7, 2013 at 5:05 pm

    Thanks Chris,

    All your recipes are on point. Just made my bake and waiting for my salt fish, to mash it up. Thank you.

    Tony

    Reply
  15. Michelle says:
    April 27, 2013 at 1:18 am

    Hi Chris, thanks for the recipes! In this one you mention that it is not the original (Grand)mama recipe please share also how they make (made) it…
    Thx greetz Michelle

    Reply

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  1. SOPPTORSDAG « says:
    September 22, 2011 at 3:52 am

    [...] jag däremot vet är att bake är väldigt gott, så idag försöker jag mig på Chris recept på bake, wish me [...]

    Reply

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