A traditional Honduran dish — pan de coco is the tender, faintly sweet coconut bread of Honduras’s north coast, where Garifuna bakers have made it for generations. These plump golden rolls, rich with coconut milk, are eaten for breakfast with coffee or split and toasted with butter, and their aroma alone is enough to summon a whole neighborhood.
Pan de Coco Hondureño
A traditional Honduran dish — pan de coco is the tender, faintly sweet coconut bread of Honduras’s north coast, where Garifuna bakers have made it for generations.

Step by stepInstructions
- Dissolve the yeast and a pinch of the sugar in the warm coconut milk and let it sit for ten minutes until frothy
- Mix the flour, remaining sugar, and salt in a large bowl, then add the yeast mixture and the butter, and knead into a soft, elastic dough, about ten minutes
- Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about one hour
- Punch down the dough, divide it into twelve pieces, and shape each into a smooth round roll
- Arrange the rolls on a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with the beaten egg, and sprinkle with the grated coconut
- Let them rise again for thirty minutes, then bake at three hundred seventy-five degrees F for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until deep golden and hollow-sounding when tapped
- Cool on a rack and serve warm with butter and coffee
💡 Chef tips & storage
Full-fat coconut milk gives the softest crumb — light versions make a drier bread. The dough is a touch sweet, so it also makes excellent toast the next morning.

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