Pani Popo – One Good Thanksgiving (Hawaiian) Roll Recipe

Pani Popo is (are) homemade rolls with a mixture of coconut milk and sugar poured over the top right before you bake ‘um!

I made pani popo form scratch for the first time yesterday and I want to share this with you just in case you are at your computer looking for a really good recipe for Thanksgiving.

Now I don’t think these are “technically” Hawaiian I believe the recipe is Samoan but to me they’re good so who cares. No offense.

Since the coconut milk sits in the bottom of the dish and bakes you get this gooey yummy underside to your rolls and you will see some of that goodness under your rolls as you take them out of the pan. That’s normal. So ono!

I use my bread machine to mix and knead. You don’t have to look up your instructions for your bread machine either. Just hit your “Start” or “Go” button- whatever. Keep it mixing until your dough is formed. The initial setting that moves the paddle in short bursts is the mix setting and the faster one that follows is the “knead” setting. Either one has worked for me when I am mixing my dough. For really big batches I have to sneak a spoon on the sides to help incorporate all the flour. Once it is all mixed together, I let it knead at the set knead speed and I set my timer to make sure I am following the directions to the best of my abilities. 😀

Let’s get to it!

Pani Popo

Recipe very slightly adapted from original source: Samoa Chat Kitchen, recipe submitted by K. Suaava McDonald

Ingredients:

6 cups flour

1 packet – or 1 1/2 tsp. yeast

2 1/4 cups + 2 tbsp. of milk

1 tbsp. sugar + 1 cup sugar for mixing with coconut milk later

1 teaspoon salt

1 tbsp. butter – or margarine, Crisco

2 cans of coconut milk

Measure about 2 1/2-3 cups of flour and your yeast into your bread machine or a large mixing bowl. In a saucepan add your milk, sugar, salt and butter. On medium low heat continue to cook until butter is almost completely melted. You may test your liquid if you like, but be sure it is not much over about 100 degrees F. We don’t want to kill our yeast, do we? 😉 When butter is almost completely melted, add your warm milk mixture to your flour mixture and combine. Add remaining flour gradually to make a smooth dough. Knead for about 6-8 minutes.

Butter your hands and butter a bowl for your dough to rise. Rub that butter all over your dough and set it covered in its greased bowl for about 45 minutes to rise.

After 45 minutes punch dough down and form into little dough balls, placing them into 2 greased 13 by 9 pans. This recipe will make at least 18 rolls depending on the size. Put 9 rolls per pan and let your rolls rise for about 20 minutes.

Mix your coconut milk with 1 cup sugar and pour over your rolls.

(I only used 1 can and 1/2 cup sugar and I had plenny but if you want to make it extra good then mix it all up!) Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until they test done. 🙂

You’re welcome!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and the people you are spending it with!