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Pani Popo is a Samoan sweet roll baked in a delicious coconut sauce. One of my favorite Pacific-Island dishes from my bakery days in Hawaii.
Featured with this recipe
Oh, how I love Pani Popo. Even though it is a Samoan dish, I was first introduced to it when I lived in Hawaii. As I mentioned before, I worked at a bakery when I lived in Hawaii and was introduced to SO MANY amazing treats and recipes, this being one of my-all time favorites. I loved waking up early in the morning and making these delicious Samoan coconut buns. The smell is intoxicating!
What is Pani Popo?
This Samoan classic dish is so easy to make and absolutely delicious. Translated, pani popo quite literally means coconut buns. And that’s what they are! Light, fluffy yeast rolls soaked in a sweet coconut syrup mixture and baked until the top of the buns are golden brown. They are soft and fluffy on the inside, and the bottom is nice and gooey, like a sweet roll should be (but gooier). I love that I am able to make these at home for my family and that they LOVE them as much as I do. Seriously, my kids go nuts over these.
Ingredients Needed for Pani Popo
Only three simple ingredients in this Pani Popo recipe. It doesn’t get any easier than this!
- Frozen Rolls: You can also make your own yeast rolls with our delicious Homemade Dinner Rolls recipe. It’s an easy recipe using ingredients like all-purpose flour, active dry yeast, butter, and salt mixed into a soft dough and baked into rolls. Or, you can use frozen rolls to cut your prep time way down.
- Coconut Milk
- Sugar
The Sweet Coconut Sauce
The sweet coconut milk sauce is what makes these rolls so incredibly good! The mixture comes together quickly using coconut milk and one cup sugar in a small saucepan. It’s cooked over medium-high heat until it’s nice and thick. Pour the delicious sauce over the raised rolls and bake.
More Hawaiian-Inspired Recipes
Many of our favorite family recipes are recipes I brought home after living in Hawaii. I love Hawaiian food! Here are a few more sweet Hawaiian foods I make regularly:
How to Make Pani Popo
Pani Popo (Samoan Coconut Rolls)
Video
Ingredients
- 20 frozen dinner rolls depending on size (see note above for homemade rolls)
- 10 ounces coconut milk
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Coat a 9×13 glass baking dish with cooking spray and arrange rolls evenly to thaw (if doing homemade rolls, roll dough into golf-ball size balls and arrange the same way).
- Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray (to keep dough from sticking to the plastic wrap). Allow to rise until doubled in size. This can take 4-5 hours. If you need the rolls to thaw quicker, follow the quick-rise instructions on the frozen roll packaging.
- Pre-heat oven to 350-degrees. In a small saucepan, combine coconut milk and sugar over medium heat and whisk until sugar is dissolved and sauce has thickened (about 5 minutes). If you want a thinner sauce, you can just whisk the sugar and coconut milk together in a bowl without heating.
- Pour about 2/3 of the coconut mixture over the rolls and bake for 20-30 minutes (or according to package/dough recipe instructions) or until golden brown and dough is baked through.
- Remove from oven and pour remaining coconut mixture evenly over the top of the rolls.
- The rolls should be sticky and gooey on the bottom (read notes above). Can be served upside down or right-side up.
This looks so delicious and yummy! I can’t wait to give this a try!
Working in a Hawaiian bakery sounds like a dream job with a lot of yummy perks! I can’t wait to try these.
Just tried this today and its so0o good! I’m so glad I found your page! Its quick easy and DELICIOUS!
Has anyone tried Hawaiian Bread Rolls? Since they are sweet rolls & quite soft – I’m wondering if you could fry the outside little or bake in the oven a little, then poke with small sticks (like what is used for Shish-Kabob)? Then cool, and continue with the recipe. Gotta give 5 stars, even though I haven’t made them yet!!! But they SOUND SOO GOOD!
I use them all the time because I’m too lazy to make the dough from scratch! I lessen the bake time let them heat up for maybe 5-10 minutes in the oven then add my coconut sauce then throw them back in the oven for 10 minutes to soak! They come out super good in half the time!
I’ve tried 2 other brands than Rhodes, and they don’t get as big. It’s usually down in the frozen section by the Texas toast. Rhodes makes a Texas size roll too. But if you want to try a faster way, because you added the corn starch to thicken the sauce ( the coconut milk is important, don’t get the less expensive brand- look in the Asian Section of the store).. Head down to Golden Corral type Restaurant and buy 2 dozen of the rolls pre-baked.. Then follow the steps..( make sure you spray the GLASS cookware)… Utah-Chuck-o-Rama has the best! And I live in California!! I’ve even gone Rogue and put Pineapple rings on the bottom of the glassware and the dough in the holes..
I had Pani Popo frequently while living in SoCal years ago because I had a lot of Samoan friends there. I made these today and they were perfect! I used Sister Schubert’s dinner yeast rolls because you don’t have to thaw them first, and it only takes 10 minutes in the oven.
So glad you these turned out so well for you! I bet they were even more delicious with homemade rolls!
How long does it take for this to go bad after baking and does it need to be refrigerated?
If you decided to store them, I wouldn’t let them go for more than a day. They will get soggy and probably not taste so great. I would probably refrigerate them and then reheat them in the microwave for a few seconds. Hope this helps.
Do u remove the plastic wrap before baking?
YES. You definitely want to remove the plastic wrap before baking. Hope this helps!
These melt in your mouth!
Delicious
This is a Samoan Dish. It comes from Samoa.
The one thing you don’t mention is the time it will take to thaw/double in size.
Can’t wait to try these…I hope I give them enough time to rise. The turkey does not wait for rolls.
Thank you for pointing this out. I made some adjustments to the recipe. It does take 4-5 hours for the rolls to thaw and rise. Most frozen rolls packaging gives instructions for speed-rising that takes about 2 hours. I hope you enjoy the rolls!
Do you have a good recipe for peanut butter bars?
You bet! https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/peanut-butter-bars/
How do you store these and for how long?
They don’t stay great for way long– I would say a day or two at most. They will get too soggy. Definitely the best fresh.
recipe for homemade rolls for the Pani Popo rolls are on a broken link. where to find it??
Thank you for letting us know the link is broken! It is now fixed. You can find the recipe here:
https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/moms-homemade-rolls/
All your recipes you post look scrumptious. This one I could do looks pretty easy.
Thank you so much! You will love the Pani Popo rolls. They are delicious!
I was SUPER excited to try this :I LOVE anything coconut . What I ended up with were rolls where the tops were beautiful golden brown and the bottoms were very slimy and beyond soggy. The texture was SO disgusting I cannot see how anyone would like this. I must have done something wrong as the recipe was SUPER simple. What did I do wrong??
The texture is supposed to be very wet.. the bottoms are supposed to be drenched in the coconut milk. That is how they are in Hawaii. Sorry it didn’t turn out the way you had expected!
Just get past the texture and try it and you’ll be a fan! It’s a bit of a messy eating but worth it!
Did you spray your pan with cooking spray or did you maybe substitute the cooking spray with oil or margarine or butter I’m thinking that probably has something to do with the chemical reaction that takes place so that it comes out gooey and not soggy yes it was a very simple recipe I don’t see how you messed it up either
What brand of frozen dinner rolls you like to use?
Typically we will use Rhoades rolls.
What grocery store do you find Rhoades rolls in typically. ..I have looked around my area aND can’t find them? Thanks
We have found them at almost any grocery store in the U.S. Did you look in the frozen section?
I have not found frozen buns in my Safeway or Foodland in Hi. I have to make my own sweet bread
Homemade is definitely the best. I bet your pani popo is amazing! 🙂
Walmart sells the Rhodes frozen dinner rolls
use whatever brand you have. They are in the freezer section
My neighbor makes something like this only she leaves out the sugar and uses 2 T. Corn starch and 2 T. water to the coconut milk.
Sugar is relative. Some people use only 1/2 cup. Some use cornstarch and some do not. Corn starch makes the sauce a little thicker is all. Some even use half coconut milk and half water with the cornstarch.
Could this be adapted to use in a Dutch oven? I wanted to make them at a family reunion.
Possibly…? Dutch ovens (I’m assuming you mean cast iron) can be tricky especially when doing them over coals because it is so hard to regulate the temperature. If you are doing it in an oven, it might be easier. Keep a close eye on them and make sure they don’t heat up too quickly and burn. Hope this helps!
I love it
My friend makes these. They are so good!
Like belly stickers…sort of…