North America → Honduras → San Pedro Sula
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Pan de Coco (Honduran Garifuna Coconut Bread)
Soft, dense, barely sweet yeast rolls made with coconut milk and grated coconut instead of milk and eggs, baked golden and served warm beside seafood soups and stews.
Honduran (Garifuna) · medium · serves 12
prep 30 min · cook 25 min · plus 1 h 30 min hands-off time
~254 cal · 5g protein · 35g carbs · 10g fat · 2g fiber · 3g sugars · 9g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Pan de coco, coconut bread, is the bread of the Garifuna people of Honduras's Caribbean coast, a people of mixed West African and Indigenous Caribbean descent. It is dense and close-textured, almost cake-like, and made with and grated coconut in place of milk and eggs.
Despite the coconut it is not a sweet bread. It is eaten with savoury food, above all with the coast's soups and stews: sopa de caracol, the conch soup cooked in , and tapado, the Garifuna seafood and stew. Coconut runs through almost all Garifuna cooking, in grated flesh, milk and oil, and this bread is one of its best-known dishes.
Similar coconut breads are made in Belize, Jamaica and across the western Caribbean. The Honduran kind is usually shaped into small round rolls or loaves and baked until golden.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and egg-, pork- and dairy-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 12
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) warm water
- 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 1 packet (7 g) active dry yeast
- 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose or bread flour, plus a little for kneading
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup unsweetened grated coconut, fresh or frozen and thawed
- 1 cup (240 ml) unsweetened , at room temperature
- 3 tbsp vegetable shortening or coconut oil, melted
Instructions
- 1Stir the sugar into the warm water, sprinkle over the yeast and leave for 5 to 10 minutes until foamy.
- 2Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the yeast mixture, grated coconut, coconut milk and melted fat and stir into a shaggy dough.
- 3Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, adding flour only as needed, until the dough is soft, smooth and elastic and just tacky.
- 4Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled.
- 5Punch the dough down and divide it into 12 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball and set them a little apart on a greased baking tray. Cover and leave to rise for 30 minutes until puffy. Heat the oven to 180C (350F).
- 6Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are deep golden and the rolls sound hollow when tapped underneath. Serve warm with soup or stew.
Garifuna tradition, Caribbean coast of Honduras.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
San Pedro Sula. The baleada is credited to the north coast and to La Ceiba rather than to this city, though the whole region eats them daily. The flour tortilla is thick and soft, the crema is Honduran mantequilla blanca, thinner and more sour than the name suggests, and the cheese is queso duro, salty and dry.
🗺️
Honduras. The baleada belongs to the north coast, and La Ceiba rather than San Pedro Sula is where it is generally credited. It is a thick flour tortilla folded around refried beans, mantequilla blanca, which is a soured cream rather than butter, and crumbled queso duro, with egg or avocado added for a bigger version.
🌍
North America. North America's table began with Indigenous foodways, the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash, plus chiles, tomatoes, and cacao, then layered on colonial, African, and immigrant influences. From Mexico's UNESCO-recognized cuisine to the Cajun and Creole pots of Louisiana and the fiery jerk of the Caribbean, the region turns ancient staples into something new. Barbecue, tacos, gumbo, and mole all carry stories of migration and adaptation.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Honduras
BaleadasA thick flour tortilla folded over refried beans, salty cheese, and crema, Honduras’ perfect handheld meal.
Pollo con TajadasHonduran fried or grilled chicken over crisp green-plantain chips with cabbage slaw and sauces.
Sopa de CaracolA rich conch soup in coconut broth with yuca, plantain, and corn, the Garifuna coastal dish Honduras made famous.
Browse all Honduras recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Honduras meal
Horchata HondureñaDrink
Rosquillas en MielDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Pan de Coco (Honduran Garifuna Coconut Bread)?
Soft, dense, barely sweet yeast rolls made with coconut milk and grated coconut instead of milk and eggs, baked golden and served warm beside seafood soups and stews.
Where does Pan de Coco (Honduran Garifuna Coconut Bread) come from?
Pan de Coco (Honduran Garifuna Coconut Bread) is a Honduran (Garifuna) dish from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Can Pan de Coco (Honduran Garifuna Coconut Bread) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Pan de Coco (Honduran Garifuna Coconut Bread) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Pan de Coco (Honduran Garifuna Coconut Bread) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Pan de Coco (Honduran Garifuna Coconut Bread) take to make?
About 2 h 25 min in all: 30 minutes prep and 25 minutes cooking, plus 1 h 30 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 12.
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