Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Panipopo (Samoan Coconut Buns)
Soft sweet yeast buns baked sitting in a thick, sweetened coconut sauce until golden and sticky.
Samoan · medium · serves 12
prep 30 min · cook 30 min
~371 cal · 6g protein · 45g carbs · 20g fat · 2g fiber · 15g sugars · 16g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Panipopo takes its name plainly from what it is: pani, bread, and popo, coconut. Soft yeast buns are set in a baking dish, bathed in a sweet sauce, and baked until they turn golden on top and drink the sauce up from below.
As they bake, the coconut sauce thickens and forms a thin, chewy skin over the buns while keeping the insides pillowy and moist. Cooks usually hold some sauce back to spoon over the moment the tray comes out of the oven, so there is plenty to scoop up with each bun.
Sticky, sweet and comforting, panipopo is eaten warm as a treat or dessert, often with a cup of koko Samoa. It is home baking, the kind of thing made in a big tray for a crowd.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and pork-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
3 1/2 cups plain or bread flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1 egg
4 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups (for sauce)
1 cup (for sauce)
1/2 cup caster sugar (for sauce)
1 1/2 tsp cornflour (cornstarch, for sauce)
a pinch salt (for sauce)
1 tsp vanilla extract (for sauce)
Instructions
1
Stir the flour, dough sugar, yeast and salt in a bowl. Add the warm water, egg and softened butter and mix to a soft dough, then knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
2
Cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Knock back and divide into 12 balls, setting them slightly apart in a greased baking dish. Cover and let rise again until puffy, about 45 minutes.
3
Make the sauce: whisk the coconut cream, coconut milk, sauce sugar, cornflour, pinch of salt and vanilla in a pan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until slightly thickened, 5 to 7 minutes.
4
Pour most of the warm sauce over the risen buns, holding some back. Bake at 350F (180C) for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden on top and the sauce bubbles around them.
5
Spoon the reserved sauce over the hot buns and serve warm, scooping up the sauce from the dish.
✎ Chef’s note
The coconut sauce keeps setting as it cools, so serve these warm while it is still glossy and pourable.
Samoan home baking, Upolu.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Upolu. Two of the most-eaten foods on the island are twentieth-century arrivals and nobody pretends otherwise. Pisupo, from the English pea soup, now means tinned corned beef and appears at every large gathering; sapasui is a Chinese-derived noodle stir-fry that became Samoan by adoption. Both sit comfortably beside taro and coconut cream.
🗺️
Samoa. Samoan food is Polynesian to its core, ruled by taro, breadfruit, coconut cream, and the umu earth oven. Palusami (taro leaves baked in coconut cream) and Sunday to'ona'i feasts define a table of abundance and family.
🌍
Oceania. The staple crops here were carried on purpose. Lapita voyagers moving east from roughly three thousand years ago brought taro, yam, banana, breadfruit and coconut with them along with pigs and chickens, because most of the islands they settled had almost nothing edible growing on them. The earth oven travelled too, as umu, imu, hangi, lovo, mumu, motu and um.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Samoa
Palusami (Baked Coconut Taro Parcels)Taro leaves wrapped around rich coconut cream and onion, baked until silky, the crown of the umu feast.
Koko AlaisaSamoan cocoa rice: short-grain rice simmered with rich local cocoa, coconut, and sugar into a warm, chocolatey porridge.
Fa'ausiWarm squares of grated-taro cake folded through a dark, salty-sweet coconut caramel, a Samoan Sunday favorite.
Browse all Samoa recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Whisk.
Storing it: Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and reheats covered in the oven. Most bakes can be assembled a day ahead and baked when needed.
Make it a Samoa meal
Palusami (Baked Coconut Taro Parcels)Dinner
Koko SamoaDrink
Similar dishes from around the world
Anzac BiscuitsAustralia
LamingtonsAustralia
Ghapama (Stuffed Pumpkin)Armenia
Pawpaw PokeCook Islands
Akwadu (Baked Bananas with Coconut)Equatorial Guinea
VakaloloFiji
Frequently asked questions
What is Panipopo (Samoan Coconut Buns)?
Soft sweet yeast buns baked sitting in a thick, sweetened coconut sauce until golden and sticky.
Where does Panipopo (Samoan Coconut Buns) come from?
Panipopo (Samoan Coconut Buns) is a Samoan dish from Upolu, Samoa.
Can Panipopo (Samoan Coconut Buns) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Panipopo (Samoan Coconut Buns) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Panipopo (Samoan Coconut Buns) 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 count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), 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 Panipopo (Samoan Coconut Buns) take to make?
About 60 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 12.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.