Coconut Milk in Bread

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Hey all –

Has anyone ever used coconut milk that comes in a carton in a recipe?

What effect does it have on the bread?

Any tips/percentage to use? 

Thanks!

Nick

The "Pan de Coco" you get in Central America uses coconut milk as its main liquid ingredient.  Here's a typical recipe: https://www.recetasfavoritashilmar.com/2011/05/pan-de-coco-hondureno.html   

It's basically a soft dinner roll (white flour, sweetened plus some fat) using coconut milk in place of the water/milk you'd normally use.  It adds a pleasant, very mild, coconut flavor.  I'd think you could sub in coconut milk in any sweet bread.

Mini Oven below is reliable as always.  I don't think the carton style would do any harm.  But it looks like most boxed products add sugar and water, and hence have less fat than the canned variety.  You'd need to adjust sweetness and fat elsewhere.  If I were aiming for the most flavorful result I'd use the canned variety.

is the amount of fat in coconut milk.  Check your can or carton label.  You might want to change or eliminate other fats in the recipe if subbing coconut milk for the liquids.  Ranges go from 10% to 20% (in my pantry.)  Dairy milk for example has 0% to 3.6% fat.  Hydration uses only the water amount so with 20% fat, roughly 78% is water with 2% sugar.  Could drop the sugar in the recipe too!  Sugar acts like a liquid although not included in the hydration figure.

Coconut milk thickens when cool, so if stored in a cold pantry, submerse carton in a hot water bath for 5-10 minutes and shake well before opening.

note: ingredients, this carton contains 60% coconut extract and water, the can 35% coconut extract and water.  The the package contains more coconut extract per 100ml.  I'm still having problems getting a decent picture posted but the can has 10g fat and 1.8g carbs, protein 1.2g and almost twice as much water.   (Carton is the better buy, you can add more water if you like.) 

 

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This is the type of coconut milk I have. Seems like it’s a little different than what’s been described. Low sugar and relatively low fat. Any thoughts?