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Chinese Bakery Lai Yau Bao | Coconut Cream Buns
If you’ve ever walked into a Chinese bakery and walked out with one (okay, three) coconut cream buns, this recipe is your new best friend. Known as Lai Yau Bao in Cantonese, these buns are everything I love in a single bite: tender, slightly sweet milk bread, a flutter of coconut shreds on top, and a long swoosh of fluffy whipped cream tucked into the center. They look fancy, but they’re built from just a handful of simple ingredients.
What makes my version so good is the shape. Instead of a round bun, I shape the dough into a narrow log and slice it lengthwise — almost all the way through — so the cream runs the full length of the bun. That means cream in every single bite, not just a sad dollop in the middle. The whipped cream itself gets a little secret weapon: milk powder, which adds richness and stability so your filling stays luscious and pipeable instead of weeping into the bread.
Why You’ll Love These Coconut Cream Buns
Soft, bakery-quality milk bread without a single trip to the bakery, plus a foolproof cream that holds its shape beautifully.
What Is Lai Yau Bao?
A beloved Hong Kong-style bakery bun made of pillowy bread, coconut topping, and sweet whipped cream filling. Shaping the dough into a slim log and slicing along the long side means the filling spans the whole bun.
Simple Ingredients, Big Payoff
Just milk bread dough, coconut shreds, heavy cream, milk powder, and powdered sugar — that’s truly it.
Tips for the Fluffiest Whipped Cream
Chill your bowl and beaters, and don’t over-whip — stop at soft, billowy peaks for that signature bakery texture.
What’s in the milk bread
- bread flour
- cake flour
- heavy cream
- whole milk
- egg
- instant yeast
- granulated sugar
- salt
What’s in the coconut cream bun topping
- coconut shreds
- honey + water
- heavy cream
- milk powder
- powdered sugar
Coconut Cream Buns | Lai Yao Bao
These classic Chinese bakery Coconut Cream Buns (Lai Yao Bao) feature ultra-soft milk bread shaped into narrow logs, sliced lengthwise, and generously filled with a lightly sweetened milk-powder whipped cream. Finished with a sprinkle of coconut shreds, this clever shaping technique ensures every bite has the perfect ratio of bread to cream!
Ingredients
Bread
- 155 grams heavy cream, warmed to 100°F
- 245 grams whole milk, warmed to 100°F
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 67 grams granulated sugar
- 477 grams bread flour
- 72 grams cake flour
- 10 grams instant yeast
- 10 grams kosher salt
- egg wash (1 beaten egg + 1 tablespoon milk)
coconut topping
- 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 tablespoon of warm water
- 1 tablespoon honey
whipped cream filling
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons dry milk powder
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attached, combine all the bread ingredients except the egg wash: heavy cream, milk, egg, sugar, bread flour, cake four, yeast and salt.
- Mix on the lowest speed for 15 minutes. Check on it after 5 minutes. Using a silicone spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Dough will be wet but should easily be scraped off the sides of the bowl. Keep kneading and check again after 5 minutes. If the dough is too wet, add 1 tablespoon of bread flour. Keep the kneading on low until the 15 minutes is done.
- Scrape down the sides of the dough if necessary. With a silicone spatula, push the dough off the sides of the bowl and push it together so it forms a ball. Cover the bowl with a damp towel or damp bowl cover and place in a warm spot for 1 to 2 hours until the dough as doubled in size. You can also proof your dough by placing the bowl in your microwave along with a mug of just boiled water.
- While your dough is proofing prepare 2 or 3 large baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper. The dough will rise and spread out a little bit and they will touch each other if not spaced out.
- After the first dough rise, punch down the dough and return the bowl to your stand mixer and knead for another 4 to 5 minutes.
- On a lightly floured work surface, divide the dough. This recipe makes about 1080 grams of dough and I like each bun to be about 70 to 80 grams each. You can divide the dough into 14 pieces.
- With your hands or a rolling pin, shape each dough into a 3″ x 4″ rectangle. Starting from the long side, roll the rectangle in to a log. (See images above.) Place each log seam side down and tuck in each end of the log for a rounded ends. Space each log at least 2 inches apart. Cover with a plastic wrap and let the dough rise again for 1 hour.
- With 20 minutes left before the 2nd rise is done, preheat your oven to 325°F on convection bake. Prepare the egg wash by beating together the egg and milk. Brush egg wash over tops of each dough.
- Bake in the oven 18 to 20 minutes. Cool on your baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer your buns to a wire rack to continue cooling.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment, add the heavy cream, milk power and powdered sugar. Whisk on medium-high until soft peaks form, about 5 minutes.
- To prepare the coconut topping, combine warm water and honey and whisk that together until the honey dissolves. Pour the shredded coconut on to a flat plate.
- Slice buns lengthwise down the middle, leaving about 1/2 inch shy of cutting all the way through. Brush with the tops of each bun with the water honey mixture. This will act like a glue and press the moistened part of the bun on to the shredded coconut so that the shredded coconut adheres to the top of the bun.
- Pull apart the sliced bun and fill with the prepared whipped cream. You can do this with a butter knife, offset spatula or a frosting syringe. Enjoy immediately or same day.
❓ FAQ’s for Coconut Cream Buns
It’s a classic Chinese (Hong Kong-style) bakery bun made from soft milk bread, topped with coconut shreds, then split and filled with lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Milk powder boosts the richness and helps stabilize the cream, so it stays fluffy and holds its shape without deflating or weeping.
Yes! Bake the buns a day ahead and store them airtight at room temperature. Only slice and fill them with whipped cream right before serving for the freshest texture.
Unsweetened coconut shreds work best since the whipped cream and bread already bring sweetness, but you can use sweetened if you prefer a more dessert-forward bun.
Because of the fresh whipped cream, store filled buns in the refrigerator and enjoy within 1–2 days for the best taste and texture.
Freeze the unfilled baked buns for up to a month. Thaw, refresh briefly about 20 seconds in the microwave, then slice and fill with fresh whipped cream.
Absolutely — lightly toasted coconut adds a deeper, nuttier flavor and extra crunch, though the classic bakery look uses untoasted shreds.
They’re cousins, not twins! You might wonder if these are the same as Chinese Coconut Cocktail Buns (雞尾包) “gei mei bao,” which are also sweet buns that have an enclosed filling of shredded coconut and butter. The Lai Yau Bao version uses whipped cream piped into a slit, rather than a baked-in butter coconut filling — making it lighter, creamier, and arguably more addictive.
The log shape is intentional and is the game-changer of this recipe. Slicing down the long side of the bun allows cream to fill the entire length of the bun — so every bite, from first to last, has whipped cream in it.
Absolutely. Some bakers use a buttercream, a pastry cream, or a coconut custard. But the lightly sweetened whipped cream with milk powder is the most authentic and nostalgic version — and the simplest.
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