Home » breads, breakfast, brunch, snacks, vegetarian

Coconut Rock Buns (recipe)

8 August 2007 5,011 views 19 Comments

Coconut Rock Buns (recipe)

Coconut rock buns are a nostalgic treat for me. I vividly remember saving up my allowance, as a child ,to buy them from the lady who sold baked goods out of the back of her station wagon every Wednesday afternoon at my prep school. Now and then I would stray from my old standby and purchase a sugar bun or currant roll, but invariably I always returned to my faithful friend, the coconut rock bun. I don’t know why coconut rock buns appeal to me so much. I think in part it’s because of the contrast of the homely rough-hewn exterior which belies the soft airy texture of the insides. Or maybe it’s the sweet sugary crust which perfectly complements the coconut infused, raisin-studded flavours? Who knows? It may take a lifetime of consumption for me to find the answer ;)

By the way when I was in the process of making these my mother kept inquiring as to what I was doing. When I kept repeating I was making rock buns she kept mumbling ’she ain’t never hear bout no rock bun’… :lol: Once completed however she bit into one and immediately said ‘Is toto!’. Well, needless to say I just blinked blankly. She had to explain that as a kid she ate this baked good in Jamaica a lot and knew it as ‘toto’ (pronounced TOE-TOE). When I looked it up though every Jamaican site I found referred to toto as a cake, and the pictures indeed looked like a cake. When I showed them to her she shook her head emphatically and kept repeating ‘toto is not no cake, I don’t know what they doing nowadays now though’.

So now I’m curious. Is toto the name for Jamaican rock buns? Is toto really a coconut cake? Did the definition shift at some point? I may never get my answers but I’m like Curious George and will keep digging :)

Note:This entry has been submitted to Sugar High Friday: Going Local


Coconut Rock Buns
Recipe from: GraceFoods.com
Makes 6 rock buns

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
½ cup soft margarine
½ cup brown sugar
4 Tbsps. raisins
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tsps. milk
½ cup shredded coconut

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven at 360°F / 190°C. Grease baking sheet.
2. Using the finger tips, rub fat into sifted flour until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add sugar, raisins, baking powder and coconut, mix in evenly.
4. Beat eggs and vanilla. Pour into flour mixture and combine then add milk slowly.
5. Combine mixture with the hands until a moist dough is formed.
6. With a spoon and a fork, divide dough into equal pieces and shape each piece into a “rocky cone” on the greased baking tray.
(Although the recipe doesn’t call for it at this point I sprinkle the buns generously with brown sugar ;) )
7. Bake for 15 minutes or until done.

19 Comments »

  • Toni said:

    Just looking at the photo, I knew immediately that I would make these. I love their “rocky” exterior, and I love coconut. These look like a perfect breakfast! (And I love your description of your conversation with your mom!!)

    # 8 August 2007 at 2:52 am | link
  • Rosa said:

    Oh, I love rock buns! It reminds me of England… I’ll have to try them with coconut. Very different!

    # 8 August 2007 at 9:04 am | link
  • Sarina (author) said:

    Toni & Rosa – Thanks :) I hope you get a chance to try them, I think they’re very yum :D And Toni, my mom is a hoot :D :lol:

    # 8 August 2007 at 4:57 pm | link
  • Cynthia said:

    Sarina, I LOVE rock buns! My mom would bake them every weekend for us and make homemade mauby :)

    # 8 August 2007 at 8:50 pm | link
  • Chris said:

    Yum! This looks so great! I have never eaten Rock Buns. Are these like mini (and tastier) versions of African coconut bread?

    # 8 August 2007 at 10:08 pm | link
  • Helen said:

    OMG, you must have been reading my mind. I have my coconuts and I have been dying to make me some rock buns. Now I will definitely have to make some.

    # 8 August 2007 at 10:18 pm | link
  • Sarina (author) said:

    Cynthia – aren’t they just childhood personified :D :D :D :D yummmmmmm with mauby and i may go into a happiness coma :D

    Chris – could be quite possibly :) my impression of coconut bread is that it is more similar to our coconut sweet bread but i may be wrong :) give it a try :D

    Helen – YES! :D hehe glad to give you an extra nudge into making them hehehe :D

    # 9 August 2007 at 12:46 pm | link
  • Patti said:

    I’ve made them ,absolutely delicious, enjoyed by all. I took the liberty to steal ideas from other recipes for Rock Buns and added Cinnomon ,glace fruit cut into tiny slivers , all spice, just a very small amount of each and the result was so good apart from the fact ,just left them in the oven too long . Incidentally did you meet the vendor outside St. Josephs convent P.O.S? my Mother in law remembers buying rock buns there after school in 1930!! Can’t be the same vendor no station wagons in those days but it shows how life can remain the same , must be a good spot!!

    # 27 August 2007 at 6:03 pm | link
  • johanna said:

    thanks for sharing this – i can just see your mom through her comments. vivid pictures. fantastic. the rock buns sound lovely. so much better to spend your allowance on that than boring hubbabubbas ;-)

    # 29 August 2007 at 5:04 pm | link
  • sms said:

    I love Rock Bun. My family makes toto all the time (we are Jamaican). Although I have eaten toto all of my life, I just discovered Rock Bun while in Jamaica this summer. I am completely HOOKED – I love coconut and brown sugar in any form so Rock Bun is right up my alley!

    # 21 October 2007 at 7:52 am | link
  • Katy Rae said:

    LOVE IT!!!

    # 9 May 2008 at 5:30 pm | link
  • Sarina (author) said:

    Patti – hehe no my vendor was at the UWI Prep school in St. Augustine in the 80’s :D hehe So glad you enjoyed your own variations on the recipe! :)

    Johanna – What’s a hubbabubba? :D *intrigued*

    SMS – I miss Jamaica, I can’t wait to go there again one day :D

    Katy Rae – I’m Glad!! :D

    # 12 May 2008 at 1:32 am | link
  • Gregory said:

    They are not the same. The toto is indeed more like a cake and it does not include the raisins.

    # 4 June 2008 at 11:38 am | link
  • kerry said:

    I have never tried to make rock buns until a co-worker approached me because i make other bake products. I followed the recipe step by step and the results were amazing. Right now i am getting orders by the dozens because everyone enjoyed them so much.
    Thanks for this recipe.

    # 23 October 2008 at 6:13 pm | link
  • Chante said:

    Hey, i’m not a fan of raisins so is there anything else i could use instead of the raisins?

    # 1 November 2008 at 1:19 am | link
  • kerry said:

    Alot of people that i bake do not like raisins, so i take the raisins from the recipe and add a cherry at the top after placing them on the sheet pan. It gives a pretty color.

    # 3 November 2008 at 5:28 pm | link
  • EDWARD B WILLIAMS said:

    when I go to jamaica i love them , thanks

    # 24 January 2009 at 11:58 pm | link
  • tsee said:

    I would like to know if I can substitute the eggs with something else, one of my relatives is vegan and would like to try this recipe

    # 31 March 2009 at 2:02 pm | link
  • Terrence said:

    Just found your site ….love the rock buns recipe. Being from Guyana, I know these would go well with some home-made mauby. Thank you for evoking such wonderful child hood memories…Shout out to B.H.S

    # 26 May 2009 at 2:36 am | link

Leave your response!

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment on TriniGourmet. Even though I can't always respond to every comment, I greatly value your feedback, your support and even respectful debate. Comments that are merely thinly veiled self-promotional tools however, as well as inflammatory or mean-spirited attacks on myself, my work, or that of other users, will not be tolerated or published.

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.