Let’s talk about birthdays. Are you the gung-ho sort when it comes to celebrating your own? The kind of person who proclaims an entire birthday week? When you were little, did you demand to be treated royally for the entire day, loudly stating “it’s my birthday!” to anyone within earshot? Or do you shy away from the whole ordeal, feeling sheepish about being feted for the mere fact of being born?
You might fall somewhere in between—increasingly indifferent to the showiness of it all, but fully willing to blow out some candles and accept a few gifts and most definitely eat cake. I mean, WHY NOT.
Which brings us to the question at hand: what would your ideal birthday dessert be? Are you a classic traditionalist, preferring a golden yellow cake with a sturdy crumb swathed in rich chocolate buttercream? Maybe you like cake, but you’d indulge your inner 5-year-old and opt for funfetti with a fluffy vanilla frosting coated in sprinkles. Maybe you’d go with red velvet with cream cheese frosting or lemon layers with lemon curd and piles of seven-minute meringue frosting.
Perhaps you’d stick with cake but request something more sophisticated: a flourless chocolate torte or a many-layered crepe cake oozing with pistachio pastry cream or a dense pound cake brushed with tart lemon syrup.
You might eschew cake altogether in favor of another dessert: pie, maybe? Butterscotch blondies or fudgy brownies with crackly tops or a platter of chewy chocolate chunk cookies studded with bits of toffee and topped with sea salt? Did you always ask for an ice cream sundae, or beg and plead for something entirely unexpected, like coffee custard-filled eclairs or a pear and frangipane tart?
I’m currently mid-text with a friend, debating the merits of funfetti cake bars versus a cookie crumb Bundt cake for her twins’ second birthday this week. They’re too little to care much beyond sweet and buttery, so that makes things easy.
I love when someone has firm preferences for a birthday dessert. Parameters tend to make me much more creative; if, say, I know that you love strawberries and that you gravitate towards soft, pudding-like desserts, I might start brainstorming of ways to create a sponge cake soaked in vanilla syrup and filled with strawberry mousse.
If I remember you once mentioning that you like white chocolate—even though it’s cooler to prefer dark—and that you once ordered rice pudding for dessert at a restaurant with me, I’ll flip through cookbooks searching for a pate sucree tart crust recipe, already envisioning creating rice pudding custard as a filling with shavings of white chocolate on top.
You could just give me a few words: pecan and cookie and caramel and I’d be off and running, and you’d get a box of soft-baked caramel-stuffed cookies with toasted pecans on your birthday.
You could say whipped cream and brownies and malted milk balls and I’d bring over a pan of chewy malted milk blondies with whipped chocolate frosting.
But people are generally reluctant to request a specific dessert, as if it makes them high maintenance or needy, when it actually thrills me to have a good project to tackle.
A friend of mine celebrated a birthday last week, and swore she’d like absolutely anything to celebrate (which is probably true as she’s a fully adventurous and enthusiastic taste tester of any recipe). I checked in with her boyfriend—his adorable response was “she likes cinnamon rolls, and…coconut?”
A perfect starting point. I took my favorite brioche-like cinnamon roll dough—a barely sweet recipe from King Arthur that uses the tangzhong method—and made that first. Once it had complete its first rise, I rolled it out into a rectangle and spread it with softened butter.
I sprinkled coconut milk powder over the butter, then pressed a layer of sweetened shredded coconut mixed with unsweetened shredded coconut on top. I rolled it all up into a long log and sliced it into rounds, which I arranged in a cake pan to rise for the second time.
Once risen, I baked them until golden. I let them cool while I made a coconut frosting: softened butter, coconut milk powder, milk, confectioners’ sugar, a pinch of salt, and lots of toasted shredded coconut.
I slathered this over the rolls and carefully placed them in a box to deliver to the birthday girl.
If you want more of a breakfast situation and less of a dessert, you can absolutely leave off the frosting.
Note: The tangzhong starter method is what you’ll find in Japanese milk bread recipes—it simply requires you to cook milk with flour first to create a “roux” which you add to the dough. This creates an extra soft bread which keeps fresher for longer.
Coconut Sweet Rolls
For the tangzhong
1/3 cup (113g) milk
3 tablespoons (23g) all-purpose flour
For the dough
2/3 cup (150g) milk
2 1/2 cups (300g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast
4 tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter, softened
For the filling
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup coconut milk powder
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted lightly
For the frosting (optional)
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup coconut milk powder
1/4 cup milk
Start by making the tangzhong: Combine the milk and flour in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens enough for the whisk to leave track, above 3 minutes.
Immediately transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. Add all of the dough ingredients and mix, using the dough hook attachment (you can also do this by hand but it’ll take longer!), until the dough is smooth and elastic. This should take at least 10 minutes with a mixer, or closer to 15 minutes of kneading by hand.
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled mixing bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature until almost doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a work surface (you shouldn’t even need to flour your work surface because the dough is so pliable and smooth). You should
Press/roll the dough into a rectangle, about 12” long and 10” wide.
Spread the softened butter for the filling over the dough in an even layer (you want the butter to be quite soft so that you don’t have to press very hard—I usually use my fingers for this bit). Sprinkle the coconut milk powder on top in an even layer, followed by both types of coconut.
Starting with the long edge closest to you, roll the dough up into a log and pinch the seam closed tightly. Using a serrated knife OR (my recommendation) unflavored dental floss, cut the log into slices about 1 1/2” to 2” wide.
Place the slices into a lightly greased 9” cake pan, or into the wells of a muffin tin. You can also just bake them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Cover the rolls lightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 30 minutes. Just before you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Uncover the rolls. If you’re planning on covering them in frosting, just bake them as is. If you’re planning on eating/serving them without frosting, I suggest brushing the tops lightly with melted butter before baking to give them a nice sheen.
Bake the rolls for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are just turning a pale golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let cool fully.
To make the frosting (if using), beat the softened butter with the confectioners’ sugar until fluffy. Add the salt and coconut milk powder and beat well. Add the milk, one tablespoon at a time, until the frosting is the consistency you want (you may need slightly more milk).
Spread the frosting over the cooled rolls.