Coconut turnovers are a beloved Caribbean baked sweet — grated coconut cooked with sugar and spice, folded into pastry and baked golden. Sold at bakeries and roadsides, they are the islands' teatime treat.
Bite a coconut turnover and the soft golden pastry gives way to a sweet, chewy, spiced coconut filling fragrant with nutmeg and cinnamon. Bite: the pastry is tender and buttery, the coconut sweet and moist with a satisfying chew, the warm spices lifting it. A simple, comforting island bakery sweet, eaten with cocoa tea.
Cooking the grated coconut with sugar and spice concentrates it into a sticky, sliceable filling that won't leak. An enriched dough with butter and baking powder bakes tender; sealing the edges keeps the filling in, and egg wash gives the golden shine.
Variations
Tinted pink (the classic island look). With raisins. With a guava filling. As an open tart. With more spice. Glazed instead of sugared.
On the Palate
Where Coconut Turnover sits in the Saint Lucian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
8 steps · 35 min active + 35 min waiting
- 114 min
Cook 250 g grated coconut with 150 g sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little water until thick and sticky; cool.
Watch outCook the coconut until it holds a clean trail behind the spoon and looks glossy — too wet and it will leak out of the pastry.
- 28 min
Make a dough from 400 g flour, 80 g butter, 1 tsp baking powder, sugar, and milk; knead and rest 20 min.
- 35 min
Roll the dough and cut into squares or rounds.
- 44 min
Place a spoon of coconut filling on each piece.
- 54 min
Fold over into a turnover and crimp the edges sealed.
Watch outPress the edges firmly and check there are no gaps — any open seam and the filling bubbles out while baking.
- 62 min
Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
- 724 min
Bake at 180°C for 20-25 min until golden.
Watch outPull them when the tops are an even deep gold and the bottoms firm — pale means the dough is still doughy inside.
- 84 min
Cool slightly and serve.
