Sweet Coconut Samosas – Khopra / Nariyal Ka Samosa

Sweet coconut samosas, you say?

Some of you may be raising your eyebrows. Never heard of them? It’s OK, I understand.

I’d never heard of sweet coconut samosas either until one day my Father was in the kitchen and come up with the most delectable, sweet coconut stuffed pastries. They were like the McDonalds apple pie in Desi format – crunchy on the outside, bubbly warm and a slurry of sweet on the inside. I would request him to make them on occasion and every time they would go down such a hit, devoured by all and never would we have any leftovers.

The first time I actually used this filling was when I was holidaying in Pakistan, staying at my in-laws. I messaged my Father for this recipe one day when I wanted to get myself into the kitchen and prepare something to shamelessly impress everyone help out.

I made the filling and my sister-in-law (who makes perfect samosas only fractions slower than the speed of light) shaped out the samosas. I would like to say I helped her, but the truth was I was a confused and annoying mess who probably only made things worse for her, since I was constantly asking for help and cluttering her tray with deformed samosas with holes that she had to fix. Samosa wrapping wasn’t really my forte.

The sweet coconut samosas went down great for a tea that evening. We had unexpected guests over for tea that evening, and they all thoroughly enjoyed it. Coconut samosas aren’t really a thing where my in-laws live in Pakistan, so they all commented on how unique the idea was. I was so happy I managed to impress everyone help out.

These make a perfect accompaniment with a garam pyala of pakki hui chai (Pakistani tea) on a cold and cloudy day – very befitting of the stereotypical perfect mahol for samosas! But it is truly one of the best ways to enjoy them!

About The Samosa Pastry

In all honestly, I have never really delved much into samosa-making just because I have found it rather intimidating! In the standard way I’ve seen samosa rolling, which involved a long strip of samosa pastry which you roll into a triangle, I would always have holes around the three corners of my samosas which would ooze out filling during the frying. That would just aggravate me too much! Eventually, I just gave up because I couldn’t get around that.

I find this method, which I discovered on Pinterest, SO easy to handle! I love how the samosa pastry is handled raw when you shape it, so you can pinch out any holes completely shut without the need of any ‘glue’ which you use for a standard samosa pastry. I can definitely see myself making home-made samosas with a variety of different fillings a lot more now thanks to this method. Make sure you check your samosas before frying them, to ensure you don’t have any naughty samosas relaxing and getting holes!

Source: Williams Sonoma

I have used butter in this pastry to create a flakier, puff-pastry like feel. You can replace this with the same quantity of oil if you’d like, but this will be slightly less flaky.

If you don’t want to make your samosas from scratch, you are free to use ready-made samosa pastries, or you can use puff pastry/filo pastry/whatever floats your boat to stuff these into.

About The Coconut Samosas Filling

OK, so one of the most important things about the filling is – FILL THE SAMOSA UP AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! You want to strike a good balance between have a high filling to pastry ratio WHILST ensuring you don’t over-fill your samosa and have it break during the frying process. The best way to do this is to add just 1tsp of filling when you start to wrap your samosas, and just before you seal the final flap of your samosa, use a teaspoon to get in as much as you can, half a tsp at a time.

I have used cardamom powder in this recipe for a Pakistani taste, however you can omit this if you’d like a more neutral flavour. You can also swap the cardamom for cinnamon too! My Father recommends trying lemon or orange zest too.

Finally, I have used a 50/50 ratio of sugar/coconut and I find this works best for our palette. You are very free to adjust this ratio if this is too sweet or not sweet enough for you.

Honestly, there is a lot you can do with this filling. My favourite things to do are to stuff them into samosas, filo pastry, puff pastry and also into Naans (they’re called Peshawari Naans and are literally a godsend).

Enjoy, with love x

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Sweet Coconut Samosas - Khopra / Nariyal Ka Samosa

Yield: 24 small samosas

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

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Ingredients

For the samosa pastry

• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 heaped tablespoons butter
• Water, as needed

For the coconut filling

• Half a cup dessicated coconut
• Half a cup white sugar

Other

• Oil, for frying

Instructions

1. Begin with making the pastry. In a bowl, add the butter and use your fingertips to mix the butter into the flour, until it resembles breadcrumbs
2. Add water, a few tbsp at a time. Use your hands to knead the dough until it forms a firm dough. Be very careful not to add too much water, as if the dough becomes too wet it will be too difficult to work with
3. Allow the dough to rest, while you make the coconut and sugar filling
4. Take small balls out of the dough and begin to roll them out into circles, much like making a small chapatti. Cut the circles into 4 quarters.
5. Working with each quarter, shape and fill the samosas as shown in the post (source: Williams Somona) until you have finished all the dough
6. Heat oil in a deep wok or pan on medium heat. Fry the samosas on medium heat, turning throughout the fry time.
7. Serve immediately

Notes

These samosas have a tendency to harden upon cooling due to the sugar inside the dough. Therefore these are best served immediately.

Did you make this recipe?

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