Cabana Banana Bread

While citrus fruit does have a lot of acidity, it does have its place in sweet breads and muffins. Most of us do enjoy biting into a blueberry muffin and getting that unmistakable pop of juice and tartness from the berries against the moist vanilla cake.

Now this particular recipe does not contain any berries. It is the crushed pineapple which lends itself to the same flavor experience. Instead of a backdrop of vanilla cake, it is banana bread that is laced with a little coconut flavor. One slice is quite a mixture of tropical flavors and textures. The sprinkle of coconut adds a wonderful touch of chewiness to the other textures, so don't leave this step out.

This tasty banana bread is great when paired with tea or coffee to start your day, but it also makes for a tasty afternoon snack. The recipe makes 2 -9x5 inch loaves, one for your family and one to give as a gift.

Cabana Banana Bread
adapted from Recipelink.com

Ingredients
4 mashed medium size bananas
1/2 cup of shredded sweetened coconut
1/2 cup of crushed pineapple (well drained)
1 cup pineapple yogurt
1/2 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup butter, room temp.
2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the interior of 2 loaf pans and line bottom and two longest sides with parchment paper. Grease the surface of the parchment paper also.

In a medium size bowl, sift together the salt, flour and baking soda. Set aside.

Fill a bowl of a stand mixer with the butter and brown sugar. Beat until mixture resembles wet sand. Add the mashed bananas and mix on medium speed until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat for 30 seconds after each addition. Then stir in the vegetable oil.

Add both extracts, yogurt and crushed pineapple to the batter. Beat on medium speed until evenly distributed, about 1 minute. Remove bowl from stand mixer and fold in sifted ingredients. Fill the prepared pans evenly with the batter. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of coconut evenly over the top of each loaf.

Place in oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Place pans on rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove loaves from pans and let cool another 15 minutes and take off of parchment paper.  Let cool completely prior to slicing and serving.

Tips and Notes:
1. The more ripe the bananas the stronger the banana flavor.
2. This batter can be made into mini loaves, just adjust the bake time.
                                   **LAST YEAR: Gothenburger Cookies** 

Bajan Sweet Bread

This particular recipe I found tasty and interesting. Some of the instructions were a little vague, but I would like to think that it was due to the fact the person made this hundreds of times since it is a traditional recipe. Based on that, I have changed up the method as well as the ingredient list to help improve upon the recipe.

One of the things I am aware of when creating any kind of dough is that texture can be altered by how much you work with the dough. Over working dough can change cut out cookies from crisp to tough. Regarding this particular bread, if not kneaded it is very crumbly. The more you knead it, the firmer it becomes.

My loaf resulted in a crumbly texture, however, it had a wonderful flavor. The combo of brown sugar, nutmeg and coconut is worth trying and is sure to be remembered after you take one bite.

Before we get started, note that this recipe makes three 8 inch loaves.

Bajan Sweet Bread
adapted from Just Bajan

Ingredients/Bread
1 grated coconut or 3 cups unsweetened coconut
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups butter
1/4 cup shortening
4 cups or 2 lbs self rising flour
2 cups or 1 lb brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chopped nuts or chopped glace cherries or raisins (optional)

Ingredients/Filling
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp coconut extract
2 tbs water

Grease the interior of 3 loaf pans and line 2 sides and bottom with parchment paper, leaving overhang on the sides.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Start by making the filling. Fill a saucepan with sugar, coconut extract and water and place over medium heat. Add the coconut and stir. Let cook for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. This is in order to make the coconut more tender. Remove from heat and let cool. 

The next step in making the bread is to cream the butter and shortening together in a large bowl.  Once smooth, beat in the brown sugar, scraping down sides occasionally, until completely blended into the butter mixture.

Fill a small bowl with the milk and stir in the vanilla. Also, using a separate bowl, sift the flour, salt and nutmeg together.

 Using a wooden spoon, mix in one cup of the sifted ingredients into the sugar/butter mixture. Then blend in 1/2 of the liquid. Next, mix in 2 cups of the flour. Add the rest of the liquid and fold in until no liquid remains. Pour in the remaining sifted ingredients and blend until all binds with the dough. Lastly, if you are using the add in options of nuts or fruit, fold into the dough. The dough will be heavy, like cookie dough, so you may choose to mix with clean hands.

At this point, you will need to decide if you want a firm type of bread or crumbly. The recipe recommends kneading it for about 2-3 minutes.

Then divide dough into 6 even pieces. Place 1 piece in the bottom of each prepared pan and smooth out evenly, making a bottom layer. After each loaf pan contains a bottom layer of dough, empty saucepan of coconut filling into a sieve and drain off any liquid. Divide the filling into 3 equal amounts and spoon an equal amount of filling in a thin line, lengthwise, down the center of the dough. Then put remaining dough on top, smoothing out evenly.

Bake for about 30-45 minutes until the center comes out clean.

Tips and Notes:

1. The dough was very heavy to work with, not like regular dough. If there was to be a next time on this recipe, I would experiment by making the dough into cake-like cookies instead of loaf bread.

2. I love coconut so I doubled the filling ingredients. If you choose to do this, be aware that it may cause some sinking in the middle.

3. I did knead the dough to keep it from being crumbly and it did not help. Perhaps adding more liquid would be beneficial. This recipe just said add liquid until dough is formed. There were not any measurements given, it was not even listed on the ingredient list. The recipe however states use milk, coconut water or regular water.
                                **LAST YEAR: Celtic Celebration Cake**