Toasted Coconut Bread

Making quick breads is one of the easiest ways to get baked goods on the table with a minimum of effort. Last night I made toasted coconut bread from a tried and true recipe that I've had for years. It comes from Joie Warner's All the Best Muffins and Quick Breads which I picked up at the World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto. Warner writes, "Reminiscent of macaroons, this delectable bread is wonderful with tea or curry dinners."

The first thing you need to do is toast some coconut to release its nutty flavour and turn it a light shade of brown. Once it has cooled, the batter is mixed up with the sugar being added to the dry ingredients and the butter melted and beat together with the wet ingredients. Once it is all incorporated, it bakes for 60 minutes and, once cooled, the bread has a wonderful coconut scent and flavour. It is moist and goes extremely well with a cup of Chai tea.

Since this book seems to not be in stock, I'll reproduce the recipe below so you can see for yourself how great and easy this bread is.

Toasted Coconut Bread

1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Adjust oven rack to top third position; preheat oven to 350 F. Coat a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan with vegetable spray. (I used butter)
Toast coconut, stirring constantly, in a small ungreased nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, being careful not to let it burn. Let stand until cool.
Thoroughly mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and coconut in large bowl. In medium bowl, whisk egg, milk, butter and vanilla until blended. Pour liquid mixture over dry ingredients and fold in with rubber spatula just until combined; do not overmix.
Spoon batter into prepared pan, smoothing top. Bake for 1 hour or until tested comes out clean. Turn out onto rack to cool completely before slicing. Makes 1 loaf.

From Joie Warner's "All the Best Muffins and Quick Breads" 1992.