Banana-Coconut Bread with Macadamia Nuts

Are you looking for a delicious banana bread? This recipe gives you the moistest, most flavorful banana bread that I have ever tasted. Seriously amazing stuff.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup flaked, sweetened coconut

1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

2 cups flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 very ripe bananas, soft, darkly speckled, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)

1/4 plain yogurt

2 large eggs, beaten lightly

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 350 degrees.

2. Toast macadamia nuts in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until golden brown, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat and place in large bowl; set aside.

3. In same saucepan, add coconut. The coconut will brown very quickly from the hot pan in addition to the residual grease from the macadamia nuts. Stir constantly. Remove from pan immediately when golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. My coconut toasted so quickly that I did not even have time for a picture. Watch it carefully or it will burn!

4. Grease and flour bottom and sides of nonstick 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan; set aside. If you are using a regular loaf pan, as opposed to a nonstick loaf pan, grease and flour the bottom only. This will cause the bread to cling to the sides of the pan and rise higher.

5. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Add coconut and macadamia nuts. Mix well.

6. Mix mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla in medium bowl.

7. Lightly fold banana mixture into dry ingredients until just combined and batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan. Tap bottom of loaf pan onto table several times to flatten batter.

8. Bake until loaf is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean; about 55-60 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I wish you could smell this right now! It tastes and smells even better than it looks! Mmmm.

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated; March, 1998

Click here for printable version of this recipe.

This is a recipe that your picky eater will have to work up toward eating. Start by making the recipe without coconut and macadamia nuts. If your child eats that banana bread, then the next step would be to add either the coconut or the macadamia nuts to the banana bread.

Our picky eater ate this bread after he successfully ate and liked pumpkin bread, which is a similar consistency and texture to banana bread. Pumpkin bread is less visually intimidating than banana bread and may be a better starting place.