Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze

When I realized how many bananas I had in my freezer waiting to be used I sent a list of banana recipes to my friends at work and let them vote. The winner that day was the banana crumb muffins, which I made the very same day. There were 3 or 4 other recipes that day which several people wanted to try and that I promised to make soon -- this is not one of those recipes.

Instead of just accepting that I had 5 yummy-looking banana recipes waiting to be made, I started playing around on the Food Blog Search page which Smitten Kitchen talked about a few days ago. Using that search engine I found dozens of new recipes to try and several new blogs to check out. I had actually heard of the blog where I found this recipe though -- Culinary in the Desert -- which a coworker (Lillian) had told me about. I had checked it out before and even noted a couple of recipes I wanted to try from it, but then it got overwhelmed by other food blogs and other recipes.

There were actually two banana recipes from his site that I want to make -- the other is Frosted Peanut Butter Banana Bars which I know Chris wants me to make and that I will have to get to soon. The coconut banana bread recipe won the day though because we had 3 limes to use up -- granted this recipe only used one lime, but it's a start. It is also a completely new take on banana bread which looked really interesting and tasty to me. (although I did find another banana bread recipe that looked really interesting and yummy on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody that uses graham flour -- now I just need to buy graham flour...)

This bread is quite good and just a touch different from other banana bread recipes. The coconut adds its distinctive chew/crunch and flavor as an undertone to the banana flavor and when you bite into the top of the bread where the glaze is you get a nice sweet & tart contrast to the richer bread flavor. You can also very faintly taste the 3 tablspoons of rum in the background -- although that flavor would likely come out much more if the bread was allowed to sit overnight to develop the flavors more. (almost all quick breads benefit from an overnight rest...)

This probably wouldn't be a winner for everybody, but it's a nice change from traditional banana bread and has some health cred to it (not much of course) since it calls for half whole wheat pastry flour (hey, that's three times I've used it in a week!) and half all purpose and only has 4 tbsps of butter.



Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (you can use all-purpose if desired)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
1/4 cup plain yogurt
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons flaked sweetened coconut, divided

For the topping:
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

To make the bread: Preheat oven to 350

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, rum and vanilla - mix until blended. Pour in the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Fold in 1/2 cup coconut.

Scoop the mixture into a 9" x 5" loaf pan coated with nonstick spray. Scatter the batter with the remaining 1 tablespoon coconut. Bake until a toothpick placed in the center comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs attached, about 55 to 65 minutes. Remove and let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Turn the bread out onto a wire rack, top side up.

To make the topping: In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and juice - drizzle over warm bread. Let sit on the wire rack to cool completely.