Food I love - Coconut Chocolate Banana Bread

 These days, I try to really watch my intake of pastries and desserts, If I have to have some, I usually watch my portions or look for healthy alternatives. However, there are some desserts that you just can’t pass on, today’s recipe is one of such for me, it has some of the unhealthy goodness my tummy just wants to have sometimes…. Cream cheese and chocolate hello! This is one of those times I gladly lose my will power and consume “empty calories”, which in my world is defined as any meal that is “worth” pushing your healthy eating habits to the back burner simply because it just tastes divine! However, If your resolves are made of steel and you really want to make this healthier, then try using low fat cheese, skimmed milk, low fat butter and maybe whole wheat flour and some nuts, I’ll try that next time, for today this is how I roll!

These are the ingredients you would need.

·         2 tablespoons butter, softened

·         2 tablespoons cream cheese

·         1 cup white sugar

·         1 egg

·         2 cups flour

·         2 teaspoons baking powder

·         1/2 teaspoon baking soda

·         A pinch of salt

·         1 cup mashed overripe bananas (2- 3 large bananas)

·         1/2 cup milk

·         2 tablespoons liquor,  dark rum is especially very good, or rum flavoring 

·         2 teaspoons lime juice

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract/essence, extract is better

·         Grated coconut

·         Chocolate chips

·         Topping

·         1/4 cup brown sugar

·         2 teaspoons unsalted butter

·         2 teaspoons lime juice

·         2 teaspoons dark rum, or rum flavoring 

·         2 tablespoons grated coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to about 175 degrees C. Lightly grease two loaf pans.
2. Beat together 2 tablespoons of softened butter and cream cheese in a large bowl until fluffy. Slowly beat in sugar until well incorporated. Add the egg and mix well

3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl.

4. In a different bowl, mix together the bananas, milk, 2  tablespoons rum, lime juice, and vanilla essence; stir well.

4. Gradually combine all 3 mixtures, that is the flour mixture, butter and the mashed bananas. Continue folding in until completely mixed together.

5.Fold in grated coconut and chocolate chips.

6. Pour the mixture into the loaf pans, and bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about one hour. When finished, cool for 10 minutes in the pan, remove, and finish cooling on a wire rack.

7. After you take the banana bread out of the oven, prepare the topping by stirring together the brown sugar, remaining butter, lime juice, and 2 teaspoons of rum in a small saucepan over low heat. Bring to a simmer stirring constantly; cook until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth, about one minute. Remove from heat, and stir in coconut.

8.  Make incisions on the loaf then spoon the topping over the loaves while they are still warm, the incision would help the topping penetrate the loaf. The topping will harden slightly when the loaf cools.

The longer the bread keeps, the more intense the its flavours, It’s a great alternative to plain bread, I love to have it the morning after with coffee or tea for breakfast, heaven!

Notes:  I plan on trying it with a lot more dark rum next time, which is how it’s done in the Caribbean, I hear its flavour is even better when more dark rum is used. I would also try using half the quantity of milk and the other half would be coconut milk just so that I can have a more intense coconut flavour and finally I'll probably add some crushed nuts to the topping. Will let you know how that turns out! To get two large loaves like mine, triple the quantity of the ingredients. 

Tried it?  let me know what you did differently and how it came out.

Bon Appétit