Exotic Banana Bread

Two weeks ago I had a bout of illness that left me dining on bananas and dry crackers for a couple of days. My loving husband had picked through a pile of neon green unripe bananas to find ones I'd eat, and while bananas are fine and all that, they're not my favorite fruit by a long shot. I got sick of the sight of them pretty quick with two quite ripe ones left to rot on the kitchen counter.

Although I might have been sick of bananas, I was not sick of banana bread, so when I felt well enough to venture into the kitchen, I put those two leftovers and one blackened one from the freezer to work. My favorite banana bread recipe comes from Martha Stewart; it's moist and rich and fattening and I find myself eating entirely too much of it. This time, however, I decided to switch things up a bit and find a recipe that used coconut milk. I was planning to use some in a sauce and knew I wouldn't need an entire can; rather than store it in the fridge and risk the dreaded blue mold, it was better to use it up.

I found a couple of recipes on teh Innernets and did a riff on them, changing up the spices a bit and using whole wheat flour. To be healthy, you know. :) The result - a pale, dense bread with a mild, lightly spiced, banana flavor that is delicious when toasted and buttered. To kill some of that healthy thing.

Exotic Banana Bread

4 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup well-shaken coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 cup roughly chopped cashews

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray an 8" x 4" loaf pan with release spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Whisk in eggs, then add coconut milk, vanilla, and bananas.

In a separate bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, spices, and salt. Slowly add to coconut milk mixture and mix until combined. Stir in coconut and nuts.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.