Secret Recipe Club--Banana Coconut Bread

It's time for a Secret Recipe Club recipe again. This month I had Cookaholic Wife who has a ton of lovely Valentine's recipes up right now (unlike someone else we know) who a) forgot about the super bowl and b) keeps forgetting to make something amazing and heart-shaped. Alas. We'll have to let Cookaholic Wife do it for us. In searching for the perfect recipe, I made a delicious barley soup, annd I was going to post it. But then I made her banana coconut bread and decided to kill you with sweetness. Except that it's actually kind of healthy too--so now you can have your cake and eat it too. Mostly though I was just intrigued by the combination of flavors--banana, coconut, and chocolate. Perfect. You could doll it up with a glaze and a dusting of coconut if you want, but we just ate it deliciously as it was for breakfast.

Banana Coconut Bread
adapted from Cookaholic Wife
Makes 2 loaves
Prep time:
Cook time:
Cost: $4.25
sugar: .20, coconut oil: .50, eggs: .20, bananas: .50, buttermilk: .15, flour: .70, chocolate chips: 1.80, coconut: .20

1 C sugar
1/2 C coconut oil (I used extra virgin as should you if you want it to taste and smell coconut-y)
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 C buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 C whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 C chocolate chips (let's be real; I totally used more than that--probably a whole bag)
3/4 C sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two loaf pans.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar and coconut oil. [Note: Coconut oil is liquid over 72 degrees and solid under that. So, if your oil is warmish, mixing will be easy--you'll just mix. If it's not, you can either warm it, or combine it by cutting it into the sugar with a pastry cutter like you would cut butter into a pie crust]. Stir in eggs, then bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla.

To this add your dry ingredients. Don't overmix them (meaning--mix until they're just combined with the wet ingredients and then stop mixing).

Add chocolate chips and coconut (again just mix until combined).

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then turn it out to cool the rest of the way (if you don't do this it might get stuck in your pan).

We ate ours the next day for breakfast and it was fantastic.

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