Coconut Banana Bread

I am currently taking a Cookbook Development course and we were given the task of creating a recipe for cookforyourlife.org.  If you don't know, Cook For Your Life is a website for cancer patients and survivors to go for recipes.  Their mission is to provide health and easy recipes for people in any stage of cancer.

Immediately I thought about baking.  One of my favorite recipes is my banana bread but it is filled with sugar and fat, so I had to swap a few ingredients for ones that were more on the healthier side.  The best part about this recipe is that even if you don't have coconut palm sugar, you can just use regular sugar and the same goes with the coconut milk and coconut oil.  It is very customizable. Another thing I love about banana bread is that you use over ripened bananas, so it never goes to waste.  Never throw out your black bananas; take them out of the peel, put it in a bag, and store it in the freezer.  Then whenever you want to make banana bread, you can just defrost the bananas.

Coconut Banana Bread
Yield: 2 (9" x 5") loaves
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 30-35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 bananas, over ripened, mashed
• 2/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup coconut, shredded
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Combine flour, coconut palm sugar, salt, baking soda and mix until combined.
3. After dry ingredients are combined, add bananas, coconut oil, coconut milk, egg and vanilla.  Mix together just until combined.
4. Fold in coconut and pecans.
5. Spray pan with pan release and divide the batter between 2 (9"x5") loaf pans.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Note:  If you don't have coconut palm sugar, regular granulated sugar will work just fine.  You can also substitute any nuts for pecans.