This recipe comes from The Virtual Goody Plate, a lovely blog I found while perusing the net before our trip. The Coconut Bread immediately caught my eye with her lovely pictures of a nicely domed, perfectly cooked loaf, so I printed it off as a must try.
Coconut is a new favorite flavor for me. My cake baking neighbor, Claudine, makes a divine Coconut Cake that awakened my taste buds to this tropical flavor, but for years I had been saying "No thanks... I'm not a coconut fan" to anything and everything coconut. I've read that taste buds change as we age, and I believe that something changed in me as I now can't get enough of it. (Next up Coconut Cheesecake!). Luckily my family seems to love the flavor and I have been loading up on coconut recipes!
Coconut Bread absolutely lived up to it's review. Per the advice on the blog I used the sweet cycle on my bread machine with good results. Next time I will put the loaf setting to "light" as mine was just a bit too browned. I had peeked at it about 10 minutes before it was finished and if I had been smart I would have removed it then... that extra 10 minutes gave us a somewhat dark, crispy crust. This is one of those loaves that permeates the house with an enticing aroma that draws everyone to the kitchen asking "When will that be ready???"
The interior of the bread was heavenly! Very soft and flavorful. The coconut flavor is not very pronounced, but adds a depth to the bread that is very desirable. Toasted with a cup of coffee this bread is a delightful afternoon pick me up.
The comment "Mom... can you make this every day?" from my 14 year old son combined with the ease of the popping the ingredients in the bread machine makes this recipe a definite keeper!
Coconut Bread
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (I used light... from Trader Joe's)
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp coconut extract
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup shredded coconut
2 1/2 Tbs sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
Place the ingredients into your bread machine pan according to your manufacturer's instructions. Bake on "Sweet" cycle and "Light" crust. Wait for the most wonderful baking aroma and enjoy!!
This is really good. I didn't think bread this rich and tasty was possible without dairy ingredients. I used regular coconut milk, but it looked pretty thick coming out of the can so instead of a full cup of the milk I used water for the last 1/8 cup or so. The dough was dry, so I still had to add 1 or 2 Tbls of water. I made it in my bread machine on the dough cycle, then baked it in the regualr oven. I've also made this without the egg yolk. The color is a little lighter and the texture not quite as silky, but if you are dealing with an egg allergy you can still have a very good loaf without using the egg. The second time I made this I added 1 tsp vanilla and a few drops of ornage oil. This makes a great dessert base for fudge sauce, sliced & sugared berries, or anything else you can think of.
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