Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze

  Carlene gave me this recipe, she thinks it tastes like Juicy Fruit Gum.  I made it this weekend, it’s a winner,  ladies.  You won’t believe how moist this bread is, and there is only 4 tablespoons of butter in it!  It’s going into the Tried ‘n True Hall of fame it’s so good.  If you can let it sit for a couple of days, it gets so moist it’s soggy.  Oh, is this a yummy summer dessert bread!  Both of us tweaked the recipe, of course, changes follow the recipe… ~ jan

adapted by Our Best Bites from Cooking Light and further adapted by Jan and Carlene

2 C flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C sugar
1/4 C (4 Tbs) real butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 C mashed ripe bananas (about 4 large bananas)
1/4 C sour cream or plain yogurt
3 Tbs apple juice or milk*
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C coconut

Topping: 2 Tbs additional coconut

Glaze: 1/2 C powdered sugar whisked with 1 1/2 Tbs fresh lime juice
*as in: don't go buy apple juice just for this recipe.  If you don't already have some, just use milk!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until blended.  Add eggs and beat to combine.  Add banana, sour cream or yogurt, apple juice (or milk), and vanilla.  Beat until blended.

Add flour mixture and beat at a low speed until just combined.  Stir in 1/2 C coconut.
Pour batter into a 9x5" loaf pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.  Sprinkle additional 2 Tbs coconut on top. 

Bake in the oven for about 1 hour or until a knife or skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Note: Check bread after about 40 minutes.  If the top has browned and the coconut pieces are looking toasty, cover top of bread lightly with a piece of foil.  Continue baking until done.

When done, remove pan from oven.  Let cool on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes and then carefully remove from pan.  Whisk powdered sugar and lime juice together for the glaze and then drizzle over top.    Cool for another 15 minutes before slicing.
Carlene’s tweaks:  If you use a glass pan, add 10-15 miutes to baking time.  She also used greek style pineapple yogurt instead of the sour cream or plain yogurt, and she added coconut flavoring extract and vanilla.  She also used 3 tablespoons of coconut milk and 1 tablespoon of fat free half and half.  She added lost of lime zest along with the juice in the icing….
Jan’s tweaks:  I baked this in an insulated metal pan, and it took quite a bit longer than an hour to bake.  I still underbaked a bit, I like my breads that way.  I tented the bread with foil with holes poked in it after an hour, as the coconut on top was starting to get golden and I didn’t want it to burn.  I used light sour cream instead of the pineapple or greek yogurt.  I used 3 heaping Tablespoons of Thai unsweetened coconut milk (in the Asian section of the supermarket, this is really thick like condensed milk. Make sure you buy the unsweetened, and I used the full fat, not the light version).  Oh, and the most important change, I added a small can of crushed pineapple to the batter, well drained and blotted with paper towel.  I love anything banana/pineapple, and this was a great addition to the original recipe.
I used RealLime concentrate in the glaze.  Omg, I bet Carlene is rolling her eyes, ;o).  It worked great, though…  Fresh lime and zest would have been better I’m sure, but I used all my limes in the ginger beer and didn’t want to go back to the store.
My bananas were extremely ripe.  So ripe that they were black on the outside, but it helped give this such a moist texture, I think.