Recipe: Banana-Coconut Bread for Lilly

Banana-Coconut Bread
Source: Callaloo, Calypso & Carnival: The Cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago by Dave Dewitt, Mary Jane Wilan

This easy-to-make, versatile bread can be served as soon as it is cool enough to slice for sandwiches, as a sweet with coffee, or even as a dessert. It is good just plain, or it can be embellished with cream cheese or butter. It freezes well.

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the sugar, shortening, and eggs together and then beat the mixture until light and fluffy.

Add the mashed bananas and coconut and stir.

Sift the flour with the baking powder, salt, and soda. Stir this into the other mixture, string until smooth.

Add the nuts if desired and stir again.

Pour the batter into a greased 9 by 5 by 3 inch loaf pan.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 60 to 70 minutes or until the loaf tests done. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Use 2 spatulas to remove the loaf from the loaf pan, and let it finish cooling on a wire rack.

Yield: 1 loaf