Growing up, my mom wasn’t the biggest baker or cook. She had a few favorite recipes she loved to make, but we mostly stuck to boxed cake/muffin mixes when baking, and my dad did most of the cooking. She never made traditional banana bread, but loved to make this tropical banana bread.
As a mom myself now, I somehow find myself with brown bananas despite the kids loving bananas (I personally hate them, and can only stand to eat them in banana bread these days). If you’re a parent, I’m sure you know how it goes. They’ll absolutely love something for a stretch of time, so you finally buy extra so you don’t have to make quite as many trips to the store; and that’s exactly when they forget that that particular food exists.
So anyways, I thought it might be fun to make my mom’s recipe (since I had 4 bananas turning brown), and share it here on my blog in case anyone’s interested.
Tropical Banana Bread
Equipment
- 1 loaf pan
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup ripe bananas, mashed (2-3 bananas, depending on size)
- 1 tbsp orange rind
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp almond extract
- ¼ cup orange juice
- ½ cup chopped nuts and/or chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Cream butter and sugar.½ cup butter, 1 cup sugar
- Mix in eggs, bananas, orange rind, juice, and flavorings.2 eggs, 1 cup ripe bananas, mashed, 1 tbsp orange rind, 1 tsp vanilla extract, ½ tsp almond extract, ¼ cup orange juice
- Add dry ingredients.2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt, 1 cup shredded coconut, ½ cup chopped nuts and/or chocolate chips
- Grease loaf pan and pour batter into pan. Bake 50 minutes, cover with aluminum foil, then bake for another 10-20 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
