Gluten Free Coconut Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

And half a loaf later my appreciation for baked goods free of gluten was so great I could have gladly eaten the second half.  And baked a second loaf.  And eaten that one too.

Gluttony aside, this really was a spectacular loaf of gluten-free bread.  I know because it’s calling to me right now.  Loudly.  This bread is composed of coconut flour, bananas for sweetness, and chocolate chips added in because everything good in this world contains chocolate chips.  Well, except dumplings.  Dumplings should never contain chocolate chips.

But this bread does!  Which makes it one of the many good things in this world.  And hence the reason why it is really good to make and even more delicious to eat.

Coconut Flour Banana Chocolate Chip Bread adapted from here.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 C. coconut flour, sifted (sift!  sift away!)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4+ tsp. baking soda (heap it a little)
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1.5 C. mashed, ripe banana (I ended up using two abnormally large bananas)
• 1/4 C. packed brown sugar
• 1/2 C. almond milk
• 1/4 C. butter melted (just warm, not hot)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 C. dark chocolate chips
• 3-4 T. unsweetened, shredded coconut

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly oil your loaf pan.
2. Whisk sifted coconut flour, salt and baking soda together in a medium mixing bowl.
3. In a separate, large mixing bowl, combine the beaten eggs, mashed bananas, brown sugar, coconut milk, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two steps, stirring to combine the first half before adding the second.  The batter will be thick.  Fold in the chocolate and nuts.
5. Pour/scrape the batter into the greased loaf pan, smoothing out the surface with a rubber spatula.  Sprinkle the shredded coconut over the top.
6. Place in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 50 minutes, or until the top is browned and the coconut golden. Allow the loaf to cool completely.  Do this.  I didn’t and was left with delicious remnants stuck to the bottom and corners of the pan.
7. Once cool, run a knife or spatula around the edges of the loaf, loosening it from the pan.  Cover the loaf with your hand or a plate and invert to remove it from the pan.  If it doesn’t slide out easily, use the spatula to further loosen it.  Place on a plate, slice and serve.

Coconutty Granola

This granola is oats gone coconutty.

Absolutely coconutty with hazelnuts and almonds toasted ever so slightly and perfumed with the sweet scent of coconut and cinnamon.

Let go of your inhibitions.

Make some granola.

Go coconutty.

Coconutty Granola

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil (melted)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (and if you’re feeling especially coconutty, go ahead and add a splash of coconut extract if you have it)
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds
• 1/3 cup whole hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes
• 2/3 dried fruit (optional – I must admit I prefer my granola purely nutty)

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine the oats with coconut flakes, cinnamon and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together the oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, and extract.  Whisk until combined.
4. Pour the maple syrup mixture over the oats mixture and mix to combine and cover oats completely.
5. Pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.  Spread it out evenly, but leave a few clumps if you’d like for texture.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven and flip/mix the granola.  Sprinkle the almonds over the granola and return the baking sheet to the oven.
7. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and flip/mix the granola again.  Sprinkle the hazelnuts over the granola and return the baking sheet to the oven.
8. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven.  Let cool completely.  Sprinkle the dried fruit if using over the granola and  transfer to an airtight container.  The granola will keep for 1 week.

Coconut Chocolate Cake

I don’t know if it’s just me, but each time I flip through my much awaited arrival of bon appetit I find myself bookmarking nearly every other recipe, overwhelmed with all the things I want to make.  I find myself a week later, still pondering over which recipe I want to cook or bake, unable to decide between all the tantalizing recipes in the most recent issue and all the others I never got to in the past.  As I struggle through lists of recipes I want to make I end up eating hummus and chips for dinner and stuck with an ever-growing list of bookmarked bon appetit recipes.

I really should make things from bon appetit more often seeing as this cake was delicious.  The only complaints I had were that it was too crumbly (which was my fault because I used all whole wheat pastry flour) and that I would have preferred if the coconut and chocolate topping were more submerged into the cake.  Regardless, the combination of chocolate and coconut never fails to make me do a little happy dance.

My rest of the year resolution?  Bake and cook more from Bon Appetit.  It’s never to late for resolutions.
Coconut Cake with Chocolate Chunks and Coconut Drizzle

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour – I used whole wheat pastry flour – do not do this unless you want an extremely crumbly cake.
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons (packed) finely grated orange peel
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate bars (do not exceed 61% cacao), broken into 1/2-inch irregular pieces, divided
• 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Coconut Drizzle:

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons (or more) canned unsweetened coconut milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract – used coconut extract to really milk the coconut.

Directions:

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.Generously butter 9-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides; dust pan with flour, shaking out excess.
2. Sift 1 3/4 cups flour, baking powder, and sea salt into medium bowl. Stir in unsweetened shredded coconut and set aside.
3. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, and orange peel in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with coconut milk in 2 additions, beating just until blended after each addition.
4. Fold in half of bittersweet chocolate pieces. Spread batter evenly in prepared cake pan. Sprinkle remaining chocolate pieces over batter, then sprinkle with sweetened flaked coconut.
5. Bake cake until golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, tenting with sheet of foil if coconut atop cake is browning too quickly, 60 to 70 minutes. Transfer cake to rack and cool in pan 45 minutes.

Coconut Drizzle

1. Whisk powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut milk, and vanilla in small bowl to blend well, adding more coconut milk by 1/2 teaspoonfuls until mixture is thin enough to drizzle over cake.
2. Carefully run small knife around sides of cake to loosen. Invert cake onto platter, then carefully invert again onto another platter, coconut side up. Using small spoon, drizzle powdered sugar mixture decoratively over cake. Cool cake completely on platter.

Daring Bakers Challenge

Have you ever met my friend Sylvester Graham?  He’s a swell guy.  You know why?   Because he knew that whole wheat was part of a healthy diet, ever since the Civil War, and this resulted in a tasty sweet cracker that is made with whole wheat.  Unfortunately, as a result mass production, this cracker’s delicious taste was masked by cardboard boxes and months in the pantry.

But now the graham cracker has made a come back!  In the form of a daring bakers challenge!

Let me tell you, it was challenging enough for my first time.

The dough came together pretty easily, although since it is winter here in New England and as a result very dry (not to mention windy, snowy, and cold), I added a little bit more milk since it seemed very dry after I added the initial amount the recipe called for.

With the dough chilling in the fridge I was pretty happy with how things were going, maybe a little too happy.  But when I went to take the rolled out crackers of the board where I had rolled them out, I met my first daring baker challenge.

Katya: Hello dough.

Dough: sup.

Katya: So, do you think you’re going to come off the board today?

Dough: Naaa, I don’t really feel like it.  I think I’m just going to stick around.

Katya: Oh really, so you wanna be that way, huh?  Well, take this! *attacks the dough, peeling it off the board with absolutely no mercy*

Thankfully, the dough forgave me and was willing enough to be re-rolled, twice.  After the little encounter with my first challenge I decided to try rolling it out on parchment paper.  Yeah… I don’t think the parchment paper likes me either.  Third times the charm (my lucky number too), I finally met someone nice: flour, and after about an inch of it (okay I’m kidding maybe 1/2 an inch) I was able to roll out the dough and cut it into crackers AND take them off the board to transfer them to the baking sheet.  Really though, if you make these, let go of your inhibitions when you flour the board.  Really flour that board, or you will regret it, and you might meet some very stubborn, sassy dough.

I found the instructions for cutting the dough confusing so I cut the crackers into 2×2 in. squares and baked them at 350 for about 15 min, gathering, chilling, and re-rolling the dough that was left over.  Another tip, since you have to divide the dough in half eventually, I divided it in half before chilling.  It makes it much easier and if you are in a rush, the dough will chill faster.  Lastly, I substituted 3/4 cups of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

The second part of the challenge is nanaimo bars which I would have never thought of making unless Lauren (a.k.a the Celiac Teen) had made them this month’s challenge.  I can see why they are a traditional canadian treat, especially if you have a canadian sweet tooth.

The main reason I liked them so much was probably because there was coconut in the bottom layer and I added coconut extract to the middle layer since I didn’t have custard powder.  Oh, and it may have been the chocolate in the top and bottom layers.  Thanks for the recipe Lauren!