Anyone who knows me, knows that I absolutely love lemon! I mentioned my obsession with this fruit when I shared with you my first attempt at Lemon Meringue Pie. Now I am back with another lemon inspired recipe – Lemon Coconut Loaf.
I had seen many recipes for lemon loafs, and I wanted to give one a try. What I like about a loaf or a quick bread, is that you don’t have to play around with yeast or kneeding. You just add all your ingredients together, put them in a loaf pan and pop it in the oven. Done and done! 😉
While I was cruising around the internet looking for the perfect lemon loaf recipe, I came across this one for a lemon coconut loaf. I am a big fan of coconut. In fact, my favourite coffee flavour is Timothy’s German Chocolate Cake, which is coconut flavoured coffee – delicious!
Jamie is also a huge fan of coconut, so I figured the marriage of these two flavours would be amazing.
We always have fresh lemons on our counter and shredded coconut in the baking cupboard, so I started gathering up all the ingredients necessary to make this scrumptious loaf. When I went to the fridge, I noticed that we didn’t have any milk, but I did have cream (for my coffee) and almond milk. I used a combination of these to substitute for the milk from the original recipe. It seemed to turn out OK.
This was really easy to make. Mix the wet into the dry, pour into your loaf pan and put it in the oven.
I couldn’t wait to sample the deliciousness that was baking in the oven. It smelled so good! The apartment filled with the amazing scent of baking bread accented with hints of lemon and coconut.
When it finally was done, it was very difficult to wait for the loaf to cool completely before slicing into it. I likely could have waited a few more minutes, but I really wanted to taste it!
It was incredible! The main flavour was coconut, with lemon highlights. *If I were to do it again, I would add the zest of a second lemon and maybe use lemon extract instead of vanilla extract.
*If I make it again – who am I kidding, when I make it again I will make those changes!
Jamie and I were generous with this treat, and we brought it into the office to share with our colleagues. It was the perfect snack to have with our morning coffee break and I think they liked it, as it was all gone before lunch!
This was delicious on its own, but I think it would have been great if we had toasted it up and slathered it with some homemade strawberry jam or almond butter (or maybe a bit of both) 🙂
Adapted from:
Farmgirl Fare: Lemon Coconut Quick Bread
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup 10% cream
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- zest from one lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup melted butter
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 8×4 loaf pan
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in sugar and coconut.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, almond milk, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture, stirring until just combined.
- Add the melted butter and stir until smooth. Do not over-mix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted near the centre of the loaf comes out clean, about 60-70 minutes. (Mine took 67 minutes to cook, but I started checking it at 60 minutes). If the top of the loaf is getting too brown, but the centre isn’t cooked yet, lightly cover the loaf with a piece of foil.
- Let the loaf cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes and then carefully remove it from the loaf pan. Try not to slice the bread until it is completely cool.
- Store in an airtight container for *3 days or wrap tightly and freeze.
* 3 days 🙂 this only lasted a couple of hours!
Ruby Reduction 