Coconut banana bread with lime glaze



I used to be not particularly picky about the state of my bananas, but over time I’ve become quite selective. At the grocery store, I seek out the greenest bunch in the pile, careful to check that they are unbruised. (I’ll manage to inflict plenty of damage on my walk to work without any extra help from the Real Canadian Superstore, thank you very much.) From there, I have a 1-day wait followed by about 2 – maybe 3 – good banana eating days, after which point R. (perhaps unwittingly?) becomes the sole banana eater in the household.

The problem is this. Our apartment seems to offer the precise climatic conditions required to ripen produce almost instantaneously. If I had the time and patience, I’m confident that I could watch bananas ripen on the counter before my eyes. (Much like one of those time-lapse sequences in movies used to indicate passage of time, where they show the sun rising and setting, clouds streaming by overhead and/or plants growing and blossoming and then wilting and dying. But I digress.)

A few days before heading to the Toronto International Film Festival this past weekend, I did the obligatory scan of the kitchen for anything perishable/conducive to a fruit fly infestation in our absence. There, lurking in the corner, were 3 bananas well past their prime (even for normal banana eaters). What to do? While I can’t bring myself to suffer through the mushiness and gag-inducing flavour of over-ripe (or even ripe, really) bananas, add some flour, sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla and suddenly it’s a whole new ball game.

A quick flip through my mental recipe book recalled a recent blog posting by D. on the Margoville Gazette. In her pre-baby, work-free state, she recently embarked on a banana bread-making bananza (pun most certainly intended), baking 4 different types of banana bread. The recipe that caught my eye was for Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze.

I didn’t have any dark rum or apple juice available, so I used milk instead and added some lime zest into the batter for some extra flavour. Despite the substitution, the loaf was tasty and a nice change of pace from my usual banana bread with chocolate chips. Definitely one for the recipe file.

Source: Cooking Light magazine via D.

Note: Good thing D. got all of that banana bread making out of the way now that Margo has arrived!

Labels: