Piña Colada Banana Bread

Happy Friday!! For most people, Friday means the start to a wonderful, relaxing weekend. But in the retail world (which happens to be my non-blogging world), it means the workday before two much harder, much longer workdays. YAY.

So instead of thinking about how everyone is going to enjoy the pool while I slave away on Saturday, I choose to focus on the positive and make my Fridays about two very important things to me: New Music Friday and RuPaul’s Drag Race. So hetero, right? Basically my Friday is spent bopping to the latest jams on my ridiculously long commute to and from work, and then getting together with my friends to watch men in dresses be catty to each other until one of their busted looks sends their ass home.

My life is just riveting, I know.

I save all of my favorite songs to a Now Playing playlist on Spotify, which of course gets updated every Friday when new stuff comes out. Last week I was LIVING for the new Lorde album, and also got a nice little surprise when I saw that Portugal. The Man had released their new stuff as well. This week? Let’s just say Cathedrals and First Aid Kit are wayyyy overdue for new albums, and instead of looking up when they come out like a normal person, I just search every Friday until I get a nice surprise. Will it be this week? STAY TUNED.

But enough about my impeccable taste in music. Y’all came for the food, right? Well I’ve got a treat for you because in my last post, I promised that I would come up with something that didn’t include lime. I make good on my promises, which is why I bring you this delicious Piña Colada Banana Bread!

…What? I made no promises to avoid coconut, or the tropics. I don’t get a beach vacation this summer, so just let me have my fake tropical drinks in peace.

This recipe is a little something I came up with because I’m missing the beach. It has so many of the flavors that bring to mind sandy shores and shady palms – banana, pineapple, and coconut. What more could you ask for? I chose to go easy on the pineapple so it didn’t overpower the original flavor of the banana, but I also brushed the loaf several times after it came out of the oven with the juice from the pineapples so more of the flavor could sink in. If you wanted a little more texture and flavor from the coconut, you could always toast it lightly before adding it into the mix, or even garnishing it with toasted coconut instead of raw as I did here.

You can read the specs of the bread recipe down below, but let’s highlight one very important step that shows how bougie I really am. When you get to the part where you fold the pineapple in with the rest of the batter (because banana bread comes from batter instead of dough but somehow still turns out bready which is WEIRD), make sure you coat the pineapple pieces in flour first. This prevents them from sinking down to the bottom of the loaf and leaving you with an uneven distribution of pineapple throughout. This is something I learned through hours and hours of watching The Great British Bake-Off, which leads to the part about me being bougie. Just think: if Mary Berry were to cut into your loaf of banana bread, would you want her to see all of the delicious pineapple chunks chilling at the bottom? Of course you wouldn’t. Just bake like you’re trying to impress Her Majesty Mary Berry, and everything will turn out alright.

So as I go off to watch this evenings’ finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race, there’s just one thing left to say: Start your ovens, and may the best baker win!

Piña Colada Banana Bread

A tropical twist on your typical banana bread that's a real summertime treat!

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 1 hr

Total Time 1 hr 50 mins

Servings 10 slices

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup, softened)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 overripe bananas (mashed)
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 1 1/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup pineapple tidbits (drained and juice reserved)
• 1 Tbsp flour

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf tin and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together the two cups of flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs, coconut, and bananas, and stir until well combined. Pour that into the dry ingredients and stir well so all ingredients are incorporated.
• Toss the pineapple tidbits with the tablespoon of flour to coat them well (this keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf), then fold into the mixture. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake for 55-70 minutes, depending on your oven.
• When the loaf comes out of the oven, brush it with the pineapple juice from the can that you set aside to give it a nice shine and add some moisture to the crust. Allow to cool a little in the tin before turning it out onto a wire rack. Serve warm or allow to cool, and tightly cover any leftovers (though there won't be any!).

Notes

• I was trying to keep this recipe light when I decided to glaze the loaf with just the pineapple juice. But between you and me, I think a nice white chocolate ganache is just what this needs to make it even more sweet and indulgent (but you didn't hear that from me).