This luscious moist mango and coconut bread is inspired by the very popular Bill Granger’s Coconut Bread. Bill of the famous Bill’s Cafe in Sydney has coconut bread on his menu. His coconut bread is golden and deliciously moist straight from the oven and is even better toasted and slathered with butter for breakfast the next day. As if you need another excuse to eat cake for breakfast !
Here’s the mango part. I’ve got very high standards in mangoes. Growing up in the Philippines, I am used to the tart but sweet succulent mangoes with the tropical musky aroma that a good variety of mangoes have. The mangoes that I’m talking about has that peachy caramel smell that makes your mouth water and I believe should be bottled into a high end perfume. Full confession mode here I actually have such a perfume and it’s called Mango Skin by Villem Perfumeries. That’s how much I love mangoes, I even wear it!
Anyway, during mango season I buy a box full. I stand there in the fruit shop trying to pick the box with a variety of ripeness, from a green mango to a fully ripe ready to eat ones. Luckily, mangoes are climacteric fruits, which means they can be picked when green and will soften and ripen after harvest. This way, I can have green mangoes for salad or to have with bagoong , the perfect mangoes to eat as is, and the very ripe one which is perfect for this Coconut Mango Bread. Bake this bread and you’ll be transported to an exotic tropical destination!
What you need to Make Coconut and Mango Bread
- Coconut– I use unsweetened shredded coconut. These are available from all major supermarkets. I would prefer to use fresh grated coconut if I had access to them. I have also used candied Macapuno strings ( a coconut variant and is available in 200g jars). Frozen young coconut (buko) is now also readily available from Asian shops. I love finding the little pops of chewy coconut when I use this in the bread. Coconut pairs so well with mangoes.
- Mango – You need a very ripe mango. Use a sharp knife to score the flesh and scoop with a spoon so you end up with luscious diced mango.
- Eggs, milk, caster sugar, flour, butter and baking powder – Just the usual suspects here. Nothing exotic.
What Goes with It…
Delicious served warm with lashings of butter. Really good toasted the next day.
Mango and Coconut Bread
10
servings10
minutes40
minutesCoconut and Mango Bread, a Taste of Summer
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup caster sugar
75g butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs, lightly whisked
150 g unsweetened shredded coconut OR
150g of thawed (buko)young coconut meat, sliced into strips300ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Diced flesh and pulp of one ripe mango *
Directions
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) . Grease and line with baking paper an 8×4 inches loaf pan.
- Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add caster sugar and shredded coconut and stir to combine.
- Make a well in the centre of the bowl. Add egg, vanilla, melted butter and milk to the centre. Gradually, from the middle, using a wooden spoon or spatula, stir the mixture to combine. Do not over mix, or you’ll end up with a dense bread.
- Using a spatula gently fold the mango pulp and and diced mango into the batter.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes or until golden. Use a skewer to test if it’s cook. The skewer should come out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes and cool further in a cooling rack.
- Slice and serve with butter and dusted with icing sugar.
Notes
- To cut mango: Make a cut along both sides of the seed in the middle . You should end with 3 pieces. Score the flesh in a diagonal pattern one way and then opposite way, you end up with squares. Use a spoon to scoop up the cubes of mango. Scrape the seed with the spoon for extra pulp. Add the cubes and the pulp to the batter. Refer to to main photo.
- Buko or young coconut is available frozen in packets from Asian Shops.
