My sister Alissa recently showed me this blog, Smitten Kitchen, which has received much acclaim as of late (you know you’re the real deal when you’re personally interviewed by the New York Times). This particular recipe caught my eye as I absolutely LOVE coconut and don’t cook with it or bake with it that often.

Anyway, this blog is great (much like the Ravenous B) and Alissa and I have found ourselves intensely discussing the content of the blog in addition to the sensible advice Deb gives (we’re on a first name basis with the author now and no she is not aware of this). So if you too, find yourself loving this blog, you will probably start beginning sentences with ‘Deb said to use vanilla sugar…’ or my personal favorite, ‘Deb uses “fritter” as a verb…’ This may or may not be normal – I’m not entirely qualified to comment.

I have adapted Deb’s recipe slightly to make it coconut chocolate chip bread. This was largely inspired by my love of vanilla coconut ice cream with chocolate chips. When I lived in Atlanta, there was this amazing ice cream place called Bruster’s which made this ice cream as sort of an ‘ice cream special’ – it made it that much more exciting when they had it and I would buy a whole pint to last the week which I would subsequently eat in one evening.

This is my effort to replicate the coconut chocolate chip ice cream in bread form since sadly Bruster’s doesn’t appear to be moving to London any time soon.

Check out this recipe on Smitten Kitchen as people have made other variations of this bread that you might be interested in trying depending on your tastebuds.

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups (295) ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups (315 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
• 1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I followed Deb’s lead on this and only used 1 teaspoon as I didn’t want it to be too cinnamony)
• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
• 5 ounces (140 grams) sweetened falked coconut (about 1 1/2 cups) – I used desiccated coconut and found that this was fine
• 6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, melted
• Nonstick cooking spray for baking pan

Heat oven to 350 degrees (approx 175 degrees Celsius). In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla.

Melt the butter. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Add sugar and coconut, and stir to mix. Make a well in the center, and pour in egg mixture, then stir wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Add butter, and stir until just smooth — be careful not to overmix.

Butter and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan, or coat it with a nonstick spray. Spread batter in pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, anywhere from 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Cool in pan five minutes, before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Serve in thick slices, toasted, with butter and confectioners’ sugar or just eat it plain. Gorge.