#FoodieFriday: Coconut (Quick) Bread

I promised you lovelies a couple of gift-worthy quick breads before the holidays, and that's what I'm aiming to deliver. One this week, one next week. Get your loaf pans ready!

Pic from Smitten Kitchen

For the uninitiated, a quick bread uses leaveners other than yeast to make the bread rise: baking soda/baking powder, etc. Because there's no yeast, there's no rising period, and the bread can be made quickly. Quick bread. Get it? They can be sweet or savory, but are generally very forgiving batter-wise and end up tasty.

First up: Smitten Kitchen's Coconut Bread.

This quick bread baked up beautifully, golden and crunchy. It was fantastic warm and with some butter.

The coconut flavor is noticeable but not overpowering. I'm not a huge coconut lover--I'm not necessarily going to order a pina colada, for instance--but I love this bread.

Plus, it's something different. Everyone around the holidays makes gingerbread, or pumpkin bread, or some kind of bread that involves nutmeg and cinnamon, and those can get tiring after a while. Don't get me wrong; that's one of the things I love around the holidays, but this bread will be a breath of fresh air.

A quick note on the size: if a bread makes one 9x5 loaf, it will make two 8x4s. And, if you're making mini-loaves, it will likely make 4 of those. Just make sure the batter is distributed evenly. I have a mini-loaf pan and will typically do one spoonful in each, then a second, than a third to make sure they're all the same size.

Happy gifting (if they even make it that far--you'll probably eat them all first and have to make a second batch).

xoxo Sarah