Banana Coconut bread

What do you do with those very ripe bananas that are almost black, mushy and almost ready to toss? Banana bread! But rather than the normal banana bread, what about banana bread with a twist?

I have enjoyed using my Nigella Kitchen cookbook given to me by my dear friend, Dizzy. Most of these latest baking posts have been from Nigella.

I decided to try her coconut and cherry bread sans cherries because I didn't have any in my cupboard.   In baking usually you want to stick to the recipe, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to leave out the cherries.

What I liked about this recipe was instead of just a plain banana bread, you add coconut.  Here in the UK, they call it dessicated coconuts. How do I have this in my cupboard and not dried cherries? I was planning to bake something else with the coconut. Since it turned out so nicely, I think I will make sure I have coconut in my cupboard for the next time I have very ripe bananas.  My husband enjoyed it.  The bread was nice and moist.  What was a bonus? I didn't have to wait for the butter to get soft.  This step sometimes prevents me from spontaneous combustion , I mean spontaneous baking. Enjoy!

Hm.. just thought of something... what about adding pineapple pieces to make it like a pina colada bread?? Oh... something to try and experiment!

Ingredients
125g soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing
4 small-medium bananas (approx. 500g with the skin on)
150g of caster sugar
2 eggs
175g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100g of dried cherries (optional)
100g of desicated coconut
1 x 900g (2lb) loaf tin

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 170 C/gas mark 3. Put a loaf liner in your tin, or just line the bottom with baking parchment and grease the sides.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, take off the heat and leave to cool. Peel and mash the bananas in another bowl.
3. Beat the sugar into the cooled, melted butter, then beat in the bananas and the eggs. Fold in the flour, baking powder, and bicarb. Finally, add the dried cherries and coconut.
4. Fold well so that everthing is incorporated, then pour and scrape into the lined loaf tin and smooth the top.
5. Bake for 5o mins, but check after 45. When it’s ready, the cake will be coming away from the sides of the tin and will be bouncy on top. Leave it in the tin for 10 mins before transfering to a wire rack to cool.